Over half the population of the OPT are children. Poverty, conflict, violence and fear are a daily reality for many children and their families. Across the OPT, one in three families can't afford a balanced meal. One in five lives in ‘deep poverty’, unable to meet basic food, clothing and housing needs.
We spent a day filming with 12-year-old Mohammed and his family in Al Atatra, a rural area in the north of the Gaza Strip. The idea was to catch up with Mohammed one year after he was first filmed for Save the Children during what they call “el harb” (the war), otherwise known as the Israeli military offensive Operation “Cast Lead.”
I’m not a psychologist; I’m just a simple documentation, communications and media person working in this field for almost 8 years. However, I’m a fan of psychology books and have learned many things about this human science that are especially related to the psychology and mental health of someone living in Gaza for more than 11 years.
Recently, I was selected to join the training of Save the Children’s new Global Standby team in the UK, which I considered as an achievement of one of my life’s dreams.
I applied for a UK visa, and I knew at that time that it was a little bit late — but that wasn’t the main problem.
The real problem was, after getting my UK visa, that I had to arrange travel to the UK from Gaza, which has been under intensive blockade, for more than two years.
This meant that after getting the UK visa, I needed to get a Jordanian visa, because I’m a holder of a Gaza ID, and all Palestinians holding a Gazan ID card are not allowed to enter Jordan unless they have a special permit.
After getting a UK and Jordan visa, I coordinate with the Israeli authorities to cross the famous Gaza-Israel crossing, known as Erez, and then travel to Allenby bridge, cross into Jordan, spend a night in Amman, and then fly to the UK! What a nice trip?!
The other option is to leave Gaza through the Gaza-Egypt border, or Rafah Crossing, which is another heart attack. This border is mainly closed after Hamas took over Gaza by force. Now, the Rafah Crossing is opened for only two days every two months. There, I need to register with the Hamas authorities in Gaza to allow me out, and I need a very very special coordination to cross into Egypt, otherwise I will be deported (as a criminal) from Rafah to Cairo International Airport, staying there (in the basement) until the time of my flight to the UK.
Even if I had been fortunate enough to make it out this way, after the end of the training, I would have had to stay in Cairo airport’s basement (The Hotel of Gazans) on my way back to Gaza from the UK, until the border opened again, after around one month.
Anyhow, the Global Standby Team training started before I obtained my UK visa, which meant no Jordanian visa nor Israeli nor Egyptian coordination!
On 08.11.2009 (the first day of the training) I felt so frustrated, and I was looking at all the emails that I received from the training team telling me how to go from Heathrow airport to our office in London, and started imagining how it would be if I were able to go.
A part of me felt happy that I was feeling sad! In Gaza we start to forget that we are living in unnatural living conditions. We begin to feel less sad that we aren’t able to leave Gaza; when there is gun firing on the beach, we don’t feel that this is an assault against us — so long as the bullets don’t reach us. We begin to feel that the daily incursions taking place aren’t as dangerous as they really are.
I do think this part of the negative resilience; we’re becoming resilient to a level where we can forget that this situation is not a normal one.
We need to be reminded that we are resilient people living in a weird situation. Unfortunately we, as Palestinians living in Gaza, have reached a point where we consider the unnatural to be natural.
I was shocked to find out that I had received permission to leave Gaza to go to the West Bank after almost one year without having had this advantage because of the current blockade that is imposed on Gaza.
It had been more than 6 months working as part of the Gaza Emergency Response in Gaza, which was declared by Save the Children in late December last year, just couple of weeks before the Israeli offensive on Gaza. Since that date everyone is working on helping the vulnerable people in different domains, including Education, Health, Water and Sanitation, Livelihood as well as Food and Non-Food Items distribution to the most vulnerable people in Gaza.
Since the last windstorm that hit Gaza, I’ve been sleeping along with my wife in the living room; as all the plastic sheeting covering our bedroom’s windows was removed by the winds. This life created continuous tense inside my home, with non-stop calls by my wife (Arwa) to get the windows repaired by any mean regardless the fact that we have no glass in Gaza because of the blockade.
Last week, Jasmine, our Chief Executive was here and was shocked at the dusty, windy conditions inside the tent clinics. I wonder what she would think if she was here today?
I walk out of the building at the crossing into Gaza. A far as the eye can see everything has been flattened. Houses are reduced to rubble and twisted metal. I thought this was from the recent fighting but I later learn this is from previous insurgence. My colleagues who have been waiting for hours for me to get thought the crossing are relieved to see I have made it.
We heard about the ceasefire at 12.30 today. It ended at 4 and, at five past 4 exactly, the shelling started again. As soon as the bombing stopped, I went to the shops where I went to get food for me and my children. I noticed Gaza is very sad. There are few cars on the street. I expected to see hundreds of people out on the street but there weren’t many at all.
We are so afraid.
Saturday was the worst night. Ground troops and fighting came within yards of where we are staying. All of us spent a harrowing night in the corridor, the only protection we could find.
You don’t know what to do. Do you stay? Do you try to leave and find somewhere safe? Is there any safe place? Can you protect everyone? Anyone? Everyone has a different idea about what to do — some grabbing belongings and preparing to run, others yelling that we have to remain.
One of our volunteers, Eyad, was distributing parcels in the beach camp when a huge bomb went off. By chance he is still alive.
It is really very difficult but we have to do this. It is an excellent achievement that we can provide humanitarian aid in these areas.
“I finished the exam at around 10 in the morning and I started to leave my classroom, when suddenly I heard a large explosion near the school. My teacher and another teacher dived onto the floor and I started to be really scared. My classroom is on the second floor. I was afraid to go to the stairs until a teacher came and took all the students to the ground floor.”
Salwa El Tibi, Save the Children UK’s Gaza programme manager, is in the Gaza Strip with her four children aged seven, 14, 15 and 19.
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