CrossFireArabia
By Ismail Al Sharif
I have friends in Gaza and make sure I stay in touch and check on them; I try to support them in any way I can, even though what I can offer is insignificant compared to the magnitude of their sufferings.
I have a friend in particular, a mother of three, who lives in Khan Younis to the south of the Gaza Strip. We are distant relatives. A few days ago, she messaged me saying: “My life is extremely difficult.” And from that message, we had a long conversation in which she revealed some of the burdens of her situation.
“We live in a tent teeming with mosquitoes, insects, rats, and fleas, and my children suffer from rashes and itching.” Then she added a crying emoji. She likes to fill her messages with emojis: Roses, hearts, and crying faces, but she rarely sends a smiley face. Smiley faces have disappeared from their phones.
“Sometimes I receive some money, and I use it to buy food and bread for my children,” she continued. “Prices here are unbearably high, and I don’t know why. When I have something extra, I buy them ‘qurshala,’ this is a type of bread they like to eat with their tea. As for the tea, I boil it for them over a wood fire because I don’t have gas. Everything here in Gaza has become exhausting, even the simplest details.
There are still some bakeries open that provide bread and pastries, but they are very few. The Israeli occupation has destroyed almost everything in Gaza, and only a limited number of these bakeries remain, at a time when demand far exceeds supply; therefore, prices have skyrocketed.
Eggs, sugar, and vegetables are now available, along with various types of sweets and coffee.” She says she loves coffee, but doesn’t buy it; the priority now is basic necessities, “not what we like.”
With me in Amman, I can’t imagine how harsh life must be over there; living in places surrounded by rats and insects, and being itchy all day and night. A single mosquito bite is sometimes enough to rob me of my sleep; so how must it be for those who live through all of this is incredulous? I don’t know how they manage to keep their bodies, blankets, and clothes clean in such conditions.
The siege on Gaza continues to tighten its grip, and the Zionists are still devouring it piece by piece, relentlessly targeting its people. Perhaps Gaza is currently experiencing a temporary lull, a kind of respite between phases, as the Zionists are preoccupied with other fronts where they are faltering, but they will return to Gaza again.
Dear reader, if you wish to extend a helping hand to the people of Gaza, there are many reliable organizations through which you can support them, foremost among them the Jordan Hashemite Charity Organization, the Um Ali Charity Kitchen, and the King Hussein Cancer Center, in addition to accredited associations and initiatives such as the Jordanian Association for Supporting the People of Gaza, the Gaza Hashem Charity Association, and other institutions working to deliver aid to those who need it.
I firmly believe that this criminal, ethnically-based state is doomed to fall, and that what sustains it is not its own strength, but rather the unlimited support it receives. Hence, supporting our people in Gaza to remain on their land is not just a humanitarian act, but a moral and national duty; they are the first line of defense against the expansion of the Zionist project.
This article was first written in Ismail Al Sharif, a veteran columnist, for the Arabic Addustour, a national newspaper in Jordan and reappears in crossfirearabia.com.
