Rafah, Gaza Strip – The rooms and corridors of Rafah’s El-Amal Rehabilitation Society, a two-story building set in a sunny, tree-filled courtyard with a children’s play area on the side, are livelier than ever .
But instead of being reserved for the usually bustling deaf students, the classrooms are occupied by families fleeing Israel’s relentless attack on the population of Gaza.
Rafah, at the southern end of the Gaza Strip, on the border with Egypt, is now home to some 1.5 million people displaced by incessant and indiscriminate Israeli bombardment from other parts of the Gaza Strip. , over an area of approximately 63 square kilometers (24 square miles).
The first arrivals flocked to fixed structures: houses of friends and family, abandoned buildings and schools that were not in use because Israel’s war against Gaza had paralyzed life.
Some schools were run by the United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees in the Near East (UNRWA), but the agency is no longer able to fully exploit them as shelters as it did has done several times before during previous Israeli attacks on Gaza.
Rafah is estimated to have around 15 shelter buildings, each accommodating around 3,000 people. This represents a total of 45,000 displaced people that the city can cope with. Today, each school building houses up to 25,000 internally displaced people (IDPs).
The unprecedented influx of people prompted the independent management of El-Amal Society to open its doors to the displaced, seeing the urgent need of families arriving in Rafah on foot, carrying, pushing or pulling those who could not walk, clinging to their meager possessions. they could save.
Families like that of journalist Abdul Rahman Mahani, 24, who all live in one room. He was displaced with his parents, brother and two sisters, but this was not their first displacement.
They had fled heavy bombings on their neighborhood of Remal, west of Gaza City, to the condemned al-Shifa hospital and finally to Rafah.
“In the darkness of the night, we heard the frantic voices of neighbors shouting: ‘Evacuate!’ Evacuate!’ “, Mahani told Tel Aviv Tribune about a night when he and his family fled. “Amid the Israeli raids, we all rushed to seek shelter at al-Shifa hospital. »
From al-Shifa they quickly had to move, this time to the Nassr neighborhood, and Mahani remembers making the trip with a 25 kg (about 50 pounds) bag of flour on his back, a most precious commodity in Gaza.
There was no security anywhere and after several days of going back and forth between Nassr, al-Shifa and the surrounding areas, the family headed south to Khan Younis.
“It was the first time I saw Israeli occupation tanks from afar. We were waiting in line… young Palestinians were being arrested before our eyes… it was terrifying.
A month later, another move, and then another that finally brought them to the El-Amal company, although there is no guarantee that this will be the last time they have to pick up their lives and leave.
El-Amal, “hope”
The deaf children and young people who attend the El-Amal Society school are all from Rafah, so some were able to stay in their house, if it was in one piece.
Some children had to move into the building with their families after their homes were destroyed by Israeli attacks. They have, however, taken over, acting as guides for arriving families, showing them where markets, shops, pharmacies and health facilities are.
The El-Amal team, made up of five people including project manager Bahaa Abu Batnin, is happy to benefit from this additional help. “Deaf students are so joyful and love to give.
“They found ways to communicate with the displaced, making them feel at home despite the Israeli bombings and difficulties and hardships,” Abu Batnin told Tel Aviv Tribune.
They also enlisted some displaced people to volunteer to clean or cook for others and organize recreational activities for children.
Today, more than 600 people live in El-Amal, with some rooms filled with more than 20 people, and the team works hard every day to try to help as many of them as possible.
Funding is an issue as they have to rely on financial or in-kind donations to support everyone, but they have resorted to solutions such as bringing items from home, especially when they were scrambling to get enough mattresses and blankets for all displaced people. The cold winter of Gaza.
Fighting for the basics
Once these were achieved, they had to turn to other priorities, which they also struggled with.
As for food, the team can only provide enough to give each displaced person one small meal per day.
On top of this, the Gaza-wide drinking water crisis means they can only get the equivalent of five cups of water per week per person.
Another priority the team is working to provide is the “dignity bags” containing sanitary napkins, painkillers and other supplies that they offer to all displaced women and girls.
To some extent, helping the displaced has become a personal mission for Abu Batnin and his team, and they don’t want to give up any aspect.
“We mainly care for displaced children and women, so our priorities have been decided accordingly,” said Abou Batnin.
Hala, a mother of three, is grateful that dignity bags are on the priority list.
“They are so necessary that we cannot find these things in the markets at all at the moment,” she told Tel Aviv Tribune.
Hala, her husband and their two sons and daughter were displaced from Tal al-Hawa, west of Gaza City, on October 13. Initially, they sought refuge in their second home in az-Zahra for about five days, but Israeli bombs arrived. Also.
They managed to get a room in El-Amal, which is better than nothing, despite the discomfort of being crammed into a tiny room and having to share a bathroom with five other families.
But she says: “I don’t feel safe. The constant noise of Israeli bombing only increases the feeling of danger. »
