The 1000th Day of War: Blog by Akram Al-Sourani

Today marks the birthday of my daughter Carmen — my son Khaled’s sister and the ultimate wartime creation of my wife Amani and myself. We baked a cake, and we engineered a revolution of joy: a grand launching fitting for Carmen’s monumental achievements — even though she hasn't achieved a single thing. It was a boisterous launch, attended by our fellow companions in displacement. No banners, no slogans, no secured round-trip transportation, no empty rhetoric and, quite literally, no flour. Without raising the ceiling of our expectations, and in defiance of the month's dry end and the echoes of explosions, we rejoiced. We danced and we chanted for freedom, free from tyranny and free from gagged mouths. No flavour tops the taste of birthday cake!

Every passing minute, the Bluetooth speaker slips into a coma. The guests are all holding plastic basins, fanning themselves against the heat. And once the racket of the party settles down, we will head back to rearrange our internal affairs — our "domestic front” — in the hope that we might finally stop being so messy!

Happy Birthday, Carmen.

And after 1,000 days of war, Gaza is anything but fine.

Akram Al-Sourani

Gaza, Palestine

Akram Al-Sourani is a writer, husband and father from Gaza City. His books include ‘A Homeland Out of Service’ (ORAD Centre, Ramallah), ‘Half-Baked Homeland’ (Abu Ghoush Publishing, Gaza) and ‘Shismo’ (Khuta). He is currently in Gaza, writing a fourth book “under war, under death, under displacement… and under ripening, if we survive.”