Tripoli, Lebanon – When the humanitarian pause began in Gaza, Fatmeh Abu Swareh hadn’t heard from her daughter Wafaa in almost two weeks.
“I’m not sleeping. I sit here at 3am and cry. I cry all night… all day,” she stated just a few days earlier than the pause in her lounge in Beddawi, a Palestinian refugee camp northeast of Tripoli, Lebanon’s second-largest metropolis.
She feared the worst for her daughter and 4 grandchildren. As soon as the pause was applied, Wafaa lastly bought by means of to her mom, however issues are nonetheless robust.
“My daughter doesn’t have food or anything to drink,” she stated. “Even with the truce, they’re scared of the [Israeli] planes.”
Greater than 15,000 folks have been killed by Israel in Gaza since October 7, together with not less than 6,000 youngsters. The Israeli assault was ostensibly in retribution for a Hamas-led assault into Israel that killed 1,200 folks, principally civilians, and captured greater than 200.
The Palestinian dying toll is definitely greater than 15,000 as there are possible 1000’s of individuals nonetheless lacking below the rubble of destroyed buildings.
Checking for brand spanking new ‘martyrs’ every day
Some 210,000 Palestinian refugees dwell in Lebanon, most nonetheless within the refugee camps arrange for his or her forebears who arrived through the Nakba in 1948, fleeing violent Zionist gangs.
Beddawi has about 20,000 folks dwelling in it, all of them transfixed by the information popping out of Gaza since October 7.
The information has deeply impacted everybody, with bodily and emotional indicators of stress proliferating. It has additionally boosted nationwide delight, with an enormous uptick in gross sales of Palestinian flags and keffiyehs.
Everyone seems to be struggling, however particularly these with household in Gaza. Ducking right into a clothes store to get away from the noisy avenue outdoors, Ossama Najjar, 47, stood together with his again to the enticingly stacked denims.
He’s not . He has misplaced rely of the relations misplaced in Gaza, he stated.
“Every day, I look online for the Ministry of Health lists with names of people from the Najjar family who were martyred,” he stated. Among the many useless had been a cousin and an uncle.
Mustafa Abu Harb worries usually about his personal uncle and cousin in Gaza. The clean-shaven Fatah official for north Lebanon sits in his workplace with framed pictures of Yasser Arafat and his successor as Palestinian Authority president, Mahmoud Abbas, over his shoulders.
“I’m talking to you here but my heart is there with my uncle and cousin,” he stated from behind his desk, slumping barely in his crisp blue shirt and gray blazer.
“They’re killing the future generations of Palestine,” he stated, combating again tears.
Fatah member Ahmad Hasan Alaaraj, additionally within the workplace, misplaced six relations in Gaza since October 7.
He was overcome by emotion a number of instances whereas Abu Harb spoke and was solely in a position so as to add: “Most people here have someone [in Gaza].”
Generational communal ache, solidarity
On a standard day, Najjar works in aluminium. However since October 7, “No one is working,” he stated animatedly, his forehead lined in sweat regardless of the solar starting to set on this cool autumn afternoon.
“All our attention is on Gaza. Everything on Facebook is Gaza.”
Whereas many others in Beddawi have misplaced relations, even these with out household in Gaza are struggling.
Dr Ali Wehbe, Palestinian Crimson Crescent director in north Lebanon, stated the fixed information barrage of dying and destruction in Gaza was impacting his sufferers. From his workplace within the Safad Hospital, he stated many sufferers now had hypertension whereas others reported elevated psychological misery.
Wehbe doesn’t have household in Gaza however has colleagues he studied with abroad and at the moment are on the bottom there, and he worries about them.
“We were in touch but then the electricity went out,” he stated.
The sentiments of helplessness have additionally manifested in an uptick in nationwide solidarity.
At a small bridal store within the camp, Nadia Mahmoud Moussa stood subsequent to a tapestry formed like Palestine, every area embroidered in a sample representing native traditions.
Moussa pointed to a turquoise part, adorned with flowers and small pink, gray, blue and orange lozenges. “Here’s Gaza,” she stated.
Earlier than October 7, Moussa offered bridal clothes and employed out musical troupes to carry out Palestinian traditions just like the dabkeh, a Levantine folks dance, or zaffeh, an animated singing, drumming and dancing procession carried out at weddings.
Black clothes embroidered in conventional Palestinian tatreez nonetheless dangle from racks in her store however now her huge sellers are keffiyehs and Palestinian flags as folks sought to specific their solidarity by displaying nationwide symbols.
“We’re all living this pain,” she stated. “We pray for patience and resilience. From kids to the elderly, we are now learning what it means to be martyrs.”
Again in Abu Swareh’s lounge, she wipes away tears between pained sentences. Her daughter has already had not less than one brush with dying, she stated, when the home subsequent to hers was hit by an Israeli assault.
“It destroyed the whole house,” Abu Swareh stated.
Even when her daughter and grandchildren survive the assaults, there’s an excessive lack of meals and water, which has led her daughter and her household to resort to ingesting saltwater.
A less-than-ideal ceasefire
On Friday, November 24, a humanitarian pause between Israel and Hamas went into impact. As Israel and Hamas traded captives and prisoners, the pause has been prolonged twice, most not too long ago on Wednesday night.
Requested if the pause offered any reduction, Najjar was dismissive. “There’s supposed to be aid coming in but there’s still no food or water or help on the ground,” he stated. “And with the winter conditions, it’ll only get worse.”
Najjar stated the photographs he’s seen within the media recall different humanitarian catastrophes like Yemen and Somalia.
“I hope the Arab countries, the West, and the rest of the world start to genuinely support Gaza,” he added. “Right now, it’s all talk.”
Again on the Abu Swareh residence on Thursday, Fatmeh knew her reduction counted for little because the combating may restart at any second. Moreover, the acts of aggression haven’t completely stopped, she stated. “Today, they shot at them from [Israeli] ships in the sea.”
Reviews from Palestinian media stated Israeli navy boats shot missiles on the coast of Gaza.
Close by, sat Fatmeh’s son, Mohammad. He sat quietly till his mom inspired him to talk. He began, however laboured over his phrases, selecting them rigorously.
“This ceasefire is meaningless,” he ultimately stated. “It’s a ceasefire without a ceasefire.”
On the morning of Friday, December 1, combating resumed in Gaza.
Extra reporting by Rita Kabalan in Beirut.
