Anjuman Rahman<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Ahmed Suhail Al-Hattab had eagerly awaited for the month of Ramadan, anticipating the warmth of family and friends gathering for the cherished tradition of iftar \u2013 the break fast meal \u2013 at his home in Tel Al-Hawa, nestled in the southern reaches of Gaza City.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
For as long as he can remember, the spirited atmosphere of visiting night markets and illuminating lanterns with the neighbourhood children had filled the holy month with joy, etching memories that spanned over two decades.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Yet, Ahmed\u2019s hopes for a traditional celebration were dashed as bombs continued to fall on the besieged enclave and famine edges closer. The vibrant colours of festive lanterns have been replaced by the sombre hues of destruction, while the lively chatter of loved ones has faded into a ghostly silence.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cThis Ramadan is tasteless and colourless. Everything is bleak,\u201d says Ahmed, his voice heavy and dry. \u201cI swear to you, for over 100 days, we have not had a single piece of meat or chicken. We break our fast with any little that is edible and the rare food packages that arrive.\u201d And any goods that are available are sold at exorbitant prices, he adds.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The World Health Organisation (WHO) has confirmed that Palestinians in the Gaza Strip are \u201cstarving to death\u201d due to restrictions imposed by Israel on the entry of humanitarian aid, while access to clean water \u201chas become a matter of life or death.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Even the limited amount of aid entering is diminishing, UNRWA has reported that the amount of humanitarian aid entering Gaza fell by 50 per cent from January to February in particular following the International Criminal Court\u2019s interim ruling that Israel may be carrying out a genocide in Gaza and it\u2019s order that the entry of humanitarian to the Strip aid not be obstructed.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cAll we break our fast with is water and dates but we remain thankful to God,\u201d Ahmed says. \u201cEverything and all our habits have changed in this famine but our prayer, worship and reading of the Qur\u2019an in Ramadan is firm, praise be to God.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cIt\u2019s very lonely this month. And unfamiliar. Normally we\u2019d all be gathered, the whole family would be with me, but now half of my family is missing. Some of my family remain under rubble too,\u201d Ahmed explains, his words heavy with sorrow. \u201cToday, as you can see, there\u2019s no gas. We cook on a fire that we prepare ourselves that burns our hands. Everything has become, if not difficult, impossible to do.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Not long before the war, the 24-year-old photojournalist, who has been displaced and forced into Rafah in southern Gaza, had fulfilled his long standing dream of purchasing a new home alongside his family of five.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
After 14 years of hard work, the family had finally settled into their new home in the western Gaza Strip. And following his graduation from Al-Azhar University, he rewarded himself with an extra room at home for his cameras and video equipment \u2013 a haven where he could both work and unwind with friends.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
It wasn\u2019t a mansion nor a castle, he says, but it was a cosy home filled with laughter and memories.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
As soon as Israel declared war on Gaza on 7 October, the area was bombed. Israeli warplanes launched a series of intense air strikes on the Tel Al-Hawa area and the surroundings of Al-Quds Hospital causing widespread destruction in the area and resulting in deaths and injuries.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cThe house was something we all worked towards as a family together for 14 years, so when the war came and burned our land, it not only set the house on fire but our dreams, goals and future.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
My equipment was destroyed, and my room was bombed. In one blurry moment, our lives were shattered but we fled and survived. Four times. We escaped death four times<\/p>\n\n\n\n
he says.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
With Israeli occupation forces now threatening a ground invasion of Rafah, Ahmed is at a loss as to where to seek refuge next. His family, like many others in Gaza, had heeded the occupation\u2019s warnings and moved south to alleged \u201csafe zones\u201d. However, the brutal bombing campaign followed them, inching closer to the designated \u201csafe zones\u201d and striking within them.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cWhen we were displaced for the third time from the city of Khan Yunis and the planes were shooting from above us while the tanks were shooting shells from around us, I prayed for God to take my soul so I don\u2019t suffer such deadly scenes again,\u201d recounts Ahmed.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cWe were forced to walk for more than 20 kilometres! The children here walk hundreds of metres to get one gallon of water. Is it right for a child to be carrying this weight?\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
I watched everything as if I was in a horror movie, the pictures and videos the world sees don\u2019t show everything, the pain, the massacres, the blood and corpses, you can\u2019t capture death in a photo.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cI learnt in this war that the worst thing in the world is when death, in all its forms, is right before your eyes but you are unable to do anything feeling completely hopeless,\u201d he explains. \u201cDeath is terrifying my tired mother. She is crying everyday and I can\u2019t do anything except hold her hand and beg her to be patient.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Rafah is massively overcrowded, with nearly 1.5 million people crammed into an area that previously housed 300,000 Palestinians. Some have managed to secure tents, while others have hastily assembled makeshift shelters in an attempt to protect themselves from the elements and difficult conditions.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
More than 33,000 Palestinians have been killed since 7 October and over 74,500 injured amid mass destruction and shortages of necessities.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Despite the global outcry, Israeli Prime Minister, Benjamin Netanyahu, remains determined to carry out a ground invasion of Rafah claiming \u201cno international pressure will stop Israel\u201d from achieving all of its war aims.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cThe world wants Gaza to burn, why else are they all just sitting and watching us die? Why aren\u2019t the people and leaders moving with all their might if they know all that Israel is doing to us?\u201d asks Ahmed. \u201cIsrael is killing us with illegal weapons in this illegal war and instead of stopping it, the world is facilitating it, because humanity has long been killed too.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
(Source; MEMO)<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Anjuman Rahman Ahmed Suhail Al-Hattab had eagerly awaited for the month of Ramadan, anticipating the warmth of family and friends gathering for the cherished tradition of iftar \u2013 the break fast meal \u2013 at his home in Tel Al-Hawa, nestled in the southern reaches of Gaza City. For as long as he can remember, the …<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":11,"featured_media":10181,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[307,185,172],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-10180","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-main-news","category-palestinian-affairs","category-172"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/ameforum.net\/ar\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10180","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/ameforum.net\/ar\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/ameforum.net\/ar\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ameforum.net\/ar\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/11"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ameforum.net\/ar\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=10180"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/ameforum.net\/ar\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10180\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":10183,"href":"https:\/\/ameforum.net\/ar\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10180\/revisions\/10183"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ameforum.net\/ar\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/10181"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/ameforum.net\/ar\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=10180"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ameforum.net\/ar\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=10180"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ameforum.net\/ar\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=10180"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}