This is the third time I am raising money for Sabr's survival project for displaced families sheltering in Deir al Balah School.
Sabr is from Beit Hanoun, Northern Gaza which has now been completely destroyed by the Israeli military. I met Sabr when volunteering with the Free Gaza Movement and International Solidarity Movement in Gaza in 2008-9. He worked for the Palestinian Centre for Human Rights and was a founder of the Beit Hanoun Local Initiative.
Sabr on the far left in 2009 protesting against Israeli land grab in the 'bufferzone' in Beit Hanoun
Sabr was praying in the Al Qqsa Martyrs Hospital when he was struck by a missile and disabled in February 2024
He and his wife Sannah and daughter Rughad have been regularly cooking and distributing food for families in Deir Al Balah using donations via these crowdfunders.
Food is at London prices or more in Gaza now and there is no income for families who have lost everything at the hands of the Israeli military.
A tent costs around £800. A winter coat is £100. A bag of flour is £160-195. A kilo of tomatoes is £7. A single blanket is £65. A gallon of water is £1. A bottle of shampoo is £15.
Sabr and family have been displaced four times and now 14 members live in a 4 x 4 metre tent in the yard of Deir al Balah School in central Gaza.
Sannah, making kusa mahshi (courgette stuffed with rice)
A meal of rice, potato and freekeh soup, rice and salad for 20 people
Rughad sifting flour for bread-making
Bread-making for distribution
An update from Sabr 23/12/24:
Gaza has been without electricity for about 14 months.
People charge their cell phones and batteries using solar energy. They pay 3 shekels (70p) to charge their cell phones, and 10 (£2) shekels to charge their batteries to light their tents.
The main means of transportation in Gaza is the donkey or horse. A fare of 1-5 (20p-£1) shekels is paid for each person who wants to go to the hospital, the market, or any trip. It is all done by the donkey or horse. Cars are available, but there are few of them. The cars either run on gas for the kitchen, which costs 55 shekels (£11) per kilo, or on gas for food, which costs 30 (£7) shekels per liter.
Displaced people use seawater for bathing, washing, and laundry.
People's lives in Gaza are truly hell and a humanitarian disaster.
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The needs for Sabr's family and neighbouring families in the camp are desperate. Funds from these crowdfunders - sent through Western Union, the local office of which unfortunately takes 20% on all transactions - enables Sabr's family to buy fresh vegetables, rice, flour, occasionally cheese, for rationed meals, and it is the difference between hunger and malnutrition, and consuming at least some vitamins and staying above the breadline.
The deliberate starvation of the population of Gaza by Israel has been documented as a crime against humanity and a key tool of genocide. As long as there is food to buy in local markets, albeit at extortionate prices, this tactic can be challenged, and Palestinians can support each other to stay on their land and resist starvation.
Often Sabr's calls and voicenotes sound like they could be his last. Every piece of news he shares is a preventable tragedy - for example a one year old girl froze to death in her family's tent two days ago. A couple of months ago an apache helicopter-fired missile killed a young man in the tent neighbouring Sabr's and injured five people. It also destroyed Sabr's family's tent along with several others.
This is project of solidarity, dignity and mutual aid - initiated from Gaza in resistance to genocide - to keep people living and staying on their land for as long as possible. Please answer the call and support it.