Khaled al-Hissy & Razan Abu Salem
The Electronic Intifada / August 26, 2024
Ayman Hamada, 48, owned a factory that mainly produced canned legumes and canned meats to distribute throughout the Gaza Strip.
On 14 October, Israel bombed Hamada’s factory.
“I went there and saw the factory had been completely destroyed,” Hamada said. “The aim of bombing my factory directly is to cut off food supplies in the Gaza Strip and begin establishing famine.”
After a warning missile, Israel bombed Hamada’s house on 29 October.
He didn’t even have enough time to retrieve all his savings. Hamada and his family had to flee empty-handed from northern Gaza to the south.
While Hamada and his family passed through one of the checkpoints, an Israeli soldier ordered him to leave all the money he had, clothes, and bags he was carrying.
Hamada acted as if he didn’t hear the orders and kept walking, hoping the soldier would let him go.
But that didn’t happen. The soldiers then took everything away from him.
“I didn’t want them to hurt my family, so I didn’t resist in any way,” Hamada explained.
He is now unable to secure daily food for himself and his seven-member family.
They have been displaced more than six times, but what hurts him the most is not being able to buy the goods his factory used to produce.
“I sometimes pass by my old goods, which are still sold in the markets,” he said. “I look at them with sorrow. I can’t even afford to buy them now.”
Hamada was able to build a small stand for selling falafel as he said he “had to earn money” to feed his family.
He is far from alone in being out of home and work.
Almost 2 million people have been forced from their homes since Israel launched its attacks on 7 October 2023, Oxfam reported on 8 August.
The aid nonprofit said more than 60 percent of the buildings in Gaza have been destroyed, including Hamada’s factory.
“Since the start of its military assault on the Gaza Strip on 7 October 2023, the Israeli army has worked methodically to destroy livestock, agricultural lands and bird farms in a consistent manner with the clear intention of starving the populace and denying them access to the staple foods of fruits, vegetables, and white and red meat,” Euro-Med Human Rights Monitor said in a 24 June press release.
“This has left the population’s survival dependent on the Israeli decision to allow or prohibit the entry of humanitarian aid.”
A teaching dream crushed
Samer Azzam, 45, was a taxi driver with a doctorate in psychology.
He spent 20 years of his life working as a taxi driver and saving money for university study in order to achieve his dream: becoming a professor.
In 2008, he studied psychology at Al-Azhar University, and in 2014, he pursued a master’s degree.
Azzam had to balance his roles as a student and the breadwinner for his six-member family.
In 2022, he obtained a Ph.D. in psychology.
He submitted many applications to universities to teach, most of which were rejected.
On 10 August 2023, al-Isra University promised Azzam a teaching position.
He began teaching a course entitled “Basics of Psychology” to undergraduates.
Then the war changed everything.
“I didn’t get enough time to fulfill my dream. The war came and destroyed all my dreams,” Azzam said. “Even being addressed as a ‘Doctor’ was taken away from me by Israel.”
On 3 November, Azzam and his family had to flee to southern Gaza after the bombing intensified where they were living.
They went from Jabaliya to the Netzarim corridor by car. When they reached the checkpoint, the Israeli soldier ordered them to leave everything in the car and walk on foot.
Azzam got out of the car carrying his important papers and a bag of clothes. As he and his family started to pass through the checkpoint, an Israeli soldier pointed his gun at Azzam’s head and forced him to throw everything away and cross empty-handed.
“The moment my family and I crossed the checkpoint, I heard a very loud explosion and looked back,” Azzam recounted. “I saw my car being blown up. I lost it and everything inside. I lost everything.”
Azzam and his family have been displaced more than five times, moving from one place to another. They currently live in a tent in Al-Qarara, a Khan Younis suburb.
The Oxfam report noted many families have been in a similar situation, moving from place to place, from tent to tent to try to avoid death.
“People are sheltering together in overcrowded schools, mosques, tents and makeshift shelters. Many are staying with family and friends, all while facing a lack of power and limited access to water, food, hygiene and health services,” Oxfam said.
Azzam became a street vendor, selling noodles and packaged juice.
“I make little money to buy food for my family,” Azzam said, adding that being a street vendor fills up his time, so he does not “recount his life, which was destroyed or my dream that I worked so hard to achieve.”
Azzam was diagnosed with hypertension due to the psychological pressure he has faced. But he said he can’t afford the medication for his hypertension and that his health is deteriorating day by day.
7 people, 1 bag
On 13 March, Mona Abu-Rabie took her daughter Sarah with her to buy bread. Abu-Rabie’s other four children and husband were still at home.
While they were in the line at the bakery, they heard heavy bombing.
A man came running and screaming: “There are martyrs at the Abu-Rabie house.”
Abu-Rabie grabbed her daughter and ran home to find the house had become a single pile of rubble. Her other children, husband and parents were under it.
“The fire was still burning in the house. I whimpered that my whole family was under the rubble,” Abu-Rabie recounted.
“After hours, my four children, husband and parents were extracted from under the rubble but in pieces. I put all their remains in one bag. I lost them all at once with a single missile.”
After she and her daughter survived the massacre, they moved to live in a neighbor’s tent in Deir al-Balah.
“Even if the war ends, I have no home to return to and no family to embrace,” Abu-Rabie said.
Khaled al-Hissy & Razan Abu Salem are writers from Gaza
