… and on the personal side: this is the house of mohammad el zaza and his family. they used to live next to wafa hospital.
the ruins of mohammad’s family home near wafa hospital
mohammad in the ruins of his family home. not even their clothes are left, he says
i met mohammed three years ago when he was almost killed. when i met him, he was a screaming, scorched body with broken bones and most of the flesh on his legs and abdomen missing. he was 15 at the time and i can still tell you that seeing him for the first time in an israeli hospital was one of the hardest moment of my life. my first impulse was to run back out.
mohammed and his then 12 year old cousin ibrahim were playing football in front of their house – and therefore in front of wafa hospital – when a bomb from an unmanned drone hit the ground right next to them. this was in august 2011 during ramadan. when people mention the wars on the palestinians of gaza, they mention 2008/09, 2012. they don’t mention 2011. less people got killed, but for i think several weeks, the zionists did bomb gaza then, too. and many got killed.
mohammed’s father atef and his uncle, ibrahim’s father, where almost prisoners in a hospital in rehovot. they only had permission to stay at the hospital, they couldn’t leave to buy shampoo, a change of clothes, soap. they had run out of phone credit and had no way of telling their families what their situation was.
it took a lot of people and a lot of generous donations for mohammad to heal. ibrahim did not – he died in the hospital, away from his mother and siblings.
then 2012 – AGAIN. now this, AGAIN. mohammed says they don’t even have clothes, they have nothing from their home. mohammed is just one person out of 1,8 million, he’s my friend and that’s why i know of the incessant nightmare that his family goes through. i don’t have words any more when i talk to him. but they are one family of many with similar horrors behind and in front of them.
we HAVE TO STOP THIS. NOW.