Beyond Gaza Crises
Walking over the rubble of his house, helplessly describing the devastating situation during the Israeli offensive on the Gaza Strip, “We had a hard time, collecting a few of our clothes, and leaving our house to an unknown destination.” said Abdallah Al Masri.
Abdallah, 23, who lives close to the border in Beit Hanoun, in the North of the Gaza Strip seems tired, exhausted and depressed. “I graduated a few months ago, happily my family supported me to get married while I started my career with an internship in the Gaza Judicial Courts. Yet now our dreams are being slaughtered, leaving us with a vague future.” said Abdallah.
A part of extended 45 family members, including his parents, married brothers and sisters who all live in the same neighborhood in Beit Hanoun, an area that has been completely ruined by Israeli bombardment and excessive shelling.
Adnan, Abdallah’s father, stated “We are not even able to recognize the area where we have lived for years, the houses have fallen on top of each other in a very painful scene – we have lost our business, the business that has supported our whole family.”
Part of Abdullah’s Al Fakhoora scholarship, included assistance for his family to establish a home business with assistance from Al Fakhoora and UNDP. Abdullah and his family have had their story featured here before, a story of overcoming adversity and hope for the future. You can read that full story here.
After losing everything and fleeing their home with just the clothes on their backs, Abdallah’s family moved to a UN “shelter” near Beit Lahia. The shelter, which was actually a UN School, hosts around 200 families, with each family occupying a classroom “We are 60 people living in the same place along with my aunt and her kids.” said Abdallah.
He added, “We have been here for over 20 days so far and life in the shelter is very difficult and unhealthy. We do not have enough mattresses, pillows or food. We rely on canned food when it is available. Two of my nephews have been hospitalized with meningitis due to the unhealthy environment.”
Abdallah has so far lost 13 members of his extended family during the attacks and due to the random bombardment of Gaza that indiscriminately kills women, children and innocent civilians.
“Now we have so little hope, we feel abandoned. We have almost no choice of where to go. We have lost all of our furniture. I was newly wedded, now I can see my bedroom under the rubble. I lost all my university books and a great library. I do not know how to recover from this. This is a big loss. We do not know how to recover from the loss of our family business.”
Abdallah concluded, “We have to be patient and strong. As an educated person, my family relies much more on me. Although this is a big burden, I feel that I have to take the lead in rebuilding the future of my family.” http://fakhoora.org/news/student-and-family-life-behind-the-scholarship
