It is becoming more complex to speak to people in the Gaza Strip. Earlier this week, in between telephone and internet connections failures, this newspaper had contact with the Palestinian NGO director Fadi Abu Shammala (39) and with the Palestinian Dutchman Abed Al Attar (32) from Almere, visiting family in Gaza.
To get around the blackouts, Gazans are looking to e-SIMs as an alternative; digital SIM cards integrated into mobile phones, allowing the user to switch between networks. “But for that you need a good and recent smartphone, so that is only an option for a very small minority,” says Fadi Abu Shammala. He last called Monday evening NRC from the southern city of Khan Younis. A short text message came on Friday afternoon saying that the family is still safe.
The Palestinian father of three young sons admitted that he is afraid, like his family, that those who testify about what is currently happening in Gaza may become a target. “But if we no longer bear witness, Gaza will become one big black screen and no one will know what is happening here.” Israel does not allow independently operating international journalists.
Pamphlets
Early in this violent escalation of the conflict, Fadi Abu Shammala fled with his family from Gaza City, in the north, to Khan Younis. However, on Thursday the army also distributed warning leaflets in southern Gaza, international news agencies reported. Residents were asked to “go to known shelters,” although it is not clear where exactly.
According to satellite images Israel has also carried out air strikes on the southern cities of Rafah and Khan Younis, although the civilian population has been called on in recent weeks to move to the supposedly safe south. The border post with Egypt, in Rafah, only opens occasionally, and mainly for people with another nationality besides Palestinian.
For the Palestinian-Dutch Abed Al Attar, every day has revolved around one for more than two weeks Facebook page, which he frantically refreshes – on his pricey Dutch internet bundle. Lists are posted there in the evening of sick, injured and Palestinians with a second passport who can report to the border post in Rafah for a crossing the following morning at 7 o’clock.
A total of 26 people with a Dutch residence permit and their relatives succeeded, including six members of the Al Attar family, with whom he had traveled to Gaza to celebrate the wedding of a cousin. Only Abed Al Attar’s name was missing from the list published on November 1. His relatives returned to the Netherlands, and he is still waiting for his name to appear on the Excel list. In addition to Al Attar, at least 13 other Palestinians connected to the Netherlands are in the same situation, according to the Ministry of Foreign Affairs.
The messages that he and his wife Fatma – still in Almere, with their two small children – have been receiving ever since NRC steering, take on a more monotonous and repetitive character. Have you heard anything yet? “No, we still don’t know anything,” is heard again and again. Sunday evening, just before midnight: “My name is again not on the new list.”
In all the misery, at a distance from his family, he considers himself fortunate that he can care for his parents in the family home in Deir al Balah, also in the south of the strip. “If I can finally leave, part of my heart will remain here, with them.”
Another family with which NRC was in contact, the recently promoted water scientist Alaa Ouda, his wife and two young children, were able to fly to the Netherlands via Egypt on Wednesday and from there they will travel to the United Kingdom, where Ouda works. “I am exhausted,” he says in a voice message. He did not consider himself capable of an interview. The journey from Gaza City via a corridor to Rafah has taken a heavy toll on him, after weeks of tension about whether his family would be able to leave Gaza alive.
The need is increasing for those left behind. For example, the Ahli-Arab Hospital stopped surgical procedures on Thursday. The Indonesian hospital is struggling with a shortage of medicines. The Nasser Hospital in Khan Younis is still operational, says Fadi Abu Shammala, but also suffers from a lack of medical equipment and also accommodates thousands of displaced people. Abu Shammala’s brother and his wife work as nurses at the hospital. “There is a high risk of infections and the emergency alert level has been adjusted from red to black, the most urgent level.”
On Wednesday, the Israeli army raided Al-Shifa Hospital in Gaza City. Last weekend, nurses there stopped the incubators of more than thirty premature infants. They wrapped the children in blankets to keep them warm. Six of them have died in recent days.