My name is Jinan, I have five small children and I live in Gaza City. At the moment it is 8.30 in the evening and I am trying to get my children sleep back to sleep. Just a few moments ago, we heard a huge bomb landing somewhere near us that woke my three youngest children. The noise was so loud, it reverberated all around us. I’m now trying to comfort them and get them to go back to sleep. The eldest one Ali, who is 14 years old, doesn’t sleep much anyway because of the bombing. He keeps himself awake all night, and then during the day he sleeps for a few hours. He is nervous most of the time. Jamilah, my daughter who is 11 years old, is getting used to the noise of the bombs and the firing and every day she looks less afraid. I had been the most worried about her, as she has been very afraid all this time.

My extended family who live in Jabalya refugee Camp are still alive, thank God. The other day all their windows were broken and their balcony was destroyed because of the bombarding near to their house, but they are well, thanks to God.

What worries me these days is that the children will catch cold, because of the bad weather and we have to keep the windows open so that they don't get broken and hurt us when a bomb lands near us, sometimes the bombs are so close to our house that I feel they will kill us. We hear the sound of the bombs around us all the time and we can’t go out, we are too afraid.

8.30pm, 11th January 2009