Gaza at the bottom of the abyss

It has become a place cut off from the rest of the world. In Gaza, the north of the enclave is very difficult to access. Humanitarian aid hardly comes in. The UN complains about restrictions imposed by the Israeli army. So, when a convoy passes, it is also a window that opens in a territory abandoned to fighting. A few days ago, a tanker truck was able to reach Al-Shifa Hospital in Gaza City. Aurélie Godard, head of medical activities for Médecins sans frontières (MSF), was in one of the two armored cars surrounding her. It tells of the state of the city transformed in places into wasteland. “The streets around are destroyedshe describes. There are lots of gutted buildings everywhere. The roads are passable, however, the sidewalks are littered with debris, stones, bricks, etc. There are people in the streets nonetheless, so there is indeed life in Gaza and estimates are difficult to be precise, but 300 to 500 000 people, perhaps, in the northern Gaza Strip.”

“We can come across children on bikes, they survive up there as best they can. There are still quite a few people in the north of the Gaza Strip.”

Aurélie Godard, head of MSF medical activities in Gaza

“The only thing they asked us when we passed the checkpoint was do you have water and foodcontinues Aurélie Godard. We told them no, that we only had fuel oil for the hospital, so that they would have electricity. I have done quite a few missions for MSF, but never in Palestine until now. But I had seen Mosul for example, and Gaza is more destroyed than Mosul.”

Asma is a French teacher, and like many other displaced people, she has moved several times from Gaza City, driven out by the bombings. She is now in Rafah, an overcrowded city where food is overpriced and danger is omnipresent. “Last night was terrible, she says. IThere were too many bombings. We lost a window. The bombing was almost next to us. For our apartment, unfortunately, the buildings are a little affected. There were also thieves. The situation is a bit difficult. We can’t go to Khan Younes to see the houses, the apartments. Personally, I have no hope. I see the situation in black. Nothing has changed. It’s been five months.”

Gaza, a sounding board

Behind the state of disrepair, the Gaza Strip is a sounding board for other Palestinians. They are mainly in Jordan, Lebanon and the occupied West Bank, focused on this page of their history which is being written. Alice Froussard, who covers the occupied West Bank for Radio France, is in Ramallah, a city located 150 kilometers from Gaza. “What is certain is that we do not feel this distance since the warit is everywhere, explains the journalist. It is on the walls, when there are posters calling for a permanent ceasefire, when there are photos of Gaza, it is also there as soon as one enters a café or a restaurant, since television and permanently tuned to the Al-Jazeera channel which broadcasts videos from Gaza. And then she’s in every conversation.”

“What is striking is that despite the situation in the West Bank, what people tell us here in every interview is that it is nothing compared to what is happening in Gaza.”

Alice Froussard, journalist in the occupied West Bank for Radio France

Alice Froussard continues: “And while the economic situation is complicated, and while there is political frustration since the inhabitants of the West Bank have the impression that the Palestinian Authority is not doing much, and while there is also daily raids by the Israeli army in Palestinian towns and particularly in refugee camps. But in any case, people have their eyes fixed on Gaza and always have this phrase at the end of each interview. is to say that, in the West Bank, everything that is happening despite this catastrophe is nothing compared to what the Gazans must endure.”

Noé Pinède, a journalist in Lebanon, is at the Sabra Palestinian refugee camp, located south of Beirut, “And what’s striking when you get here is all the Hamas flags hanging in the alleys.”

“In the Sabra Palestinian refugee camp in Lebanon, Hamas is now truly seen as a liberation movement. Here, that was not the case before October 7.”

Noé Pinède, journalist in Beirut, Lebanon

Palestinians in Lebanon “are about 500,000”explains Noé Pinède, most of whom arrived at the time of the Nakba in 1948. “They are still excluded from Lebanese society todayestimates the journalist. They live in poverty and Hamas exploits this desperation to recruit young people. And there are even training camps in Palestinian camps in Lebanon. And the young people here, they all tell you that they hope that a new front will open in the south of Lebanon so that they too can go and fight for their country, Palestine. And there’s something also that’s interesting: I was talking to a young person to whom I asked: ‘What do you think of Israel saying it’s going to eradicate Hamas?’ And that made him laugh a lot because in fact, here, Hamas is everywhere, and it has certainly never been so strong.”

According to Mohamed Errami, a journalist in Amman, Jordan, “there is a strong mobilization in Jordan in this conflict because there is 60% of the population which is of Palestinian origin. there is a difference between them, some are much more integrated than others, some have Jordanian nationality, others not, but in any case, there is a strong mobilization. The consequences that this could have had here in Jordan in relation to the war only two hours from here, it is first of all the cessation of a lot of festivities, concerts, festivals, places where we usually party. Finally, the Jordanians are calling into question the peace treaty signed between Jordan and Israel, the 1996 treaty, and they are calling into question into question all the agreements on gas, on water. But the authorities are a little embarrassed in relation to all that, because they have to manage the protest in the street in view of the population, the percentage of the population here of Palestinians in Jordan.”

“I am ashamed to say that we have become a beggar people”

Journalist Rami Abou Jamous lived in Gaza City before the war. He was moved south with his family. “The population is very, very, very tired”, he testifies. He recounts his daily life, looking for food, water and food for his family. “We lost friends, we lost family, we lost our homes, we lost our territories (…) Unfortunately, throughout the Gaza Strip, the rich who were rich and the middle class who were class average, everyone became poor. I am ashamed to say that we have become a beggar people.”

“We know what the Israelis are capable ofhe continues. They want the territory. They want Gaza. Give us freedom, give us our land, give us our state, we can do a lot of things. But they want to transform the Palestinian question, a political question, into a just humanitarian question.”