GAZA
CITY, May 15, 2005 (IslamOnline.net) – Packed like sardines and
living under appalling conditions, Palestinians in Al-Shati’ camp
are a living example of Palestinians’ sufferings 57 years after
their homeland was usurped by Zionists and the state of Israel
declared on the rubble of Palestine, a sad chapter in Arab and Islamic
history known as the Nakba Day.
The
800-square-meter camp is one of the poorest and most crowded in the
Gaza Strip with no shinning sun, nor fresh air as houses are glued to
one another and children unmistakably recognizable with their tattered
clothes and anemic bodies.
Abdel
Rahman Al-Adal, 71, recalled how Zionist gangs stormed his village and
killed his next of kin in cold blood.
“I
was 14 when Jews attacked and imposed a tight blockade on Barir
village on May 14, 1948, leaving us with no option but to flee or be
massacred,” he told IslamOnline.net.
“They
lined up my three cousins and many others of the village’s youths
against the wall and shot them dead.”
Fighting
back his tears, Al-Adal remembered how everything in his village was
covered in blood.
“I
saw hundreds of corpses lying on the streets and my father told me at
the time that up to 110 villagers were slain by the Zionists.”
He
recalled that despite the merciless attacks by the Zionists, the
villagers displayed gallantry in defending their land till the last
breath.
“When
they took refuge in the neighboring village of Halikat the Zionist
gangs stepped up attacks, and kept hunting them down from one village
to another,” Al-Adal said.
On
April 18, 1948, Palestinian Tiberius was captured by Menachem Begin's
Irgun group, putting its 5,500 Palestinian residents in flight. On
April 22, Haifa fell to the Zionist mobs and 70,000 Palestinians fled.
On
April 25, Irgun began bombarding civilian sectors of the Palestinian
city of Jaffa - the largest city in Palestine at that time, terrifying
the 750,000 inhabitants into panicky flight.
On
May 14, the day before the creation of Israel on the rubble of
Palestine and bodies of the Palestinians, Jaffa completely surrendered
to the much better-equipped Zionist gangs and only about 4,500 of its
population remained.
Appalling
Conditions
Al-Adal
can barely remember the faces of some of his relatives as fled to
neighboring countries, tent cities and refugee camps. Some of them
have even disappeared for ever.
“My
family and I moved along with other refugees to Gaza’s Al-Shujaiya
district, then Al-Nusseirat tent city and finally we settled at
Al-Shati’ refugee camp.”
On
the life in the camp, Al-Adal said it is a mixture of bitterness and
suffering.
“With
undrinkable water and persistent power outages, we truly live under
appalling conditions in the camp,” he lamented.
The
camp accommodated in 1949 some 23,000 refugees but is now home to
78,000, according to UNRWA estimates.
Return
Dream
 |
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“All of a sudden, my life turned upside down when the Zionists attacked our home, killed my father,” said Salem.
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Like
thousands of Palestinian refugees across the globe, Hadia Salem, a
73-year-old camp resident, has been dreaming of returning home.
“Now
our lives are getting from worse to worst in Al-Shati’ camp,” she
told IOL.
“I
still remember how I used to go with my father to reap wheat fields in
our village when I was 16.
“All
of a sudden, my life turned upside down when the Zionists attacked our
home, killed my father, devastated our land and marauded our
property,” she recalled.
Salem,
who lost all her family members to Zionist attacks, is sure that one
day she will return home.
“If
I don’t, my grandchildren will sure do,” she said emphatically.
Palestinian
refugees in the Gaza Strip are estimated at 878,000, living in eight
refugee camps: Jabaliya, Rafah, Al-Shati’, Al-Nusirat, Al-Boureij,
Khan Yunis, Al-Maghazi and Deir Al-Balah.
Last
year, Al-Aqsa Society for the Reconstruction of Islamic Shrines
(ASRIS) warned in a report that an Israeli plan called “Tamam-6”
was aimed at obliterating the
Islamic and Arab character of Palestinian villages occupied in 1948 by
marking out mosques, tombs and historical sites.
The
scheme will see new parks, bridges, roads and sewerage system running
deep into many Islamic and Arab historical sites.
In
a counter effort, the first
Palestinian atlas was recently launched to document for
the generations to come territories usurped and occupied by Israeli
troops and keep the cause vivid.
Up
to 50,000 maps charting Palestinian sites that date back to 1799 are
found in the English-language geographical encyclopedia.
Please
check:
