A-Infos (en) France, OCL CA #336 - Gaza - Testimony January 26, 2024 by Saint-Nazaire (ca, de, fr, it, pt, tr)[machine translation]

Ziad Medoukh lives and works in Gaza as a French teacher, he is head of 
the French department at Al-Aqsa University. A tireless witness to Gaza 
and Palestine, he has held numerous meetings in France and Europe, he 
has come several times to Saint-Nazaire at the invitation of the local 
Palestine Support Committee, the CSPRN. He sends us this testimony today 
from Gaza
Message from Ziad Medoukh - Friday January 26, 2024
Hello from destroyed Gaza and devastated Gaza.
Believe me: my determination, my courage, my resilience, my patience, 
and my optimism cannot overcome my total distress
After almost four months since the beginning of this horrific aggression 
by the occupation against the civilian population of the Gaza Strip, the 
situation on the ground is increasingly catastrophic and terrifying.
Life is a bitter taste, in fact there is no life in Gaza
Life is completely paralyzed

There is nothing: no food, no water, no medicine, no electricity, no 
gas, no milk, no bread, no fruit, no vegetables, no meat, no chicken, no 
fish, no means of transport, no housing and neither prospects.
Thousands of students are deprived of their lessons, and tens of 
thousands of students are deprived of their studies.
Thousands of civil servants, employees and workers are deprived of their 
jobs and salaries.
Nothing is working in Gaza currently: no administration and no commerce.
I am very sad
I am unhappy, I suffer on a daily basis like all the inhabitants of this 
devastated region and left to its fate by a complicit official 
international community.
And I'm putting up with the unbearable
I decided to write this testimony to share my pain with you friends and 
supporters of good will, you are my only comfort in this daily hell

When I have access to the internet, I try to give news, the problem is 
that to get to an internet point I have to walk two kilometers and in 
front of this point, there are a crazy crowd and everyone has the right 
to thirty minutes only, everyone wants to have news of their family in 
the south and the communication network is often disrupted and destroyed 
by bombings

I see your many messages of support and sympathy - the people who offer 
help and donations, I thank you very much, I always said that the most 
important thing is moral and political solidarity, what's more, I am a 
simple Palestinian citizen of Gaza, I live like all the inhabitants, and 
I do not want to be privileged with my network and my many friends and 
acquaintances - even if I do not respond because the internet network is 
very weak, but your messages relieve me the Palestinian citizen of Gaza 
who has lost everything and is trying to survive with the little hope he 
has left

My daily life is very difficult and very complicated
It's true that I have experienced a lot of wars, attacks, offensives and 
carnage.
But I have never experienced a horrible situation like this since my 
childhood
Currently moved from one neighborhood to another and from one house to 
another among relatives and cousins, because the bombings continue day 
and night everywhere in this open and closed air prison, and tanks can 
arrive in n any neighborhood at any time.

The problem that in each home there are 30 to 40 people living there 
between residents and displaced people, and we have to face this 
exceptional situation
I became homeless and homeless and I have to accept everything in these 
shelters.
I cannot read or write in these houses, because of the noise, and the 
presence of dozens of people, in addition, I lost my computers and my 
library with its 3000 thousand books in French after the destruction of 
my apartment At the beginning of last December, I was unable to recover 
any of my belongings, my clothes, my diplomas, my published books, my 
research and my courses.

Everyone goes home before 5 p.m., and we sleep around 7 p.m., in the 
evening we light with lamps which we recharge in the morning with the 
solar panels, fortunately there is always sun in Gaza, in fact the 
panels solar panels have greatly helped the inhabitants of Gaza to have 
a little light by recharging their lamps, their batteries and their 
mobile phones during this period of darkness and power outage since the 
beginning of this aggression at the beginning of last October.

For me, at night, I can't sleep, I think of my murdered brother with his 
whole family, and I cry alone, I return to my beautiful memories before 
this attack, I try to dream and hope for a better future, but in vain.

I, who was lifting the spirits of the traumatized youth and children of 
Gaza, have become shocked and traumatized by the succession of tragic 
events that have struck my family and all the citizens of Gaza in recent 
months, and I cannot find anyone to to erase my tears and to calm my 
enormous anger.
My heart bleeds all the time.

Believe me, I am not pessimistic, and I love life very much like all the 
Palestinian people, but on the spot, our context is unimaginable, 
unacceptable and horrible!
For food, we eat only one meal a day and sometimes one meal every two 
days, there is nothing on the markets to eat, often a plate of rice and 
a few pieces of bread, and if we drink a cup Coffee or tea is a luxury 
for us.
In each house, men and women work hard to prepare meals using wood 
fires, because there is no gas.
It is not money that is lacking but food and essential products, because 
for 4 months no products have entered Gaza and there is no humanitarian 
aid arriving in the north of the Gaza Strip.
In addition, there is no international organization or local association 
that takes care of the destitute and displaced people who are currently 
very numerous in the Gaza Strip.

According to a latest United Nations report in early January 2024, 90% 
of Gaza residents suffer from food insecurity.
People here started to starve.
Not to mention that prices are multiplied by ten, and the few products 
available are very expensive
A small bottle of mineral water currently costs 5 euros in Gaza, 
previously its price did not even exceed 0.10 cents
A kilo of rice which cost 2 euros went to 10 euros, a kilo of flour 12 
euros before we bought it for 1 euro, and an egg is worth 3 euros, while 
the tray of 30 eggs cost 4 euros before the attack .
Everything is very expensive in Gaza, and nothing is available on the 
markets.

Added to all this, there are no fruits or vegetables, in fact, all the 
agricultural land in the north of the Gaza Strip has been destroyed.
For water, there is no potable water for drinking, and even water for 
domestic use does not come into the taps, and it is bought very 
expensively from a few stations that are still functioning, because 
several water wells have been destroyed.

Several contaminated diseases affect residents.
The worst thing is that there is no authority, no government and no 
municipal services that manage and control the very critical situation.
Everyone fends for themselves to survive.
On the other hand, the Palestinians in Gaza show solidarity among 
themselves, but sometimes people have nothing to give, because there is 
nothing there.

In the morning, everyone's concern is to find something to feed their 
family and search for water with great difficulty.
When I walk the streets of Gaza, I become very unhappy, because in every 
neighborhood there are destroyed and damaged houses, buildings, 
buildings and civil infrastructure.

I learn every day of the assassination of my cousins, relatives, 
friends, colleagues, neighbors and students, it makes me very sad 
because I am helpless and I cannot say a word of condolence to their 
families.
The feeling of helplessness is horrible

Imagine, there are no bakeries, stores, pharmacies, restaurants or cafes 
open.
And the worst thing is that the people here are very sad, they are 
preoccupied by their tragic daily life, they think of their missing 
loved ones and they try to look for food and water for their children, 
no one speaks to anyone, no exchange , no smile, everyone is in shock; 
in every family there are dead, injured, displaced and houses destroyed

Sometimes I wonder how people here manage to survive and still exist.
For the health situation, it is dramatic, no hospital is functioning, 
all the hospitals are out of service, there are only three clinics in 
all of Gaza City which serve 300,000 inhabitants and displaced people, 
in each clinic, there are only five or six Overworked volunteer doctors 
who see 5,000 patients a day, with no real medicines to give, or expired 
medicines.
Personally, I am currently ill, I cannot find any laboratory to carry 
out analyzes or pharmacy or hospital to treat me.

The most moral army in the world has murdered 27,000 Palestinians in 
Gaza so far, including 22,000 children and women, and injured 70,000.
Not to mention, the destruction of almost 65% of civil infrastructure.
The problem is that this cowardly and criminal army has not achieved any 
objective set for this far-right government.
It is murderous madness and total impunity without any official 
international reaction.

The Palestinians of Gaza, despite their anger and their misfortune, 
greatly appreciate the demonstrations of solidarity throughout the world 
to denounce this repeated genocide and to call for an immediate 
ceasefire in the Gaza Strip.
Four very difficult months for me and for all the inhabitants of Gaza 
with painful events, these four months were all terrible.

The month of October 2023, at the start of the aggression, it is true 
that there were intensive bombings, but I was very busy, I gave 
interviews to French-speaking media, I had access to internet and I gave 
daily testimonies and regular contacts with friends and solidarity 
groups with Palestine in the French-speaking world, the markets were 
open and there was some food

Last November, the situation became very complicated, with the start of 
the ground operation, the evacuation of my family to the south, and the 
arrival of tanks in my neighborhood, I was surrounded in my home in my 
devastated neighborhood.

The month of December 2023 was a dark month for me with the 
assassination of my brother and his entire family, the destruction of my 
apartment and our building, and my obligation to leave my neighborhood 
to find refuge with relatives.

The month of January 2024 saw the continuation of the bombings and the 
arrival of tanks throughout Gaza City, and my obligation once again to 
look for other houses to live in.

There are many events to tell, I would need pages and books to describe 
our very difficult daily life under the bombs and in shock with this 
catastrophic humanitarian situation and this unprecedented disaster, and 
I do not yet believe that I am still alive, because I see death a 
thousand times a day, although I am not afraid of death, however, I am 
worried about our future.

The positive aspect in all of this that makes me proud of myself: I have 
no hatred

Palestinian friendships
of Gaza which is no longer Gaza
And Ziad who is no longer Ziad

http://oclibertaire.lautre.net/spip.php?article4059
_________________________________________
A - I N F O S  N E W S  S E R V I C E
By, For, and About Anarchists
Send news reports to A-infos-en mailing list
A-infos-en@ainfos.ca
Subscribe/Unsubscribe https://ainfos.ca/mailman/listinfo/a-infos-en
Archive: http://ainfos.ca/en