I was delighted to meet Saed, a young man from Gaza this week. I asked him some questions about the current situation in Gaza, his thoughts about the future, and how we can help here in the UK. Here is Saed, in his own words…
Can we start by telling us a bit about yourself and your family in Gaza?
My name is Saed, I am 27 years old, and my family consists of 11 members, including three young children. Since the beginning of the war on Gaza, I lost my job, and my family lost their home, which was completely destroyed. The house I was preparing for my wedding was also completely destroyed. Since the beginning of the war, I have been working to support and protect my family and provide them with the bare necessities of life. I have risked my life many times to bring them food, especially during the famine when I used to go to Zikim to get food for them. Now we are homeless after losing everything, and we are trying to rebuild our lives.
I need treatment and antibiotics. I sustained these injuries during our displacement to the south; I was hit in the legs by shrapnel from a missile after they targeted the area near where we were located.
I turned to the Chuffed support platform because we have no work, and it is now our only source of income, which we depend on for everything: food, medicine, and shelter from the winter cold and summer heat.
I have something to add: my mother has an eye condition called keratoconus, or fluid buildup around the cornea. She needs injections called Avastin periodically to reduce the fluid in her eye. If she doesn’t receive these injections, she can’t see, and this is a heavy burden on us because the treatment costs between $300 and $500 approximately every two months. The injections she needs are called Avastin. Before the war, she used to get them for free from the eye hospital, but now their price has skyrocketed, and we don’t know what to do. We’re trying to be patient and reach out to kind-hearted people around the world to help us with the cost of treatment
We hear less about Gaza than we used to. Can you tell us about the situation now?
This is extremely unfortunate because the world is currently preoccupied with events happening elsewhere. The news from Gaza, is as follows: Israel completely controls the Strip, intermittently preventing food from entering. Food prices remain high, and we can only buy limited quantities. Gaza has been without electricity for three years, and there is no consistent supply of clean water; accessing it is extremely difficult. Medical treatment is also expensive and not available for free in hospitals. My family and I are currently living on whatever aid we receive. Israel is killing children and other people in Gaza daily, and the army remains close to us and has not withdrawn from Gaza. Every night the army fires shots in our direction and reconnaissance planes constantly hover over.
What can people in other countries do to help Palestinians who have no home or hope?
We in Gaza are trying to cope and achieve a decent life that allows us to keep trying and persevere. Life here is extremely difficult; we live amidst piles of rubble and destruction, which has become a fundamental part of our lives. We simply ask for support, whether material or moral, as this will help us continue for as long as possible until real change happens in Gaza and this ordeal that has befallen us ends.
The people of Gaza now rely heavily on the support they receive from compassionate people around the world because work in Gaza is extremely difficult and there are no jobs or businesses; everything is destroyed. My family, for example, depends entirely on external support because, unfortunately, we have no other source of income now. We now rely on fire for cooking our food and heating our water; there are no other alternatives, and we have been doing this for over two years.
