"Gaza is hurt, don't leave it alone"
Gazans trapped in the West Bank suffer from a distance for their families
Special Envoy to JerusalemThe attacks of October 7, 2023, surprised thousands of Palestinians from Gaza outside the Strip. Some were working as cheap labor in Israel or had obtained medical permission to undergo treatments that cannot be offered at home. They have not been able to return for two years, and during all this time they have watched with the anguish of distance as their families suffered from Israeli bombing, hunger, cold, and illness. They live by their cell phones in case the fateful call arrives announcing the death of someone they love. And they try, despite being displaced and with empty pockets, to earn some money to send to their families and comfort them in their suffering.
In a cafe in Ramallah, Amjad Sami, a 50-year-old electrician, tells his story in a calm and clear voice. On the day of the Palestinian attack, he was working in Israel and when he heard the news, he saw his life fall apart. At noon, he received a message on his cell phone alerting him that his work permit had been revoked, a permit that Israel only granted to Palestinians in Gaza after strict scrutiny. He learned that the Israeli police had begun arresting Gazan workers and fled to the West Bank, the territory administered by the Palestinian Authority.
His entire family remained in Gaza City. On November 5, 2023, Israeli aircraft bombed his home. His three children, Lara (14), Yazan (16), and Yara (18), died buried in the rubble, and he didn't even get to say goodbye. He continues to check on those who survived: "I call my wife a few times a day. I tell her I want to know how they are, if they have food and water, if they are missing anything. I ask her what is happening around them, but in reality I don't talk to reassure her, but to myself, so that I am not consumed by anxiety." And when he's the one who receives the call, he can't help but be startled and think the worst.
Life in Ramallah is very expensive, and he works as much as he can; now, at a pharmaceutical company, so he can send them money. Sami has a brother in Granada who has arranged a visa for him so he can go to Spain with his wife. But she can't leave Gaza, and Jordan won't allow him entry either. He's trapped in Ramallah. "We need to go to Spain for a while to rest. My brother can take us in," he explains. It's not that he intends to stay. "We have to rebuild ourselves, and then I want to return to Gaza to reconnect with my mother, my land and my memories, and above all, to be at my children's graves. We don't have any left. I hope we can have another child. It won't fill the void, but we'll make life go on," he says in a whisper.
"I've never been alone for so long."
There are also hundreds of cancer patients from Gaza trapped in the West Bank. Like Marwa Shahin, 32, who arrived in Ramallah five days before October 7 for leukemia treatment and has also been unable to return. "It's very difficult to be away from my family. I've been sick for a long time and I was used to going alone from Gaza to Ramallah for treatment, because they don't give families permission to accompany us. But I've never been alone for so long," she confesses.
Her family home in northern Gaza was also bombed, and she has seen her parents, siblings, and grandparents displaced more than ten times, fleeing Israeli attacks: "If you don't have a home, you lose trust, you feel lost." Many of her cousins and friends have been killed, and the worst part was when she couldn't speak to her closest family: "When they have to move, we lose communication, and sometimes days go by without me finding them." She shows us the photographs they've sent her whenever they can: "I spend hours looking at them and imagining I'm with them in Gaza." Although women's organizations help her, she says she feels very lonely and misses her family when she suffers the side effects of her treatment. When we ask her if she would like to return to Gaza, she doesn't hesitate for a second: "I would go back right now. I just want to be with my family. I've already lost too many people I love, to whom I couldn't say goodbye, and I don't even know where they are buried."
The electrician ends with a message: "Gaza is destroyed, but the most important thing remains, which is its people; Gaza cannot be erased." And the woman is grateful for the solidarity she has seen on the streets of Barcelona: "Gaza needs you, it is hurting: don't leave it alone."
