At the start of the war, Youssef, 74, who was visiting his family in the coastal enclave, was forced to stay there in the face of Israeli bombing. Back in France since Sunday, he returns to the chaotic humanitarian situation there.
Because of the blockade and the complicated journey, it had been ten years since Youssef* had visited his family back in Gaza. This 74-year-old Franco-Palestinian, who was born and raised in Gaza, decided to go there in September.
On October 7, the day of the Hamas terrorist attack in Israel, Youssef was at his family’s home in the Al-Rimal neighborhood of Gaza City. He remained locked up for three days and very quickly, the bombings intensified. “Our house and those of the neighbors were completely razedsays the septuagenarian. It was the first neighborhood that was targeted by the Israeli army.”
Blocked at the Rafah border post
So from October 10, this 74-year-old Franco-Palestinian took refuge with cousins in a neighboring neighborhood. Three days later, he moved again, leaving the city of Gaza, which had to be evacuated. He goes to the Rafah border post, where he hopes to cross, in vain. He is stuck and finds himself alone. He calls an acquaintance, asks them if he can join them: “I don’t know this gentleman, nor his family, but he said to me: ‘Yes, come on, there’s no problem.’ And we slept in a living room, on mattresses on the floor.”
“We were 30 people in a house made for four.”
Youssef, 74-year-old Franco-Palestinianat franceinfo
Youssef stays there for three weeks. He tells of the long queues to find bread, the water that had to be fetched with a jerrycan and the resources that were beginning to run out. “If the war continues like this, there will be hundreds of deaths, especially children and vulnerable people. It will not be from the bombings, but from the lack of food, water and medicine.”indicates the Franco-Palestinian.
“I can’t sleep at night.”
When his name is finally on a list, he manages to reach Egypt, and travels 24 hours to Cairo. Back home, on his face, there are three stitches. “It’s not linked to Gaza, it happened on the way outhe minimizes. It was the fatigue, the psychological shock of leaving like that. Me, I say to myself, I’m lucky, I’m French, but all the same, I think of others. Cousins, families, neighbors, people who are still alive… But until when? I have all this in my head, and until now, I can’t sleep at night.”
Yousef does not realize that he is in France. He still sees – in his head – the bombings, the dead, the injured, the looks of the children and all those pulverized houses. “The real reliefhe said, that will be when the war is over.”
*The first name has been changed.