Rahab Ali Zakria   13 years old   from Khan Younis, is a child who has carried far more than any child should ever bear.

That night seemed ordinary…
A small room crowded with displaced siblings exhausted from moving from one shelter to another, all hoping for just a moment of safety.
The clock struck 2:30 am.
Even fear itself was quiet.

Then suddenly
the night exploded.

Rahab recalls the moment, her eyes still holding the reflection of the fire:
“I didn’t hear anything… I just saw the fire. The whole room turned red.”

The first scream was inside her head before it reached her lips.
The ceiling collapsed on top of them, dust filled the air, and the darkness turned into a storm of debris and terror.
Rahab remained trapped beneath the rubble, surrounded by stone, blood, and fear.
She tried to move her hand nothing.
Tried to see her siblings only trembling shadows.

While the minutes crawled unbearably slowly, the ambulance was nowhere to be seen.
Thirty whole minutes passed each one as heavy as a lifetime.
When they finally reached her, Rahab was bleeding from her hand, leg, and head.
Her face, covered with dust and blood, still carried the fragile innocence of a child who couldn’t understand why places of sleep are bombed.

After treatment, her leg was casted, and stitches were placed in her hand and head.
A month later, her body healed…
but her heart did not.
The fear left behind was deeper than the wounds, heavier than the night of the explosion itself.

And yet…
Rahab refused to stay broken.

When she joined the programs of NAFS for Empowerment, she was still terrified of sudden sounds, withdrawing from others, and crying without knowing why.
But there… she played. She ran. She painted. She talked.
She learned to release the weight she carried silently.
She learned how to calm her heartbeat when memories of that night returned.

With a smile shaped by the resilience of survivors, she says:
“Thank you to NAFS for Empowerment… I played, I laughed, and I learned how to overcome my fear. Thank you to the specialists, Siham and Mohammad.”

Rahab is not just a child who survived an airstrike.
She is a voice rising from the fire, carrying life with her.
A child who tells the world that hope can be born even from beneath the rubble.

From the heart of destruction, Rahab stood again… proving that life is stronger than war.