Gaza- Atef Rayan moves between about 20 large pots carefully arranged over a pit where fires are burning, to ensure the meat is cooked, in preparation for adding the rice. After he ordered salt to be added in specific quantities to some pots, he called on his workers to speed up the preparation of the food, as the meal delivery time was approaching.
Rayan runs a charitable hospice in the city of Deir al-Balah in the central Gaza Strip, which he founded days after the start of the brutal Israeli war on the Strip on October 7th.
His primary motivation for establishing the hospice was to contribute to feeding tens of thousands of displaced people who flocked from the north of the Strip to its center.
important role
Observers believe that social solidarity, during the war, played an important role in preventing the complete collapse of the situation, and filled – to some extent – the vacuum created by the absence of international institutions.
In addition to the brutal raids that resulted in the death of nearly 19,000 people, Israel imposed a strict siege on the Gaza Strip, cut off the supplies of water, electricity, and medicine, and greatly regulated the process of bringing in international aid.
Rayyan told Tel Aviv Tribune Net that he began working with his volunteer team on October 20, and is still continuing to provide food to those in need. He stressed that this solidarity, during war, strengthens the steadfastness of the population.
Initially, he began his work in a school that was turned into a shelter center, but space constraints forced him to move to another that could accommodate this charitable work. He explains that these days he cooks meals containing rice and meat, which are enough for about 5,000 people a day.
Rayyan distributes hot meals to the displaced in shelter centers and to the wounded, sick, and their families in the Al-Aqsa Martyrs Hospital and Al-Zawaida Medical Center.
For its funding, the hospice relies on donations from “good people” inside and outside Palestine, and in this regard, he says, “May God facilitate this matter for some brothers who love the people’s right to live and survive, so they give us some money from here and there, so that we can cook these meals.”
However, this charitable work is not without great difficulties as a result of the running out of goods due to the blockade imposed by Israel. The first of these problems is the depletion of cooking gas, and reliance on firewood, which has also begun to run out and its prices are rising.
Rayan explains, “First we relied on gas, then firewood, which began to run out. Today I found it difficult to provide an appropriate amount of it to cook my food, and its prices have doubled. We used to buy a kilogram of it for half a shekel, and today, if it is available, we buy it for 3.5 shekels (about one dollar).” “.
Salt prices also rose, as the price of a 25-kilogram bag was 15 shekels ($4) and reached 1,000 shekels ($266). The hospice also suffers from a scarcity of rice and an increase in the price of a bag weighing 20 kilograms from 120 shekels (about 35 dollars) to about 370 shekels (about 100 dollars). Rayan confirmed, “We suffer from everything, but we are trying to continue.”
Volunteer teams
In the city of Rafah, the southernmost part of the Gaza Strip, the great humanitarian tragedy – experienced by hundreds of thousands of displaced people who were forced by the occupation army to leave Khan Yunis Governorate – prompted many initiators to establish volunteer teams to relieve them.
Wael Abu Mohsen, the leader of one of the volunteer teams that includes about 20 young men, says that they are working to distribute food, and provide clothes and medicines to war victims.
Abu Mohsen points out – to Tel Aviv Tribune Net – that the humanitarian conditions in Rafah are “extremely bad.” He added that the original population was about 270 thousand people, and that today it reaches one million after the displacement of hundreds of thousands from Khan Yunis.
He continued, “The situation in Rafah is catastrophic. The tents of the displaced fill the roads, the green and empty places, and the playgrounds. There is no room for anyone.” The occupation army – which began a ground incursion into Khan Yunis governorate about two weeks ago – had ordered residents to flee to the Rafah area.
Abu Mohsen mentioned that many good people and fans of the Palestinian people, especially from abroad, send donations to his team and other teams. His group slaughters two to three cows daily, cooks the food, and serves it to the displaced in shelter centers. They also distribute clothes, especially for children.
He explained, “The majority of the displaced people lack the necessary clothing. They went out in their personal clothes and the weather was warm, but today it has become cold, so we are working to clothe them.”
The team’s activity also extended to distributing medicines to displaced people, especially those with chronic diseases and children. Abu Mohsen confirms, “Solidarity has a major role in alleviating the horror and burden of the Israeli war and the difficult conditions.”
Clear symbiosis and synergy
The manifestations of solidarity were not limited to charity and volunteer initiatives, but extended to many things, including families providing assistance to the displaced directly, such as money, housing, water, clothes, bedding, and even kitchen utensils.
Writer and political analyst Wissam Afifa says – to Tel Aviv Tribune Net – that “solidarity is remarkably present in the scene today, and there is clear synergy in sharing scarce resources, especially water and food commodities.”
According to Afifa, solidarity is not limited to members of the same family. Rather, it extends to families in the center and south providing assistance to others from the north, even though they are not related to them previously. He believed that solidarity filled the void created by the absence of international relief institutions, which he said “did not fulfill their role.”
He added, “When tens of thousands were displaced from the north, the occupation soldiers took from them everything they owned at the checkpoint south of Gaza City, even their clothes. They arrived in the south, and relief organizations such as the United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees (UNRWA) or the Red Cross did not receive them. Those who received them were citizens they did not know.” They provided them with assistance as a matter of social solidarity.”
Afifa also pointed out that one of the remarkable phenomena is that expatriates abroad send money to their families and friends in various ways, which saved “families from disasters in the absence of a source of livelihood for the displaced.”
He believed that had it not been for the role played by social solidarity, “the disaster would have been greater, famine would have been one of the causes of death, and chaos, murder, clashes, thefts, and crime could have erupted.”