Editor’s Note: Osama Damo is deputy Gaza program manager with Save the Children. He, his wife and mother have now been displaced three times since the conflict began. They moved this week during to another three-bedroom apartment, where they now live with 15 other people, including five children.
Osama Damo
Save the Children
We dread nightfall. That’s when it really begins. And the last few nights have been something else.
The bombing has been so loud — though fortunately not as close as it was to our last refuge. It continues all night long.
Last night the center of Gaza City was the target — including a large public park and the cemetery. The joke around town is that even the dead are not safe.
We sleep when we can. If one child awakes, they are all up, screaming for the rest of the night. Their mothers try desperately to calm them.
We have been displaced again — for the third time — moving Sunday during the lull in fighting. Our group split up, one family staying behind in their home, and others finding space in the already-crowded houses of relatives.
Another Save the Children staff member, Ashraf, was displaced Monday night when his cousin’s house burned. Dozens of smoke bombs fell in his neighborhood, setting the place on fire. Nearby, a 15-story apartment building is now rubble. Its residents were given one-half hour to leave before it was struck. How do you decide what to take? You can grab papers and small valuables, but you have to abandon the rest.
I am so afraid my house is next. Yesterday morning I called a neighbor just to make sure that it still exists. It does.
Still, it is good to work — to feel productive instead of helpless. Our 11 staff here, working with local community-based organizations, have managed to provide 20,000 very vulnerable people, the majority of them children, with large food parcels over the last 11 days. We found two mothers in a shelter who had delivered babies in the last week and bought them baby clothes and supplies; they were sleeping on the floor and had nothing.
It is dangerous, and we have to find creative ways to reach people in need. When we couldn’t find trucks to deliver the food parcels from our warehouse to our distribution points in north and south Gaza (because the drivers were too afraid to get out on the roads), we used donkey carts and individual cars. It’s not as efficient, but so far we are managing, despite the odds.
It can take at least 12 hours to get the food parcels into families’ hands. The cease-fire, when and if it holds, lasts only three hours.
We saw the crisis coming and had bought food locally and stored it in our warehouse in Gaza before the conflict began. However, our food supply is running out. We are now looking to purchase more ready-to-eat foods. With no electricity available, families cannot use their cooking stoves. We will look to the open market if we cannot get food into Gaza.
So many challenges, so many people in need, but we are doing our best. And it is good to feel useful.
Read More of Osama Damo's blog posts here.
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We really should do something to prevent this hyaenus act by the Israeli soldiers killing hundreds of innocent people in the name of "Casualties of War".
It crazy how israel is getting away with genocide, these deaths dont even equate to the damage hamas has done to israel, An how can the Jewish people after there history and the persecution, do this to another race an call it defending themselve while women an children are dying, its a shame that they have fogotten, where they have come from as a people.
The children of the world are the future. I only wish their parents do not teach them vengeance. It is much hardier to act with love and forgiveness and easier to act with hate and revenge. I'm convinced both sides in this war have taken the easier road, which only leads to destruction and death. A peaceful solution is never a easy and simple task, but it's always worth striving and hoping for. For the sake of the children stop the hatred!
We all know that United States is run by the Jewish Mafia , not by a President
I see Israel has bombed a UN aid facility – saying it was a "grave mistake". Mistake my ........! Where is the hew and cry about that? CNN, please present BOTH sides of the story!
The jewish state is becoming an embarassment for the world...Soldiers armed with modern weapons are fighting against civilians, killing and hurting civilians...What a great demonstration of courage...Just as effecient as the nazis .....
The children? No problem there, they are not jewish and thus killing them is what the Israeli state calls collateral dammage...
The U.S. house has just voted a bill stating that Israel can defend itself...What a joke! Defend itself against a bunch of poor people with home made missiles, no food or medication and under siege.....
It seems that America makes the wrong choices most of the time....
We simply cannot be silent and therefore complicit on The Siege on Gaza.
The latest reports are of four Israeli gunboats saying they will use their weapons if the SPIRIT OF HUMANITY does not turn back to Greece. The boat is asserting its right to continue in international waters.
The Free Gaza mercy ship, SPIRIT OF HUMANITY, left port in Cyprus this morning on an emergency mission to besieged Gaza. Aboard the ship are desperately needed medical supplies and 21 passengers and crew, including doctors, human rights workers, journalists, and two parliamentarians from Spain and Italy.
We've just received word from the ship (as of 3:15am UST / 1:15am GMT) that they are surrounded by Israeli Naval gunboats. The warships are demanding that the SPIRIT OF HUMANITY return to Cyprus. We are insisting to reach Gaza and complete our peaceful mission.
The Israelis have not yet attacked our unarmed ship, but it is URGENT that everyone immediately call on the Israeli government and demand that they STOP threatening the SPIRIT OF HUMANITY!
LOCATION OF SPIRIT OF HUMANITY
The location of the ship can be tracked on its Spot Tracker page.
__._,_.___
I've got a question...when does this "defensive attack" by Israel become genocide?
In seven years of missile attacks, the idiot Hamas group killed fewer Israelis than died in our local city by gang attacks.
In one, "defensive" bombing, Israeli killed more Palestinians, and dropped more equivalent TNT, than those 7 years of terrorist attacks.
Is that right? Reasonable?
Oh, the theory I guess is that Hamas has been carrying out terrorist attacks, unopposed, for 7 years and it's time to stop them. But let's check the news (the news that doesn't get into CNN for some reason)....it appears Palestinians have been killed weekly by Israeli military actions, and settler actions.
So who's the terrorist?
We stopped arming Palestinians until they're forced to use weapons that, despite 7 years of dedicated effort, only resulted in about one dozen deaths. If we stopped arming the Israelis....maybe we'd reduce their kill-count as well.
And let's face it...7 years of dedicated Hamas attacks resulted in fewer deaths over 7 years than a year's worth of criminal activity created in our city. I wonder how many Israeli citizens murdered other Israeli citizens last year...and whether, as a result, the Israeli military will move into those crime-laden parts of their territory with bombs, fighter aircraft, artillery, tanks, and "try to avoid killing" innocents.
The difference I keep hearing between Hamas and Israeli is that Hamas TRIES to kill innocents and Israel tries to avoid them. That Israel has been more successful in killing innocents is supposed to be something we ignore because at least they "try".
Its heartbreaking to read about the children – how scared they are and how without supplies they and their parents are that don't get reached by relief packages. I think you are very brave and very selfless for risking your life to help others around you. Hopefully, a cease fire will be soon and people can return to their homes if they still exist and relief packages can be handed out without fear of being shot or killed by a bomb. And little children won't wake up at night screaming in fear from the sounds of bombs going off and mortar fire. Take care and try to stay as safe as you can. My thoughts and prayers are with you.