In a special episode of PalCast, hosts Yousef and Tony were joined from Gaza by Zain Abu Tawela, a 10-year-old Palestinian girl who shared her experiences of life during the ongoing war. Zain spoke about her love of crafting, designing clothes, and creating art with Play-Doh, as well as her dreams of becoming a pottery artist and opening a bookshop. Her creativity had become an important way for her to escape, even briefly, from the bombing and chaos around her.
Zain also described how the war had affected her education and daily life. She had previously attended classes in tents, where the heat and difficult conditions made learning challenging. She recalled how different Gaza had been before the war, when the streets were lit, shops were stocked, and people were happy. By comparison, she described damaged streets and homes, a lack of electricity, and the difficulty of finding basic necessities. Even simple things, such as buying ice cream, had become expensive and difficult.
A particularly painful part of the conversation came when Zain recounted the night tanks arrived at her grandmother’s house and soldiers fired through the windows. Her family hid in a cramped room before being forced to flee the following morning. She walked with her family toward Rafah, carrying a blanket, her favourite toys, and a bottle of water, while witnessing violence along the way and losing her doll. The family later spent around six months living in a tiny UNICEF chalet room with 16 people, with almost no privacy. Throughout her story, Zain described using humour, sarcasm, art, and movies such as Inside Out and Moana to cope with experiences that had forced her to confront realities no child should have to face.
Zain said she hoped children elsewhere would never experience a war like the one she had lived through. She also wanted people to understand what life in Gaza was really like and to work toward preventing such injustice from happening anywhere. Hear Zain tell her story in her own words on Apple Podcasts and Spotify, and share the episode so more people can hear what she has experienced.