Issue link: https://maltatoday.uberflip.com/i/357188
maltatoday, SUNDAY, 3 AUGUST 2014 6 News SINCE the beginning of the Israeli offensive on Gaza over 1,700 Pales- tinians, mostly civilians, have been killed and at least 8,900 others have been reported injured. One out of every five persons killed in the past three weeks is a child and the surviving children are going through the third war on Gaza in a span of six years, robbing them of their childhood and innocence. Beyond the numbers, residents in Gaza have endured three weeks of constant bombardments, which have not only killed their families, friends and neighbours, but have destroyed their homes, killed their livestock and buried the few possessions they had, under rubble. This week, Karl Schembri, regional media manager of Save the Children in the Middle East, a former Mal- taToday journalist wrote that the apartment he lived in for years dur- ing his stay in Gaza was destroyed. "Friends in Gaza tell me my former flat on the 15th floor overlooking the sea in Al Jundi has been destroyed. 80 people displaced from Beit Hanoun were seeking shelter there until this evening. Luckily nobody was killed, two were moderately injured," he writes from Amman, Jordan, where is now based. "It was a little hangout where some of my closest friends would come and have endless discussions on everything through the night over a shisha. So many magical moments and memories I miss. And my lovely landlady, Azza Qassem, a real fighter, the real resistance to anything in the way of freedom. She's ok now in an- other little flat with some 30 people whose houses have been destroyed. "Death is everywhere in Gaza," she just told me. "None of us knows if we'll be alive the next minute. There is no red line in this war." Stay safe comrade Azza. Houses can be rebuilt but you're unique." 'I'm feeling very sad' On Friday, an Israeli shell de- stroyed 33-year-old Kamal Moham- med's home in Beit Lahiya. The man, who works for the inter- national development organisation Oxfam, posted pictures of what re- mains of his house on social media sites and wrote "This is my house and my surroundings after the Israeli destruction and massacre... feeling very sad." Karl Schembri wrote that Kamal – whose bedouin family was displaced from Beersheba – is "the first Pal- estinian every Oxfam visitor meets upon entering Gaza, taking you on a historical, political and cultural tour before dropping you at the office. I've seen most of Gaza with him and through his unique lens. His eyes beam with pride and enthusiasm to show the best of his country to eve- ryone. A philosopher, poet and hu- manitarian, he would stop his car to look at a flock of sheep or enjoy the green pastures in spring." Kamal used to work as a gardener in Israel when the Palestinians of Gaza were still allowed and Schembri not- ed that "he was always the first one to stop anyone from generalising about Israelis and Jews. He loved his Jew- ish employers who treated him with respect and dignity. His garden was a little sanctuary of peace and life. I spent hours there discussing every- thing over a shisha, among blooming flowers and curious cats." Upon reaching his home this week, Kamal also found his family's donkey buried under the rubble. However, this was not the first time his family lost one of its few resourc- es. Schembri wrote that in the 2009 war, "his donkey had been killed and his mother couldn't get used to the new one because he was still too small, until they became inseparable and she would use him to do their shopping out of the village. Today he found this destruction when he went to visit his home in the short-lived ceasefire. I don't know what to tell Kamal tonight. I have no words." Memories: Once bombed, never found On a similar note, Asma AbuMezied recounts her experience on Voices of Gaza, an online resource for journal- ists reporting on the Israeli attack on Gaza. Writing while her family home shakes under the bombardments, the 26-year-old woman who works as a business development specialist with an NGO, writes about what it means if your home, your past, your memories, are taken away in a single moment. "Memories capture the moments of our lives that are gone forever. They become our own life compan- ions whether in sorrow or happiness, whether we are surrounded by our loved ones or feeling lonely. A per- son without memories is a lost soul unable to neither look into the future nor live in the present. Memories and little things that we keep from the past give us strength when we need it and the drive to have a better The Gaza flat in which former MaltaToday journalist Karl Schembri, lived while working for Oxfam, was obliterated in the latest Israeli missile attacks. JURGEN BALZAN wrote to him and other people in Gaza about the desperation under Israeli occupation and attack Voices from Gaza