The last message Ahmad received from his loved ones was last Saturday, and he has not heard from him since. Like him, thousands of Palestinians in Europe are impatiently waiting to receive Whatsapp messages from Gaza.
Since the start of the war in Gaza, Ahmad Salama’s family, divided between Germany and Saudi Arabia, has been glued to the television.
Although the news of the conflict is very distressing for them, it is their only way of knowing how their loved ones are doing. who fled the north of the Gaza Strip to take refuge in the south.
This 23-year-old Palestinian, who has been studying in Germany for six years, receives news from Zahr, his father’s aunt, once a week.
“We can only send them Whatsapp messages and wait for a response. We have the TV on all the time to make sure the part they are in hasn’t been bombed and there are no problems“, Ahmad Salama tells Euronews.
“We wake up every day thinking that maybe they are no longer there…. If we lose them, I don’t even know how we will know. So we just watch the news and wait four or five days for them to respond to us“, he adds.
The last message they received was last Saturday, shortly after the end of the ceasefire between Israel and Hamas. Since then, they have had no news.
They know that Zahr is in Gaza’s second city, Khan Yunis, but they also know that the war is growing there.
The city, which had a population of around 200,000, doubled in size with the arrival of displaced people from the northern Gaza Strip.
According to the United Nations, the situation initially described as “human disaster” is now “even more hellish“for the Palestinians.
Meanwhile, for Ahmad Salama’s family and the rest of Europe’s Palestinian population, each voice message from Gaza brings a moment of relief.
Signs of life from Gaza
“We don’t know what to do. We came to the south because they told us it was safe, and now they are bombing the south too“, is the first thing Ahmad Salama hears when he presses the “play” button on the Whatsapp voice message.
It is his father’s aunt who describes his situation: “It’s real torture. When it’s dark, I’m very scared. I can’t sleep and the night is very long. There’s no electricity, so I wait seven hours before seeing the sun again“.
After their home in northern Gaza was bombed twice, Zahr and his family fled south. They had barely fled when their house was bombed a third and final time.
They live today in Khan Younes thanks to friends who were able to accommodate them, along with 22 other people.
However, quickly fleeing, they left all their belongings in their bombed home in the north. They have no food, no electricity, no internet, no warm clothes and it’s getting colder and colder.
There is nothing to buy, and Zahr says what little humanitarian aid does arrive disappears in seconds.
“It’s a bit like Russian roulette and they don’t know what to do. Either they stay and a bomb kills them, or they flee and they risk dying on the way“, explains Ahmad Salama.
“I’m nervous every day because I might wake up and hear from my dad that we lost our family. I have to live with this fear because in the end nothing is certain“, he adds.
The young man says that when he consults the list of deceased people on the internet and finds an entire family with the same name, he shudders at the idea that they could be his second cousins.
The war in Khan Yunis intensifies
The United Nations estimates thatat least 1.9 million people have been displaced in the Gaza Strip, around 80% of the population.
Bombings have intensified since the end of the ceasefire and the Palestinian health ministry estimates that 15,500 people have been killed since October 7 in the Gaza Stripstill controlled by Hamas.
“Life is difficult, it has become prehistoric. I can see Israeli planes above me all the time. We lost everything, but thank God we didn’t lose a family member“, continues Zahr, from Khan Younès.
Things get complicated for Palestinians whose families survive in Gaza. With no internet or electricity in the area, they fear this will be the last message they receive from their loved ones.
According to the United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs, Rafah is now the only place in the territory where limited humanitarian aid can still be distributed.
Little aid is reaching Khan Younes, and access to areas further north has been cut off.
“It’s heartbreaking. We are angry and we cry at the same time because we feel helpless, we want to help but we don’t know how“, says Ahmad Salama.
“It’s a combination of very bad emotions“, he adds.
During this time, Zahr dreams of returning to her home in northern Gaza. She talks about the end of the war and the hope of returning and renting an apartment.
“Don’t worry about us“, she said by way of farewell, “I hope everything ends well“.