Rasha El Nahhal reports from Gaza
Residents in the Gaza Strip have received phone calls from the Israeli army threatening to hit specific targets in Gaza, from where, it is claimed, that rockets are being fired into Israel.
These phone calls are directed to all areas of the Gaza Strip, but especially in Rafah and Khan
Younis, in southern Gaza. Civilians are being warned by the Israelis to evacuate their homes, which are allegedly surrounding the houses of people firing the rockets.
A state of fear and uncertainty predominates among the people of Gaza.
Journey to Gaza
Saturday, January 31, 2009
Thursday, January 29, 2009
New strikes from Israeli forces
Latest report from Rafah: In the middle of last night, Israeli warplanes raided the town of Rafah in the south of the Gaza Strip targeting a metal workshop located in the middle of the city. This raid led to considerable destruction in the area but caused no injuries.
Meanwhile, 10 people have been wounded, mostly children after Israeli reconnaissance aircraft targeted a motorcycle in the town of Khan Younis in the south of the Gaza Strip, near Naser hospital.
Samir arrives in Malta
Samir El Nahhal has just arrived in Malta after a trip from Cairo. His sister, Sanaa, gave him a warm welcome at the airport when he landed around 2.30pm. He is staying at her house.
Samir arrives today
Sanaa El Nahhal's brother, Samir, will arrive today at around 2pm. Samir is an exceptional man who studied to become a doctor in Romania. Sanaa told me he had everything there, he could enjoy the good life and make a great career as a doctor. Yet he left everything behind him to return to Gaza. I'm really looking forward to meeting him. Will keep you updated
Monday, January 26, 2009
Sanaa's Diary
My brother and I woke up in the morning and went to the Maltese Embassy. Then we headed to the airport. On our way, something wrong happened with the car so we had to find another taxi to take us to the airport. I was worried that I'll miss my flight. I arrived to the airport one hour early and waitied at the gate. As I sat in the plane , I had a strange feeling that I cannot describe. This experience made me think about the future, gave me more stength and wanted to do it again. I refused to accept the situation of the people in Gaza and wanted to give more. The small sufferings that I had during this trip are very small compared to what the people of Gaza suffer every moment and every second. I arrived at Malta to find my family and friends at the airport to welcome me. There were also some journalists who came to welcome me. At that same time, I felt that I want to do it again.
From the other side of the fence
From the rooftop of his impoverished apartment in Salah Ed Din Road, 24-year-old Jemaal Durgham could only watch helplessly as the Israeli bombs were falling down on his relatives’ houses across the border, just 300 metres away.
Fearing the worst for his three-month-old daughter and his wife who were unable to sleep at night as fighter planes were bombarding Gaza, he left them at his father’s house in the nearby town of El Arish until the Israeli forces withdrew. “At night, it was unbearable. You can imagine how it was in Gaza,” he tells me, as he shows me the dark basement where he slept with his cousin, Ahmed, during the war.
Shrapnel reached here too, destroying the water tank of Jemaal’s neighbour, and the blast has shattered the windowpanes. And in what looks like the Egyptian government’s attempt at toning down the tragedy, pieces of shrapnel kept by children are being confiscated by soldiers trooping the streets.
Jemaal’s ramshackle street stretching along the Rafah Crossing dividing Egypt and Gaza covers the hundreds of tunnels from where civilians smuggle most of the everyday goods for the desperate Palestinians. Israelis charge that they are also used to smuggle rockets to Hamas, but the people here refute it adamantly.
On the Gaza side, most of the tunnels have been destroyed by the Israeli forces, while Egyptian soldiers have sealed many of them from this end. Even though they are a vital lifeline for war-stricken Palestinians, especially after the 22-day siege, the Egyptian forces are in cahoots with the Israelis and the American government in clamping down on anyone involved in the business. The owner of a grocery store with a tunnel underneath has been imprisoned for over three years after being caught out.
Indeed, just as the television sets assembled in a decrepit shop window here is showing Barack Obama giving his inaugural speech on Tuesday night, Egyptian soldiers are patrolling every metre of this street in the wake of the government’s deal with Americans to repress the movement of goods, and people. Yet, a handful of tunnels are still intact and are already being used to smuggle the badly needed provisions, especially fuel.
“It’s good money for us, and the only lifeline for the Palestinians,” said a man who in daylight sells takeaway falafel (typical Middle Eastern fried balls made from spiced chickpeas and vegetables served in pitta bread) from his garage.
Some of the tunnels are more sophisticated than others, with intricate pulley mechanisms, and people inside them pushing trolleys carrying all sorts of goods.
“Everything passes from there; mail, clothes, food, computers, goats, even buffaloes,” said Selim, an Egyptian who owns a farm in Rafah. “On the other side, there’s nothing. Anything they needed, we would send from here.”
Solidarity repressed
Like Jemaal, Karema Kamel Durgham witnessed helplessly the devastation on the other side as her husband, a doctor working at the bombarded Al Quds hospital, was in Gaza.
“They didn’t even have fuel to run their ambulances,” she told me. “Cars are running on cooking oil, killing everyone of cancer. A whole block of apartments right next to my husband’s was razed to the ground. A man who was just getting out of his house ended up with his stomach blasted on the pavement. We were terrified here; you can just imagine there.”
Yet when they organised a demonstration in solidarity with their Palestinian brothers, Egyptian soldiers were quickly dispatched on the street to repress the protest.
Even now, dozens of armoured vehicles and military vans carrying 30 soldiers each are stationed here 24 hours a day. During the war, they were afraid that Palestinians would escape or somehow cross the border. Now, they monitor every movement, stopping cars and pedestrians at constant checkpoints.
“Last night I was driving my cousin’s pickup and they stopped me and asked me for my driving license,” 16-year-old Ahmed said. “I don’t have one but I told them I wasn’t carrying it with me. They asked me for my identity card and when they realised I was Egyptian they let me go. They are only concerned with Palestinians so they don’t care whether or not I have a driving license.”
It is not only the Palestinians that they are stopping. As we speak, a long queue of trucks carrying tons of emergency aid are held at the border, as only medical aid and doctors are slowly trickling in the devastated Palestinian strip. Tons of flour and thousands of gasoline-powered stoves have been sent back by the Egyptian border police. Trucks could be seen parked in the fields of Rafah and in the nearby seaport town of El Arish as drivers and people manning the cargo were dismantling their freight and separating medical supplies from other items that had to be sent back to their manufacturers. Among them, boxes of food and 4,500 stoves carrying the logo of the Gaza Immediate Voluntary Relief Organisation. They were sent back because, it is said, “they could be used by Palestinians to make bombs for terrorist activities”.
At the Egyptian hospitals here, where over 400 Palestinians have reportedly been admitted for intensive care, the situation even more chaotic. Distressed Palestinians were being held from viewing their injured relatives when I visited the El Arish local hospital Monday night.
I was allowed to view only one Palestinian, a 20-year-old in utter pain who, I was told, had lost a kidney and parts of his intestines because of the shrapnel and smouldering phosphorus.
The hospital director, Abu Hattab confirmed that no visits were being allowed given “the chaotic situation within the hospital wards”. Locals fear that hundreds of Palestinians have been transferred elsewhere unaccountably.
The military hospital in Rafah, Al Askari, where Palestinians are also receiving intensive care, it totally out of bounds for relatives and journalists alike.
Smell the jasmine
Karema Durgham’s 11-year-old daughter, Roaa Ahmed, misses her father and friends, and wants to return to Gaza.
Her mother shows clear signs of anxious disapproval, and anyway, the borders are closed: Hamas wants total control of the flow; the Egyptian regime fears an influx of “Palestinian brothers” into the barren Sinai desert some 450km from Cairo.
“I’m a Palestinian girl. I don’t want anything but to be just like any other girl in the world,” Roaa says. Unlike many other girls, she lives behind an arbitrary wall separating families in fear of their relatives’ lives.
It is the same wall Hamas had blown up when it took control of the Gaza Strip a year ago, prompting many Palestinians to cross into Egypt until they were swept back by Egyptian forces 10 days later. Despite the show of force from the Egyptian side, no incidents were reported back then, as the Palestinians marched peacefully back into their land the size of Malta.
Now, a glimpse behind the heavily-guarded walls gives an impression of the devastation on the other side, with tents sprouting intermittently on the ruins that remain.
On the Egyptian side, children the age of Roaa and adults alike gather inside the grimy internet cafes where computers seem to work against all odds. But rather than connecting them to the world, they are searching for an escape.
“Look, they’re not even using the internet,” Jemaal tells me sadly. They are playing computer games. Jemaal is a hardworking, religious family man who juggles jobs to give a relatively decent life to his family. He spent two years in Zambia working up to 20 hours a day at a supermarket, thanks to which he could buy his pickup van and a nice car. He plans to go again, but not for now.
We walk cautiously in the dark alleyways in the shadow of the wall, metres away from an armed soldier walking towards us, while the photographer hides his camera. I receive an SMS from a certain Jawwal.
It turns out it’s an automatic message from the Palestinian mobile phone company that caught me on its system, being so close to its transmitters.
“Marhaba. Smell the jasmine and taste the olives. Jawwal welcomes you to Palestine,” the SMS read. But really, from behind the wall, the olive trees looked burnt and moribund, and the smell in the air reeked of misery.
Fearing the worst for his three-month-old daughter and his wife who were unable to sleep at night as fighter planes were bombarding Gaza, he left them at his father’s house in the nearby town of El Arish until the Israeli forces withdrew. “At night, it was unbearable. You can imagine how it was in Gaza,” he tells me, as he shows me the dark basement where he slept with his cousin, Ahmed, during the war.
Shrapnel reached here too, destroying the water tank of Jemaal’s neighbour, and the blast has shattered the windowpanes. And in what looks like the Egyptian government’s attempt at toning down the tragedy, pieces of shrapnel kept by children are being confiscated by soldiers trooping the streets.
Jemaal’s ramshackle street stretching along the Rafah Crossing dividing Egypt and Gaza covers the hundreds of tunnels from where civilians smuggle most of the everyday goods for the desperate Palestinians. Israelis charge that they are also used to smuggle rockets to Hamas, but the people here refute it adamantly.
On the Gaza side, most of the tunnels have been destroyed by the Israeli forces, while Egyptian soldiers have sealed many of them from this end. Even though they are a vital lifeline for war-stricken Palestinians, especially after the 22-day siege, the Egyptian forces are in cahoots with the Israelis and the American government in clamping down on anyone involved in the business. The owner of a grocery store with a tunnel underneath has been imprisoned for over three years after being caught out.
Indeed, just as the television sets assembled in a decrepit shop window here is showing Barack Obama giving his inaugural speech on Tuesday night, Egyptian soldiers are patrolling every metre of this street in the wake of the government’s deal with Americans to repress the movement of goods, and people. Yet, a handful of tunnels are still intact and are already being used to smuggle the badly needed provisions, especially fuel.
“It’s good money for us, and the only lifeline for the Palestinians,” said a man who in daylight sells takeaway falafel (typical Middle Eastern fried balls made from spiced chickpeas and vegetables served in pitta bread) from his garage.
Some of the tunnels are more sophisticated than others, with intricate pulley mechanisms, and people inside them pushing trolleys carrying all sorts of goods.
“Everything passes from there; mail, clothes, food, computers, goats, even buffaloes,” said Selim, an Egyptian who owns a farm in Rafah. “On the other side, there’s nothing. Anything they needed, we would send from here.”
Solidarity repressed
Like Jemaal, Karema Kamel Durgham witnessed helplessly the devastation on the other side as her husband, a doctor working at the bombarded Al Quds hospital, was in Gaza.
“They didn’t even have fuel to run their ambulances,” she told me. “Cars are running on cooking oil, killing everyone of cancer. A whole block of apartments right next to my husband’s was razed to the ground. A man who was just getting out of his house ended up with his stomach blasted on the pavement. We were terrified here; you can just imagine there.”
Yet when they organised a demonstration in solidarity with their Palestinian brothers, Egyptian soldiers were quickly dispatched on the street to repress the protest.
Even now, dozens of armoured vehicles and military vans carrying 30 soldiers each are stationed here 24 hours a day. During the war, they were afraid that Palestinians would escape or somehow cross the border. Now, they monitor every movement, stopping cars and pedestrians at constant checkpoints.
“Last night I was driving my cousin’s pickup and they stopped me and asked me for my driving license,” 16-year-old Ahmed said. “I don’t have one but I told them I wasn’t carrying it with me. They asked me for my identity card and when they realised I was Egyptian they let me go. They are only concerned with Palestinians so they don’t care whether or not I have a driving license.”
It is not only the Palestinians that they are stopping. As we speak, a long queue of trucks carrying tons of emergency aid are held at the border, as only medical aid and doctors are slowly trickling in the devastated Palestinian strip. Tons of flour and thousands of gasoline-powered stoves have been sent back by the Egyptian border police. Trucks could be seen parked in the fields of Rafah and in the nearby seaport town of El Arish as drivers and people manning the cargo were dismantling their freight and separating medical supplies from other items that had to be sent back to their manufacturers. Among them, boxes of food and 4,500 stoves carrying the logo of the Gaza Immediate Voluntary Relief Organisation. They were sent back because, it is said, “they could be used by Palestinians to make bombs for terrorist activities”.
At the Egyptian hospitals here, where over 400 Palestinians have reportedly been admitted for intensive care, the situation even more chaotic. Distressed Palestinians were being held from viewing their injured relatives when I visited the El Arish local hospital Monday night.
I was allowed to view only one Palestinian, a 20-year-old in utter pain who, I was told, had lost a kidney and parts of his intestines because of the shrapnel and smouldering phosphorus.
The hospital director, Abu Hattab confirmed that no visits were being allowed given “the chaotic situation within the hospital wards”. Locals fear that hundreds of Palestinians have been transferred elsewhere unaccountably.
The military hospital in Rafah, Al Askari, where Palestinians are also receiving intensive care, it totally out of bounds for relatives and journalists alike.
Smell the jasmine
Karema Durgham’s 11-year-old daughter, Roaa Ahmed, misses her father and friends, and wants to return to Gaza.
Her mother shows clear signs of anxious disapproval, and anyway, the borders are closed: Hamas wants total control of the flow; the Egyptian regime fears an influx of “Palestinian brothers” into the barren Sinai desert some 450km from Cairo.
“I’m a Palestinian girl. I don’t want anything but to be just like any other girl in the world,” Roaa says. Unlike many other girls, she lives behind an arbitrary wall separating families in fear of their relatives’ lives.
It is the same wall Hamas had blown up when it took control of the Gaza Strip a year ago, prompting many Palestinians to cross into Egypt until they were swept back by Egyptian forces 10 days later. Despite the show of force from the Egyptian side, no incidents were reported back then, as the Palestinians marched peacefully back into their land the size of Malta.
Now, a glimpse behind the heavily-guarded walls gives an impression of the devastation on the other side, with tents sprouting intermittently on the ruins that remain.
On the Egyptian side, children the age of Roaa and adults alike gather inside the grimy internet cafes where computers seem to work against all odds. But rather than connecting them to the world, they are searching for an escape.
“Look, they’re not even using the internet,” Jemaal tells me sadly. They are playing computer games. Jemaal is a hardworking, religious family man who juggles jobs to give a relatively decent life to his family. He spent two years in Zambia working up to 20 hours a day at a supermarket, thanks to which he could buy his pickup van and a nice car. He plans to go again, but not for now.
We walk cautiously in the dark alleyways in the shadow of the wall, metres away from an armed soldier walking towards us, while the photographer hides his camera. I receive an SMS from a certain Jawwal.
It turns out it’s an automatic message from the Palestinian mobile phone company that caught me on its system, being so close to its transmitters.
“Marhaba. Smell the jasmine and taste the olives. Jawwal welcomes you to Palestine,” the SMS read. But really, from behind the wall, the olive trees looked burnt and moribund, and the smell in the air reeked of misery.
Sunday, January 25, 2009
To Gaza with 56 boxes... back with her brother
Sanaa El Nahhal, the Maltese-Palestinian who went to Gaza with 56 boxes of donations from Malta last Sunday, will return today on a flight from Cairo after behing held by Egyptian police at the Rafah Crossing for three days. And her brother will be joining her later this week as the Maltese government will be issuing him with a visa.
Released at around 3.05pm Friday following intensive diplomatic talks from the Maltese Ambassador in Egypt, Giovanni Miceli, Sanaa managed to get into Gaza last Tuesday with her Palestinian passport after a long day held at the border.
Contacted yesterday afternoon in Cairo, where she was accompanied by her brother Samir, El Nahhal was crying with joy at the Maltese Embassy where, after meeting the ambassador, she confirmed that a visa will be issued for him too.
“I’m really happy today because Samir will be joining me in Malta soon,” she said. “I really wish to thank the Maltese ambassador for all the help. I’m so grateful to be returning back and to know that my brother will be coming too.”
Ambassador Miceli confirmed that a tourist visa will be issued this week so that he could travel to Malta, probably by Thursday. Samir is a medical doctor who graduated in Romania but gave up a career abroad to return to Gaza. For more than four years, he could not get out and this will be his first trip abroad since his return.
Sanaa was reunited with her family in Gaza after four years. Only 15 boxes with medical aid were allowed; the rest are stored in a garage of her relatives living on the Egyptian side of Rafah.
MaltaToday followed Sanaa until the border, but was refused entry into Gaza with her.
Describing her ordeal at the border crossing back into Egypt guarded by Egyptian soldiers, Sanaa said: “I passed through the Palestinian side with no problems at all since most of the Palestinians that work there are related to me. However, when I arrived to the Egyptian side, I had the biggest surprise of the entire trip, one that I wouldn't forget as long as I live. I was treated very badly and felt that I was not a human being. I was given no chance to talk and explain my situation. They only talked to people that they knew about from before, but the normal people like me were treated like they were nothing at all. No one wanted to listen to me. They sent me back to the bus in an arrogant way. They threw the two passports (Maltese and Palestinian) on the floor and I had to bend and pick them up. I got out of the bus again with an attempt to talk to them one more time but they refused and shouted.
“I returned to my family late that night. I will never in my whole life forget the humiliation I went through that day. It felt like I died a 1,000 times. My family tried to comfort me instead of me trying to comfort them. They stood by me while I was supposed to be the one standing by them and supporting them. I don't know how I slept that night. I was very worried.”
Released at around 3.05pm Friday following intensive diplomatic talks from the Maltese Ambassador in Egypt, Giovanni Miceli, Sanaa managed to get into Gaza last Tuesday with her Palestinian passport after a long day held at the border.
Contacted yesterday afternoon in Cairo, where she was accompanied by her brother Samir, El Nahhal was crying with joy at the Maltese Embassy where, after meeting the ambassador, she confirmed that a visa will be issued for him too.
“I’m really happy today because Samir will be joining me in Malta soon,” she said. “I really wish to thank the Maltese ambassador for all the help. I’m so grateful to be returning back and to know that my brother will be coming too.”
Ambassador Miceli confirmed that a tourist visa will be issued this week so that he could travel to Malta, probably by Thursday. Samir is a medical doctor who graduated in Romania but gave up a career abroad to return to Gaza. For more than four years, he could not get out and this will be his first trip abroad since his return.
Sanaa was reunited with her family in Gaza after four years. Only 15 boxes with medical aid were allowed; the rest are stored in a garage of her relatives living on the Egyptian side of Rafah.
MaltaToday followed Sanaa until the border, but was refused entry into Gaza with her.
Describing her ordeal at the border crossing back into Egypt guarded by Egyptian soldiers, Sanaa said: “I passed through the Palestinian side with no problems at all since most of the Palestinians that work there are related to me. However, when I arrived to the Egyptian side, I had the biggest surprise of the entire trip, one that I wouldn't forget as long as I live. I was treated very badly and felt that I was not a human being. I was given no chance to talk and explain my situation. They only talked to people that they knew about from before, but the normal people like me were treated like they were nothing at all. No one wanted to listen to me. They sent me back to the bus in an arrogant way. They threw the two passports (Maltese and Palestinian) on the floor and I had to bend and pick them up. I got out of the bus again with an attempt to talk to them one more time but they refused and shouted.
“I returned to my family late that night. I will never in my whole life forget the humiliation I went through that day. It felt like I died a 1,000 times. My family tried to comfort me instead of me trying to comfort them. They stood by me while I was supposed to be the one standing by them and supporting them. I don't know how I slept that night. I was very worried.”
Sanaa's Diary
Saturday, 24th January 2009
I arrived at Cairo at dawn. I stayed at a hotel with my brother Samir. When I arrived to the hotel, I slept at last because I was very tired. I woke up at Mr. Miceli's phone call wanting to check that everything is ok. I thanked him with all my heart and promised that I will visit him at the Embassy. That same day, I went to the Embassy which was in Zamalek. He was very happy and I told him that I am grateful for all his help. After, I went to the hotel and took a nap in the afternoon for the first time in days. Fiona, a journalist from The Times called me for a phone interview. I also called my children, Lina and Nader to check on them as I was very worried.
Friday, 23rd January 2009
I woke up in the morning to find my relatives around me asking me about any news. I told them that Mr. Miceli is doing his best and keeping in touch with the Foreign Office. They told me to go to the border and try to enter Egypt just the same. My cousins said that they will try to help me the best they can from their side. We all went to the border. At the Palestinian side of the border, I was told that the Egyptian border is closed and that they will open at 1.30pm after the Friday noon prayers. However, we did not want to leave and waited there. While I was waiting the Mr. Miceli called to check how things were going. I told him that I was witing at te border. He said that he wanted to send me an email with some documents consisting of the letters that he sent which might be of help. A cousin of mine went to look for an internet connection and brought me the documents. After waiting for a long time, I entered the Egyptian side of the border. All the officers there recognised me immediately. I told them that I have some papers but they refused to listen and ordered me to sit down. They did not even have a brief look at them. I kept trying to persuade them to read the papers but all was in vain. Mr. Miceli was calling every now and then to check on me and I told him about the situation. He said that he wanted to speak to one of the officers. At first, they did not want to talk to anyone and wanted to send me back to Gaza. But I was stubborn and kept asking them. After lots of persuading, one of the officers talked to Mr. Miceli. After, he checked the papers. At last, I was entered Egypt. Mr. Miceli was very happy for me and said that the Ministry was very worried about me too. In Egypt, I met my cousins who were waiting anxiously for me. Even the Egptian people on the streets were happy for me and welcomed me. The sun has already set by the time I entered Egypt. I rested a bit but I wanted to leave for Cairo at night. This way, I will be reassured that I am near the airport.
Thursday, 22nd January 2009
I called my Maltese friends to ask for their help. The Ambassador for Malta in Cairo, Mr. Giovanni Miceli, called and told me that he will do his best to help me enter Egypt. He was very worried and kept calling my daughter, Lina in Malta to check up on her. He tried to find a telephone no. to get in touch with the border. This was very difficult. A cousin of mine got his hands on a contact no. and gave it to Lina. She, in turn, gave it to the Mr. Miceli. Karl Schembri was always calling me to check up on me. However, all I could do was wait at my sister’s house with my family all gathered around me.
Saturday, January 24, 2009
Sanaa returns to Malta tomorrow ... with her brother!
"I'm really happy today because Samir will be joining me in Malta soon," an ecstatic Sanaa told me from Cairo this afternoon. She was at the Maltese Embassy with her brother, who is a doctor and whom the Maltese government will be issuing a visa to be able to come to Malta, hopefully by Thursday.
"I really wish to thank the Maltese ambassador (Giovanni Miceli) for all the help. I'm so grateful to be returning back and to know that my brother will be coming too," she added.
Samir is a medical doctor who graduated in Romania but gave up a career abroad to return to Gaza. For more than the last four years, he could not get out of Gaza.
Sanaa is expected to land at Malta International Aiport on Sunday at around 2pm.
"I really wish to thank the Maltese ambassador (Giovanni Miceli) for all the help. I'm so grateful to be returning back and to know that my brother will be coming too," she added.
Samir is a medical doctor who graduated in Romania but gave up a career abroad to return to Gaza. For more than the last four years, he could not get out of Gaza.
Sanaa is expected to land at Malta International Aiport on Sunday at around 2pm.
The view from Rafah
Covert repair work is said to be beginning on the underground 'smuggling' tunnels between Gaza and Egypt, after they were targeted by Israel in the recent bombardment. Ahmed, 16, lives on the Egyptian side of Rafah city. He says that while soldiers at the crossing point continue to turn away humanitarian aid, these controversial passages are the only way to transport food and vital supplies into Palestinian land
http://www.guardianweekly.co.uk/?page=editorial&id=903&catID=6
http://www.guardianweekly.co.uk/?page=editorial&id=903&catID=6
Friday, January 23, 2009
Egyptian apology forthcoming
Highly-placed sources tell me the Egyptian government is to issue an apology to Sanaa El Nahhal for the way she has been treated at the Rafah Crossing.
The view from Rafah
This is a video shot at dawn by an Egyptian youth called Selim, from his mobile phone on the roof of his house in Salah Ed Din Road, Rafah, during the Israeli bombardment.
Sanaa: "I'm tired but finally free"
"I've just come out of the Gaza Crossing and am heading to Cairo. I'm tired but thank God I'm finally free to return. I want to thank the Maltese Ambassador, Giovanni Miceli, who kept calling me every 10 minutes to make sure I was let out of Gaza at the earliest time possible. I'm very grateful to him and to everyone who helped me." - Sanaa El Nahhal
Breaking news: Sanaa released from Gaza
The Maltese Foreign Ministry has confirmed to me that Sanaa has just been allowed to enter Egypt from Gaza by the Egyptian authorities after three days held at the border.
Back in Malta
I'm back in Malta after a long trip from Rafah. It's actually the first time I'm posting directly on this blog as I was sending updates to my colleague Charlot Zahra by SMS or emails, given the irregular internet access there.
Sanaa is still trapped in Gaza. I spoke to her an hour ago and she told me she is fine; just eager to get out and be on time for her Sunday flight back to Malta. The 450-km trip from Rafah to Cairo takes at least four hours by car, and the Egyptian checkpoints along the Sinai desert can make it much longer. She told me she has met all her family in Gaza and is right now surrounded by her brothers and cousins.
The Maltese Ambassador in Cairo, Giovanni Miceli, has informed the Egyptianauthorities that Sanaa is a Maltese citizen, in a bid to convince them to let her pass through the border.
It is now a waiting game until they give her the green light. In her diary she speaks of the humiliation she has been through by the way she has been treated at the border, and of course the devastation she is witnessing there is leaving its toll on her.
Sanaa is still trapped in Gaza. I spoke to her an hour ago and she told me she is fine; just eager to get out and be on time for her Sunday flight back to Malta. The 450-km trip from Rafah to Cairo takes at least four hours by car, and the Egyptian checkpoints along the Sinai desert can make it much longer. She told me she has met all her family in Gaza and is right now surrounded by her brothers and cousins.
The Maltese Ambassador in Cairo, Giovanni Miceli, has informed the Egyptianauthorities that Sanaa is a Maltese citizen, in a bid to convince them to let her pass through the border.
It is now a waiting game until they give her the green light. In her diary she speaks of the humiliation she has been through by the way she has been treated at the border, and of course the devastation she is witnessing there is leaving its toll on her.
Thursday, January 22, 2009
Sanaa's Diary - Trapped in Gaza
When I entered Gaza, my family and relatives were very happy to see me. They were also very happy with the small number of boxes that I was able to bring it with me to Gaza. I arrived to my brother's house Tuesday evening where I found all my family and relatives gathered there to welcome me. They were all very pleased but also sad that I was going to leave next day morning. That night I stayed up talking with my family but then my eyes closed reluctantly.
When I woke up, I found them all gathered near me waiting for me to get up. That morning, on Wednesday, I went out to take pictures and met a lot of people. After that, I headed to the border to leave for Egypt. I passed through the Palestinian side with no problems at all since most of the Palestinians that work there are related to me. However, when I arrived to the Egyptian side, I had the biggest surprise of the entire trip, one that I wouldn't forget as long as I live. I was treated very badly and felt that I was not a human-being. I was given no chance to talk and explain my situation. The only talked to people that they know about from before, but the normal people like me were treated like they were nothing at all. No one wanted to listen to me. They sent me back to the bus in an arrogant way. They threw the 2 passports (Maltese and Palestinian) on the floor and I had to bend and pick them up. I got out of the bus again with an attempt to talk to them one more time but they refused and shouted.
I returned to my family late that night. I will never in my whole life forget the humiliation I went through that day. It felt like I died a 1000 times. My family tried to comfort me instead of me trying to comfort them. They stood by me while I was supposed to be the one standing by them and supporting them. I don't know how I slept that night. I was very worried. How I am going to return to my children and husband?
When I woke up, I found them all gathered near me waiting for me to get up. That morning, on Wednesday, I went out to take pictures and met a lot of people. After that, I headed to the border to leave for Egypt. I passed through the Palestinian side with no problems at all since most of the Palestinians that work there are related to me. However, when I arrived to the Egyptian side, I had the biggest surprise of the entire trip, one that I wouldn't forget as long as I live. I was treated very badly and felt that I was not a human-being. I was given no chance to talk and explain my situation. The only talked to people that they know about from before, but the normal people like me were treated like they were nothing at all. No one wanted to listen to me. They sent me back to the bus in an arrogant way. They threw the 2 passports (Maltese and Palestinian) on the floor and I had to bend and pick them up. I got out of the bus again with an attempt to talk to them one more time but they refused and shouted.
I returned to my family late that night. I will never in my whole life forget the humiliation I went through that day. It felt like I died a 1000 times. My family tried to comfort me instead of me trying to comfort them. They stood by me while I was supposed to be the one standing by them and supporting them. I don't know how I slept that night. I was very worried. How I am going to return to my children and husband?
Maltese embassy trying to secure Sanna's release from Gaza
Thursday, 22 January, 2009
8.15 am
Maltese embassy in Cairo in diplomatic efforts with Egyptians to release Sanaa el Nahhal. I talked to her this morning. She is fine but hoping to be allowed to cross out of Gaza as soon as possible.
8.15 am
Maltese embassy in Cairo in diplomatic efforts with Egyptians to release Sanaa el Nahhal. I talked to her this morning. She is fine but hoping to be allowed to cross out of Gaza as soon as possible.
Wednesday, January 21, 2009
Sanaa staying for another night in Gaza
5 pm
Sana'a will stay for the night in Gaza with her relatives after the Egyptians did not let her to come out of the coastal strip.
Sana'a will stay for the night in Gaza with her relatives after the Egyptians did not let her to come out of the coastal strip.
Sanaa caught in Gaza
2.30 pm
Sana'a is also trying to get out of Gaza after meeting her relatives in the coastal city, but has been caught in too as a result of the Hamas blockade.
Sana'a is also trying to get out of Gaza after meeting her relatives in the coastal city, but has been caught in too as a result of the Hamas blockade.
Hamas not allowing people out of Gaza
Wednesday, 21 January, 2009
11.15 am
The MaltaToday team is trying to get into Gaza again this morning, however Hamas is not allowing foreigners and Palestinians out of Gaza.
11.15 am
The MaltaToday team is trying to get into Gaza again this morning, however Hamas is not allowing foreigners and Palestinians out of Gaza.
Tuesday, January 20, 2009
Gates of Gaza barred to Palestinians and foreigners alike
5.30 pm
After around a four and a half hour wait at the Rafah Crossing, Sanaa el Nahhal was allowed into Gaza with only some of the boxes of food and medicinals on Tuesday evening.
Despite herself being a Palestinian, Sanaa and many other co-nationals were held for long hours, and more were refused entry, by the Egyptian border police, even though the Israeli forces have moved out of the Gaza strip.
A long queue of trucks loaded with all sorts of humanitarian aid could be seen outside the border waiting to be let inside, together with hundreds of journalists from all over the world.
Even Egyptian journalists were banned from entering, prompting a brief but vociferous protest at the gates of Gaza, as some of them were physically banging on the gates in protest. Officers said they were instructed to let in only foreign doctors, ambulances and supplies carried by the Red Crescent. They gave no reasons why journalists were not allowed, not even those in possession of the required diplomatic documents.
Elderly Palestinians eager to reunite with their family could be seen clearly disappointed and visibly tired after a whole day left to wait until late at night. "This was the last thing I was expecting," el Nahhal said, hours before they let her cross the border. "I don't understand this."
The refusal to allow travellers and aid workers seems to confirm the Egyptian government's policy of toning down the Israeli war on Gaza, but official explanations are in short supply. An Egyptian national witnessing the ordeal said that in the last weeks, protests of solidarity with the Palestinians were repressed in Rafah and in nearby towns, while police were confiscating pieces of shrapnel from the bombs that ended up on the Egyptian side.
The rest of the cargo sent from Malta, including clothes, blankets and food, has been kept in a store in Rafah until the Egyptian authorities give their green light. El Nahhal was still in Gaza reunited with the rest of her family until Tuesday night.
Sanaa finally allowed into Gaza alone
3.45 pm
Sanaa finally enters into Gaza after four and half hours waiting. She is allowed in only with five only five boxes of food out of 58 boxes brought from Malta unaccompanied. The rest of the cargo, together with the MT crew, are still at the border.
Sanaa finally enters into Gaza after four and half hours waiting. She is allowed in only with five only five boxes of food out of 58 boxes brought from Malta unaccompanied. The rest of the cargo, together with the MT crew, are still at the border.
Aid cargo and MT journalist still held at border
1.45 pm
Despite the fact that the Maltese embassy in Cairo send the required documents, the Egyptian authorities are allowing journalists in. Sanaa too is kept at the border with the cargo load. International aid is passing extremely slowly, mainly medical aid and doctors. There are sporadic protests at the border.
Despite the fact that the Maltese embassy in Cairo send the required documents, the Egyptian authorities are allowing journalists in. Sanaa too is kept at the border with the cargo load. International aid is passing extremely slowly, mainly medical aid and doctors. There are sporadic protests at the border.
Sanaa on her way to Gaza at last
11 am
The much-awaited document from the Maltese embassy in Cairo has finally arrived to the border post and Sanaa's convoy can now proceed to Gaza after waiting for more than 26 hours.
The much-awaited document from the Maltese embassy in Cairo has finally arrived to the border post and Sanaa's convoy can now proceed to Gaza after waiting for more than 26 hours.
Sanaa’s diary - Part One
Sunday 18 January -- Monday 19 January
I couldn’t sleep last night, knowing that I’m going to Rafah. I spent all night awake. As dawn was breaking I woke up. My two children came close to me, telling me to take care of myself and pay attention to whatever I do. At that moment, I felt for the first time a sort of dilemma. I wanted to do this so badly, but at the same time I don’t want my children to keep worrying about me. I told them to take care of themselves and to keep studying. My daughter had an exam at university on Monday.
I packed my luggage, checked that I took everything I needed, and friends came over to our house to help me load the cargo. We went to the airport. I was so busy there, meeting friends, loading and unloading, taking photos, saying goodbyes … I didn’t even have time to think. I was almost numb. Television cameras and journalists came, and one of them asked me; “What are you thinking, now that you are going to Rafah?” I was suddenly lost for words. I had a deluge of contrasting feelings I couldn’t get out in the same second. Happiness, sadness, rage and fear. Happy to see my family, sadness to have left my children behind me. Happy to be doing this little act for my family, sadness because it has come to this. Fear of what lies ahead, and hope that everything goes well. She also asked me whether I though I will manage to cross to Gaza. I told her that when you’re in the dark, a little matchstick can be enough. If someone lends you a candle, then you’d be in heaven.
After the goodbyes, I boarded the plane with my friends, and we kept guessing what lies ahead of us once we land in Cairo. Upon arriving, we found friends waiting for us, and it was like a dream. I couldn’t believe we were out in 15 minutes. It was almost too good to be true. The people who were loading the boxes onto the truck were extremely helpful when I told them it was for the Palestinians. I couldn’t stop smiling … I don’t know why.
We boarded the van and started our journey to Rafah. It’s a race against time, but everything was running smoothly, until we reached Sinai. There we were stopped for a bit more than an hour. I was a bit tense we might be sent back, but we made it through, thank God.
We reached El Arish – a town about 45 minutes away from Rafah. I was extremely tired and needed to sleep. I slept for an hour, uninterrupted, for a change. It was like I slept for a year. I woke up to face a new day.
A doctor who works for the Red Crescent came to meet us and help us enter Rafah. She told us we needed a piece of paper from the Maltese Embassy that would ease our entry into Gaza. We are still waiting for it.
To view the latest pictures click here: http://s463.photobucket.com/albums/qq358/maltatoday/?albumview=slideshow/
Palestinian aid stopped at Rafah Crossing
Monday 19 January 2009, 9 pm
Rafah – Tons of humanitarian aid, including flour, food and gasoline-powered stoves that were meant to be sent to Gaza have been stopped at the Rafah Crossing.
Truckloads of the emergency aid intended to enter Gaza could be seen on Monday night parked in the fields of Rafah and in the nearby town of El Arish, Egypt, as drivers and people monitoring the cargo could be seen dismantling their freight and repackaging some of it.
Boxes of food and stoves carrying the logo of the Gaza Immediate Voluntary Relief Organisation were seen being dismantled from the trucks on the road.
Organisation volunteers claimed Israeli officials sent the cargo back citing different reasons.
The volunteers alleged the Egyptian authorities informed them that around 4,500 stoves would not be allowed into Gaza because they could be used for terrorist activities.
However, even tons of sacks of flour were allegedly held from entering the border. The same volunteers alleged they were told they could only import the flour if they were stacked on pellets. The sacks could be seen next to the stoves which will be sent back to the manufacturer.
Meanwhile, with the partial opening of the Rafah crossing, injured Palestinians in need of intensive care are being carried out to Egypt, but even in the Egyptian hospitals, the situation is chaotic.
At the El Arish local hospital just outside Rafah, families of the wounded Palestinians were not allowed to visit their relatives, while others are reported to have been sent unaccountably to other hospitals abroad. Around 400 Palestinians have been reportedly admitted into intensive care at El Arish hospital, but the majority have been sent elsewhere.
Attempts to verify independently the conditions of the wounded at the El Arish hospital proved futile, as journalists were told by the hospital director, Abu Hattab, that no visits were being allowed given the "chaotic situation within the hospital wards".
Another hospital in Rafah where Palestinians are recovering in intensive care, Al Askari, is also out of bounds – for relatives and journalists alike – as it also serves as a military hospital.
Rafah – Tons of humanitarian aid, including flour, food and gasoline-powered stoves that were meant to be sent to Gaza have been stopped at the Rafah Crossing.
Truckloads of the emergency aid intended to enter Gaza could be seen on Monday night parked in the fields of Rafah and in the nearby town of El Arish, Egypt, as drivers and people monitoring the cargo could be seen dismantling their freight and repackaging some of it.
Boxes of food and stoves carrying the logo of the Gaza Immediate Voluntary Relief Organisation were seen being dismantled from the trucks on the road.
Organisation volunteers claimed Israeli officials sent the cargo back citing different reasons.
The volunteers alleged the Egyptian authorities informed them that around 4,500 stoves would not be allowed into Gaza because they could be used for terrorist activities.
However, even tons of sacks of flour were allegedly held from entering the border. The same volunteers alleged they were told they could only import the flour if they were stacked on pellets. The sacks could be seen next to the stoves which will be sent back to the manufacturer.
Meanwhile, with the partial opening of the Rafah crossing, injured Palestinians in need of intensive care are being carried out to Egypt, but even in the Egyptian hospitals, the situation is chaotic.
At the El Arish local hospital just outside Rafah, families of the wounded Palestinians were not allowed to visit their relatives, while others are reported to have been sent unaccountably to other hospitals abroad. Around 400 Palestinians have been reportedly admitted into intensive care at El Arish hospital, but the majority have been sent elsewhere.
Attempts to verify independently the conditions of the wounded at the El Arish hospital proved futile, as journalists were told by the hospital director, Abu Hattab, that no visits were being allowed given the "chaotic situation within the hospital wards".
Another hospital in Rafah where Palestinians are recovering in intensive care, Al Askari, is also out of bounds – for relatives and journalists alike – as it also serves as a military hospital.
Monday, January 19, 2009
Convoy stuck on the border crossing waiting for official document from Maltese embassy
4.20 pm
The aid convoy with MaltaToday journalist Karl Schembri will stay at the Rafah crossing until the Maltese embassy in Cairo sends a document to the border post on on Tuesday morning.
The aid convoy with MaltaToday journalist Karl Schembri will stay at the Rafah crossing until the Maltese embassy in Cairo sends a document to the border post on on Tuesday morning.
Aid truck still waiting at Egyptian-Israeli border
The convoy consisting of one car and a pick-up truck with Sanaa and the aid to Gaza was delayed for several hours at the Rafah crossing after the Egyptian authorities requested some documents to let them in.
The Maltese embassy in Cairo has been contacted to supply the requested documents to the guards on the frontier.
Convoy still waiting at the frontier
10 am
The convoy with 56 boxes of aid is still at the frontier between Egypt and on their way to Rafah. They have been waiting since 7 am.
The convoy with 56 boxes of aid is still at the frontier between Egypt and on their way to Rafah. They have been waiting since 7 am.
Sanaa reaches Rafah crossing
Monday 19 January 2009, 1.40 am
After a trip of five hours and 4o minutes, Sanaa's convoy reached the Rafah crossing. The journey will now continue at 7 am on Monday.
After a trip of five hours and 4o minutes, Sanaa's convoy reached the Rafah crossing. The journey will now continue at 7 am on Monday.
Palestinian woman’s journey to Rafah starts
Sanaa el-Nahhal, the Palestinian woman from Gaza who single-handedly collected humanitarian aid from the public last week, left Malta on Sunday for Rafah with 56 boxes full of aid weighing a total of 850 kilograms.
Ms el-Nahhal, who has been living in Malta with her family for more than 20 years, left on board an Egypt Air flight at 14:45 CET and travelled to Cairo, Egypt, in the afternoon, where she met relatives who were waiting for her with a car and a pick-up to transport the aid.
The Egyptair flight from Malta to Cairo has landed in the Egyptian capital at around 19:00 CET on Sunday. After unloading the aid boxes at Cairo Airport, the five-hour journey to Rafah started at around 20:00 CET in the evening.
Aided by Skop – the national platform of Maltese development NGOs, and St James Cavalier, the donations include medicinals, food and clothes donated by the public and the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, which provided hundreds of antibiotics and medical dressings.
Park Towers supermarket donated boxes of food. Egyptair offered the cargo space while the director and staff of Medavia donated the air tickets.
Although the Israeli forces were expected to withdraw from Gaza imminently, the Rafah Crossing was still largely closed to humanitarian aid, although Ms el-Nahhal is determined to reach her destination.“When I started, I didn’t stop to think about how I would get there,” Ms el-Nahhal said. “I just wanted to get things moving. I knew that if I waited, I would have lost precious time. And time is important for Gaza. I wish to thank everyone who donated and helped me in all this.”
Ms el-Nahhal said she was especially moved by a young Maltese child who donated his money box full of pocket money to the children of Gaza.Although she is expected to return next Sunday, Ms el-Nahhal said she will remain for as long as necessary to make sure the cargo arrives.
MaltaToday’s journalist Karl Schembri is following Ms el-Nahhal on her trip to Rafah and reporting about the situation at the Rafah Crossing. For daily updates and Sanaa’s diary, log on to www.maltatoday.com.mt.
MaltaToday’s Journey to Gaza Blog
http://journeytogaza.blogspot.com
READ MORE: Sanaa el-Nahhal interviewed
www.maltatoday.com.mt/2009/01/11/interview.html
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