Ballina man fears for friends in Gaza

A BALLINA man who lived in Gaza for four years on humanitarian work says he is receiving messages from friends fearing they will not survive due to Israeli bombing at night.

Ballina man Derek Graham and his wife Jenny lived in Gaza from 2011 to 2015 and have been in constant contact with friends since the beginning of the Israeli bombing campaign started at the beginning of October.

Speaking to The Mayo News, Derek said that friends are telling him that they are running out of food and clean drinking water and fear that hunger and disease may kill them if the bombing does not.

“I am in constant contact with them through WhatsApp and calling them when they do have communication which is sporadic at the moment.

“We are getting messages from people saying the night is coming with 'I hope to see you in heaven'. They are literally thinking they will not make it through the night. The night time is the scariest time because there is zero electricity, you are sitting through the dark, hearing bombs all around you and you are waiting for your turn. It is indiscriminate bombing.

“I know people who have been killed and the hardest part of this is sending a WhatsApp message. You see one tick and then with the two ticks you know they have received the message and with the blue tick you they have read it. You are sitting up waiting for the blue tick to know they are alive. There have been a couple of messages sent where there is still only the one tick. I cannot 100 percent confirm they are dead but knowing the areas they were in and where the bombing was it does not look good,” he said.

No food or water

Derek said he experienced bombing campaigns in Gaza in 2012 and 2014 but the message he is receiving is that the people have never experienced anything like this current situation. He said that water plants and bakeries are being targeted which is leaving local people without food and water.

“It is a sadistic form of genocide. Bombing is killing them straight away but depriving them of water and food is killing them slowly,” he claimed.

“It is heartbreaking to hear the stories coming from there. The different people I am talking to don't know what to do. They are terrified of moving south because they have seen on so many occasions people being targeted as they moved south. If they go they are still taking their chances of being killed and if they stay they may still be killed.

“Walking down the streets they say the smell from rotting corpses is coming from nearly every building. The smell of death in the air is horrific,” he said.

Derek, who is organising a protest at the Humbert Monument in Ballina on Sunday, November 12 at 12pm, added that he cannot understand the lack of international call for a ceasefire and described calls for a pause in violence as disgusting which will not help the Palestinian people.

“I don't know where it will end. There needs to be brave leaders to step forward and say this is enough,” he commented.

Ongoing efforts

Meanwhile, efforts are ongoing to allow up to 40 Irish passport holders including a Mayo man to escape Gaza via the Rafah crossing into Egypt.

Twenty-one-year-old Saeed Adli Sadeq whose family home is in Bohola is currently waiting to be allowed to make the crossing. He had been studying computer science in Gaza City and is the son of writer and former Palestinian diplomat Adli Sadeq.

It had been hoped that they would have been allowed to cross the border over the weekend but to date Israeli authorities have not given the go ahead to Irish citizens to get out. Ireland has been one of a minority of countries who have been critical of Israel's actions in Gaza.

Speaking to RTÉ News on Friday, Mr Sadeq said he travelled to the crossing by horse because of fuel shortages.

“I would ride a horse to get to the border. Actually, there's no other transport way. There's no fuel. There's nothing. All the fuel is going to the hospitals, which is the priority," Mr Sadeq said.

Once he leaves Gaza, he said his priority is to travel to Mayo.