Oxfam’s Mohammed Ali continues to report from his home in Gaza City during the Israeli military offensive.
Today, I left my neighbourhood for the first time since this waking nightmare started. As my wife and I said goodbye, I knew that we were both thinking the same thing, that this could be the last time we ever see one another. As I closed the door behind me, I heard my child sobbing uncontrollably.
Just as I headed out, I heard that the Israeli government had announced a three-hour lull in fighting. I wondered what they thought we could do in three hours; banks are closed and the Israeli government is restricting money coming into Gaza, shops are shut or their shelves empty, people now have to queue for up to six hours just for a loaf of bread…or nothing… markets have very little, people cannot afford increased prices, water systems are not working, people are scared to leave their homes, roads are blocked…what real difference to people’s lives will these three hours make?
My colleague who I was with returned briefly to his home; he fled from it with his family a few days ago after bombing caused the ceiling to collapse. When he joined me again he was devastated, his house had become unrecognisable, worse than when he had left it - it is now in need of total reconstruction. He told me that his mum and brother refused to leave with him. They are now seeking refuge in a United Nations school building and are among the 13,000 people that are estimated to have become displaced as a result of this conflict. I wonder how many have been left homeless.
He was trembling while speaking with me, ” My mother is an old woman, she is 80 years-old…the poor lady has been reduced to sleeping on a concrete floor…she has been given a blanket but this has to serve as a pillow and mattress too… people are queuing in lines to get food…it reminds me of the images I have seen of 1948.”
His eyes welled up as he continued ‘ My mother is so scared…she cannot stop crying…I fear for them every waking hour… nowhere is safe anymore… what is happening is outrageous…when people fled their homes to the UN building that was bombed yesterday… they thought that they were going to a protected place…this is probably why so many children were brought there…to then only be killed …she and my brother are not safe there …none of us are safe.’
This feeling of insecurity invades our every breath…we struggle to breathe; we are slowly being suffocated.
I was welcomed home by my family as if I had just returned from an epic journey to a distant land. I soon learnt that during the three-hour lull my brother went out to in search for food. The market was almost empty, there is no fruit and very few vegetables, tomatoes are 8 times more the price than before this horror started - few will be able to afford anything. While we were talking, our neighbours came over clutching their empty jerry can. With no fuel or electricity they have no water. We are fortunate to still have our generator working again so we gladly filled their can up.
We are all waiting for a ceasefire… we are exhausted… we have spent every waking moment petrified…we have endured days of death and destruction… and we will spend years mourning our family and friends.
It is nearly two weeks since this horror began, over a year and a half since we have be locked in Gaza and denied a dignified life. And today all the international community and the Israeli government could muster was a three-hour break in fighting; what can we do in three hours? Bury dead bodies?
No one will ever be able to bring back the lives lost during this conflict but there is still time to give those who are still living a chance for a decent life.
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Tags: Conflict, gaza, gazablog, israel, occupiedpalestinianterritories
It’s a responsibility which lies on the shoulders of not only Israel but the whole Arab community.
On top of that. it is about time that terrorists like Hamas were dealt with.
The western world rarely negotiates with terrorists and there’s no reason that Israel should do the same.
Arab nations are not being called to condemn Hamas so why is that?
Arab nations continue to supply weapons deceitfully, why is that?
Hamas make a target of their own people with no respect for their own peoples lives yet no-one condemns them, why is that?
It should be remembered that it was those same Arab nations that set up the palestinian refugee camps in the first place and it is them who do nothing to help their own people!
I believe in a ceasefire for the sake of the innocent but i don’t support the accusation that Israel is only to blame or even mostly to blame. Hamas means violence. That says alot.
Call on the Arab nations, how sad that they don’t care about their own.
January 8th, 2009 at 3:47 pmdear Ali
January 8th, 2009 at 10:35 pmI am astounded and angry and shocked that in todays civilised society human beings can be so cruel to one another.
you deserve the chance as you say to a decent life.
I will campaign and write to our politicians to ask for an ceasefire. i support Oxfam and will go on marches to campaign against the despicable action of the Israelis.
The only immediate thing l can do is to make a donation to Oxfam and hope this helps in some way as we feel helpless as we watch the pointless destruction of Gaza.may god be with you if there is such a thing. it certainly makes one question ones faith in times like this.
[...] Ali, who works for the NGO Oxfam, writes on the Oxfam blog from his home in Gaza City: Today, I left my neighbourhood for the first time since this waking nightmare started. As my wife [...]
January 10th, 2009 at 12:36 amHearts go out to all of you in Gaza. I truly wish there was something I could do to help. It is heartbreaking to see you all suffering.
January 10th, 2009 at 5:13 pmSalaam aleikum Ali
Reading your blog distresses me, because I feel helpless to do much. My husband donates money to Oxfam (I don’t work) and I have signed every petition I can find to the UK Prime Minister asking for sanctions on Israel. I have also emailed the supermarkets I shop at telling them I want to know the barcode numbers which signify that a product is Israeli so I can boycott the products. You are in my thoughts every day xx
January 10th, 2009 at 6:01 pmTo the previous writer who said that governments never talk to terrorist regimes. I say READ YOUR HISTORY BOOKS closely. All governments when it suits them talks to terrorists. Spare a thought for the people who are suffering daily while I sit here typing in my suburban house.When Israel informs people that they are going to bomb them I am asking this question very loudly where in the name of God are they supposed to go and shelter. NOT EVEN UN sites are safe.You are in our thought
January 11th, 2009 at 11:18 am[...] qui travaille pour l’ONG Oxfam, a écrit sur le blog d’Oxfam, depuis son domicile de Gaza-ville (en anglais): “Aujourd’hui, je me suis aventuré hors de mon quartier pour la première [...]
January 11th, 2009 at 11:49 amKev Wardman:
Firstly, Israel broke the ceasefire on 4 November with heavy shelling, killing several Palestinians. After this the rocket firing from Gaza recommenced.
Secondly, not all militias in Gaza are under control of Hamas. Some of these groups are in fact anti-Hamas.
Thirdly, Israel is occupier of the territory and its blockade of Gaza is collective punishment and illegal under international law.
Truce and negotiation is what brokered peace in Northern Ireland. It can do the same in the Middle East but we all need to support it. And so we must all call on our own leaders to actively steward the peace process.
January 12th, 2009 at 12:57 amI’m rather baffled at how 3 hours were given for a cease fire… why could this not have continued? It’s hard for me to understand how anyone in their right mind could think that this would give people who have lost everything and more time to do anything… Did they think that this was the right thing to do, that they were somehow being merciful to the people of gaza?
January 12th, 2009 at 2:38 pmFirst, of all. Regardless of who fired the rockets first, all Palastinians should ban together and hunt down all the Hamas attackers that are hiding in the civilian areas, schools, mosques and hospitals. It they got rid of the terrorists among them then they deserve self rule. I am not Isreali or Jewish. I am an American Catholic that views this conflict as a waste of humanity and Palastinian Cowardice. Yes, Palastinians you are cowards because you don’t stand up to the Hamas terrorists that have taken over your homeland for the sole purpose of attacking Isreal. Palastinians stop being selfish and cowards, stand up and fight for your country–your enemy is not Isreal, but the terrorists among you.
Palastinians bring your intelligence to the next level of evolution–don’t be dumb, wisen up. Read history and see what Ghandi did and Martin Luther King did. Modern revolutions will not be won by force with muskets in the field. It will be won by civil disobidience and the selfless sacrifice that it will require. The world is watching it will side with the wise and humble.
Oscar
January 15th, 2009 at 2:22 amMy aging father is anti-Simetic. As a youth I saw how the Jews stood up against the oppression of black people and worked for their civil rights. It made me proud to rebel against my father’s prejudice sitting this humanitarian bravery.
But now, viewing how very long Israel has oppressed and militarily occupied the Palestinians and is now in the process of slaughtering captive civilians and children, I wonder what is going wrong with their principles and I’ve become confused, deeply pained and angry.
I’ve been told “friends don’t let friends drive drunk”. And so, I suppose, friends don’t let friends commit other crimes as well. Why then do our US political leaders allow and support these Israeli atrocities with their votes, munitions, and our tax dollars? I see this as some kind of reverse prejudice (whatever that is), but I see it as a prejudice none-the-less.
This conflict is confusing and very painful to bear. Much of our countrymen and indeed, the world, is in a deep moral agony.
January 16th, 2009 at 2:50 pm