Alan Allinger

I made a cup of coffee and sat down to revise for my 4th year finals — and suddenly, everything came flooding back. The last two and a half years. The bombs. The hunger. The displacement. The fear. The hospitals under attack. The universities destroyed. The training hospitals damaged. The healthcare system collapsing. The academic system collapsing. My professors killed. My colleagues and friends gone. I was a medical student… and a volunteer in hospitals while bombs fell around us. I kept studying while starving. I kept attending lectures while displaced. I kept going while everything around me was falling apart. There were days I couldn’t breathe from the weight of it all. Days I was broken. Depressed. Exhausted. Convinced I couldn’t carry any more. But then the Gazan spirit appeared. The one thing they can never destroy. We grieve. We break. We fall. Then we rise — like a phoenix from the ashes. Against every possible condition, I did something I never thought I could. I survived. I continued. I endured. I didn’t give up. Today, I’m still here. Stronger. More determined. Still fighting for my future. Still fighting for my people. Still choosing hope, even in the darkest time. This is not just resilience. This is Gaza. This is the spirit of Gaza. This is our resistance through life. This is how we survive.