Diaries: Live from Palestine

Just another day

Like if it is just another day, I arrive at the office in East Jerusalem. The a-Ram checkpoint was calm this morning after the demonstration of yesterday, ‘only’ about 45 cars were waiting to be checked. My identity was checked like every other pedestrian crossing the checkpoint on foot. 

These children, again

Yesterday, late afternoon, just before I left the office, a colleague in Beit Jala informed me that the children, who lost their mom, 64 years old Sumaya, and her son Khaled yesterday, and the bodies have been evacuated. The children have been in the bathroom of their home in the old city of Bethlehem for two days, since Ambulances and medical personnel, including the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) have been prevented access by the Israeli forces, despite the desperate humanitarian crisis. 

Faculty, staff and students of Birzeit University

As you have already heard and seen on television, scores of people have been arrested over the past few days, and many homes were invaded. This catastrophe did not spare the Birzeit University community, be it the students, the faculty or the staff. Due to the curfew and the disconnection of phone lines and electricity, the below information is all we were able to get concerning our staff, faculty and students. 

Ramallah is without water

The situation in Ramallah is as follows: many parts of the town continue to be without water. Even with the problems of water solved, it will not reach most homes because 6 out of 9 electrical feeding stations are down. No electricity means no water, no sewage pumping (serious for public health) and no ovens can work to bake bread, among other problems. 

A demonstration at the checkpoint

I need water. I was just caught in teargas. We were at a demonstration before the checkpoint (the one that was previously known as the Ram-checkpoint). Thousands of protesters, Palestinians (a huge number from “inside”), Israeli’s, Italians, French, Dutch, Belgians, Swiss, and other foreigners, and a lot of international media (probably because they are prevented from covering Israel’s assaults on Palestinian cities) were present. 

When Malek Called

We have no bread; I need milk for my two month old baby; I need medicine because I have diabetes; I need medicine for my high blood pressure; I’m scared - I’m alone trapped in a restaurant in Ramallah and the Israeli snipers are on the rooftop of the building I’m in; I don’t know what to do - my children are scared; I’m a doctor - there are 38 apartments in the building I work in and the families here need bread, water, milk - I also need medicine to treat some of the people here. 

My apartment building

From my encircled apartment in Lower Ramallah, I write to you after 5 days without electricity or gas. Hopefully I will survive with my laptop and the lentil soup which I make bearable, day after day, with peppers. Vegetables, bread, and meat seem like a luxury. 

Two letters to a friend in Egypt

People in the International Red Cross do not send any ambulances unless the Israeli army give them a permit. A group of 30 young Palestinians were shot at and, until now, 3 a.m, they have been denied all medical help. This is the third such case documented in Ramallah in the last two days. If you have any medical corps, any contact with humanitarian organisations, please do whatever you can to send them to see what is going on on the ground. 

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