A young medical student’s hope in Gaza : Valley Vision

“Hi, my name is Yara Bassam Alzain. I am from Gaza, and all my hopes and dreams have been shattered due to this genocide,” 25-year-old Yara Alzain told Maktoob when we first reached out to her for this interview.

An ambitious university graduate, Yara had just finished her course in dentistry a week before 7 October 2023 and was getting ready to start her practice when Israel began bombing the Gaza Strip.

“I am a dentist, and I graduated just one week before the war. All my dreams and ambitions stopped because of this genocide. I have not been able to practice or work anywhere because everything is bombed,” she said.

A resident of Al-Rimal in Gaza City, Yara and her family members were displaced to southern Gaza when their house was bombed by the Israeli Occupation Forces in March 2024.

For the residents of Gaza, the situation is becoming worse as Israel continues its aggression with constant bombing and shooting of civilians.

Gaza’s Ministry of Health says more than 43,000 Palestinians have been killed in Israeli attacks, and thousands more are buried under rubble and threatened by illness.

“My family is enduring great suffering, and it is so difficult to survive like this. With all the tragedy we are going through, we are not okay,” Yara said as she tries to survive this genocide.

When asked how life was before October 7, Yara sighed and smiled. “My life before October 7 was wonderful. We lived a stable and normal life like every person in the world. I was developing my work as a dentist by doing internships and was very busy with my future plans, but the war destroyed them all,” she said with sadness in her eyes.

This is not the first time that Yara’s family has been displaced due to Israeli occupation. Her family was displaced during the Nakba of 1948 from Jaffa.

“Our families have been displaced before, and we are displaced again. While our family came to Gaza after being displaced, other families were forced to be displaced to other countries like Syria, Yemen, or Jordan. Many are still in the West Bank, but we are not able to get in touch with them because of the siege,” she added.

Yara now dreams of this genocide ending. Her aspirations, while still strong, have shifted to her family’s safety and the hope that this genocide will end, so she can start afresh.

“I want to complete my postgraduate studies in my specialty and achieve a master’s degree and, in the future, be able to open my own clinic,” she says, smiling.

Life right now is hard. While Gaza is being pounded and hundreds lose their lives every day, there is an impending fear of starvation, famine, and disease.

“There are many diseases spreading here due to pollution and unclean water,” Yara added.

When Maktoob was having a conversation with Yara and her sister Farah Alzain, the sisters were reminiscing about the old days in Gaza. There was passion when they talked about their homeland.

“Despite the siege on Gaza, we did not give up,” Farah said proudly.

While explaining the archaeological history of Gaza, she said that it is now all rubble and destroyed by Israel. “We cannot visit them anymore. All of it is rubble now,” Yara added.

The 18-year-old, who was still in high school when Israel started bombing Gaza, said she wanted to pursue a course in Artificial Intelligence at university. “Now, I have no idea what I will do. Our future, our life, everything is on hold,” she added.

Sea: a symbol of hope

If one speaks to any Palestinian, the mention of the Mediterranean Sea becomes a topic of emotion. One can see a glint of intense feeling in their eyes. For Yara and Farah, the sea is an emotion; it is a symbol of hope that gives Palestinians in Gaza a breather, especially amidst this horrible time.

“Living our whole lives under the siege of the Israeli Occupation, what made Gaza unique was the sea. For the elders and the young alike, the sea was a place to relax and let go. This sea was our solace,” Farah said.

Yara Bassam Alzain finished her studies and had aspirations to start her own clinic, which ended after Israel has been bombing Gaza since October 2023. Photo by arrangement

Farah also talked about how many cafes existed near the seashore, all of which have been destroyed.

“There used to be a vibrant life in these cafes. Families, young and old, used to come here and interact. It is heartbreaking to see all of it in rubble now,” she said.

Yara says she still goes to the sea and tries to forget all the pain, but it is hard.

“They destroyed everything. Sometimes it is so hard to see everything around us,” she said.

Yara said that she was forced to start a GoFundMe account after they lost everything. With no choice but to either leave the Gaza Strip—their home—or buy food, which is currently so expensive that people are starving, survival became the only option.

“I hope everyone will help me, and I expect everyone who supports humanity to support me in reaching the goal of living safely soon after we lost everything,” she told Maktoob.

Yara Bassam Alzain on duty as she volunteers for different medical programmes to help people in Gaza. Photo by arrangement.

Despite going through all this, Yara is trying to use her degree to the utmost and volunteers with various organizations.

“I was involved with the Eastern Mediterranean Public Health Network (EMPHNET) Foundation, through which I participated in the polio vaccination campaign, and then in partnership with the Medical Aid for Palestinians (MAP) Foundation for a breast cancer awareness campaign,” she said.

There is helplessness among Palestinian families in Gaza, who, for more than a year, have been continuously bombed by Israel. While biased coverage and propaganda in the western media have spread misinformation, human rights advocates have called this a “present-day holocaust.”

“Backed by the criminal U.S. administration and equally guilty corporate media, Israel has always wanted us to look the other way. They wanted our gaze to be fixated on Tel Aviv’s lies, deceptions, and now the propaganda on the killings in Gaza. But the Israeli propaganda has backfired. Millions are, however, able to see the truth,” Ramzy Baroud, Editor of the Palestine Chronicle and author, said.

With countless innocent lives lost, the silence of human rights groups like the United Nations has only fueled the power of the occupying Israel and its allies, who continue their siege in Gaza and even the West Bank.

For Yara and Farah, they do not want to give up on the future. Both want to pursue their dreams of education and work once this genocide ends. These young women, like so many youths in Gaza, wake up every day praying it ends.