SIDA member Firefly International have provided us with a powerful update from their colleagues and community in Gaza.
At Firefly we have continued to pay monthly salaries to our partners in the former child mental health clinic in Gaza City, via one of the team who can take payments on his mobile phone. We make no requests for any activities to be conducted. We purely want to help them meet the astronomic costs of essentials. Team members there are able to contact us by Whatsapp when they can, for the briefest of occasional updates as Israeli soldiers can locate mobile phone use. We never ask for contact and are grateful when we receive it.
Here is a video sent by Firefly colleague Mohammed al-Sharif, filmed in November 2023. He asked us to show it as widely as we could.
The situation which was dire has become even worse over the last fifteen days of the siege of northern Gaza. Below are the most recent Whatsapp messages (shared with permission) from Mohammed in Jabalia. His house has been destroyed and he has been sheltering with his wife and three children in his father’s house.
6 October
“Hi Maria. How are you? My news is bad since yesterday, the bombing, the shooting and the entry of the army into our area. I am preparing for displacement for the 11th time.
There are dozens of martyrs and wounded in the shelters and streets. I did not know where to escape. Stop my thinking.”
9 October, email from Nima (Mohammed’s niece who lives in Sweden)
“As you may have seen on the news, the situation is terrifying in the north since the occupation forces have surrounded the area. Right now my uncle and his family are trapped in there, there are no paths to escape/evacuate from the north and there are intensive bombings, airstrikes, and several types of attacks that I can’t even name. It’s worse than before (my description is very thin, the only ones that describe it right are the ones that live in Gaza). Yesterday my uncle managed to talk to us and to do so he put his life at risk since the occupation targets anyone who moves (you might not imagine but you can’t even move safely inside the house since any seen movement can mean the last one). I feel so sorry for them, and sorry not to have something glad to come with for you.”
11 October
“Good morning, sister and friend Maria, the situation is very bad, since this morning, I ask for your prayers. I am afraid for myself, my children, and my family.”
12 October (from Haitham, Mohammad’s deputy, who is in south Gaza)
“Mohammed and his family are going through the most difficult times of their lives. Houses are being demolished on people. He can’t get out, if he does he will die.”
14 October
“The situation is still getting worse.”
15 October
“Dear Maria, thank you for your prayers and attention. I am grateful to you. We hope that we will be fine today. 11 days of siege. The army’s entry into the camp is intensifying. The bombing and shooting are very intense. I cannot move.
Drinking water is slowly, we don’t have drinking water, we drink from polluted water, and we eat one meal a day.
It is made of beans or peas. My aunt’s husband was injured and my cousin and my aunt’s husband were martyred. He was injured in my father’s house. He is wounded and needs treatment, and I could not meet the requirements of the children, asking for their needs and feeling anxious and constant tension. We need your prayers, my dears and family.”
Update as of 20/10/24 – email from Nima
“Uncle Mohammed, his family and my grandparents were all taking shelter at my grandparents house/apartment two days ago when the situation just got more dangerous in Jabalia. When the bombings got more intensive and the artillery was bombing everywhere uncle Mohammed told everyone: ‘let us move and go downstairs to take shelter there’, cause the situation is much more serious and dangerous upstairs. Everyone agreed and the were all heading down on the stairs when it suddenly within seconds the apartment they were at just got bombed. Shrapnel and mist were all over in the air, all their belongings, clothes, money, work etc. were now the mist in the air. They didn’t even have time to take in whatsoever happened, the bombings and airstrikes kept going on. The death was chasing them, they and the whole neighbourhood started to run from the intensive bombings in the streets. They all left without anything, if they had a little bag with the most important thing they just throw it on the street while they were running because the death was chasing them all, the sounds of shooting, bombings, airstrikes, screaming were following them. The sky lightened up by the bombings, the air were full of particles and “fog” due to the bombings. The whole street was destroyed it wasn’t/ isn’t even a street anymore, you can barely put your feet on it, but what option did they have except running from the death.
The most far place they could reach was Beit Lahya (also in Jabalia) which is another neighbourhood. Even though they managed to flee from all the horrors, they are still not safe the horror is still following them. The occupation is intensively bombing the neighbourhood they are taking shelter in, yesterday the occupation bombed an entire square close to them. Wherever they go the death and the horror is chasing them. Now the occupation uses explosives robots to destroy whole squares and neighbourhoods, so far the robots are in my grandparents area where their house got bombed, and they are only getting closer to the place where they take shelter.
My uncle and his whole family aren’t good at all, they still haven’t woken up from what happened. I can’t even imagine how (my cousins) their children is doing right now. They are not the same persons that I used to know, they have been trough horrible, terrifying, terrible, tragic things. You can try to put your self in the situation to imagine how it really is, but nothing is enough to describe how it really is.”