They are Palestinian and Swedish and are trapped in a refugee camp in the southern Gaza Strip. They recount their despair and dilemma to our correspondent Nebal Hajjo.
Iyad Al-Habal and his family are among many dual nationals trapped in refugee camps in the southern Gaza Strip since the outbreak of war between Israel and Hamas.
Iyad came with women and children to Gaza to carry out research as part of his doctoral studies. They were only supposed to stay a few months. They both hope and fear to obtain exit authorization to Egypt, through the Rafah terminal.
“I just want to feel that my children are safe and I want to leave Gaza because I see my children crying every day and they ask me to go back to Sweden. These are children who don’t know the circumstances that prevent them to travel. I wish I could tell them that everything will be fine for them” explains Haneen Hamdouna Al-Habal.
His eldest daughter, Sabeel Al-Habal, adds: “We don’t know how to sleep, go to the toilet or wash ourselves. Even food, there isn’t enough to buy enough to live on. And everything is polluted because of the garbage lying around everywhere. The water doesn’t is not drinkable.”
Iyad’s family will do anything to escape the suffering of the refugee camp, but leaving Gaza will bring its share of anguish.
“It will be very difficult for me to leave the Gaza Strip and leave my family, or family members like my brother and sisters. As a Swede, I have the option to leave the Gaza Strip, but at the same time, it’s a kind of suffering for me to leave the place, to leave the Gaza Strip when I have my family here, who don’t have the possibility to leave. It’s very difficult, it’s really difficult”, testifies Iyad.