HOSSAM MADHOUN’S MESSAGES ABOUT HIS EXPERIENCES DURING THE ISRAELI ATTACK ON GAZA IN 2014
24 July 2014
I wrote to Hossam to thank him for the initial draft of the Arabic translation of Caryl Churchill’s SEVEN JEWISH CHILDREN which will be performed at our War and Peace: Gaza-London event on 14th September at Rich Mix. Also I asked him to write about how our plans to create a stage production of Tolstoy’s War and Peace seemed to him now. We thought we might get a piece about this into the Comment is Free online section of The Guardian. Crazy!?
Dear Jonathan
lots of love my dear
Sorry I could not write in the last few days, electricity is 4 hours every 2 days, my internet system with its small battery collapsed so I don’t have access as I used to.
At the same time through my work in Gaza with Ma’an Development Center we have started to work helping people, we distribute matresses and blankets and food and hygiene kits for displaced people.
I am assigned by Ma’an to be the focal person for emergency coordination, this will require so much time and effort as I have to coordinate with all the UN agencies and INGO’s working in the crisis response, also I have to lead the emergency response of Ma’an (with other colleagues of course!)
The displaced people are more than 200,000 people, the capacity of all the humanitarian agencies can not meet half of this number, catastrophe everywhere, people with no shelter (schools are not enough but also targeted) today the Israeli army bombed a shelter / school containing more than 1500 people (16 killed and 100 injured ). UNRWA coordinates with the Israeli side the use of these schools as shelters. They are supposed to be safe, they have the coordinates of the place.
In this war Israel breaks all limits, no red lines, hospitals targeted, shelters targeted, homes targeted, and mainly children targeted, among the 800 fatalities, more than 200 children.
Salma again has to manage her self, as I am in the field, and Abeer started working voluntarily in the main hospital of Gaza since yesterday, we are unable to stay home.
No signs at all of any end soon to this massacre, all the talked-about truces seem to have failed, we expect harder times.
stay safe my dear
we will try to do so as well
Gaza lives
love
Hossam – Salma – Abeer
PS: Regarding War and Peace, for the time being the only thing I can say: I believe in doing it now more than any time before.
I cant write more now. I have only 2 minutes of power
A little later he sent me two photographs with the following message:
So so so sorry my friend for the hard image, but as I know that such photos do not go in the media, I just wanted to share with you little bit of what we are expose to. Please forgive me.
This is one of the photos that he sent:
This is the other:
Read Hossam’s messages from Gaza. Next.