Our friend Serene is currently in Sinai. She texted me saying: “Bedouins stage three thousand-strong demo at Masoura, near Rafah in protest of plans to demolish houses by Egyptian (-Palestinian) border. Approx 3000 families affected by plans.”
Tag: sinai
Ill and hungry, Palestinians in Egypt long for home
From the Daily News Egypt:
The thousands of Palestinians stranded in Al-Arish and Rafah are broke, hungry, and homeless, but you won’t hear a single one asking for these basic necessities.
“We just want to go home,” is the anthem among these Palestinians, young and old, poor and less poor.
“We don’t want their food,” shouts one woman, “we won’t eat or drink, just get us back.” “The Palestinian people don’t get hungry,” she adds.
She stays in one of the better types of accommodation — at an outdoor community center where tents were pitched up — along with about 70 others.
When asked for her name she responds, “My name is Palestine!”
She has been in the camp for over a month and a half and says she has developed diabetes during her forced stay in Egypt.
Everybody here knows the exact number of days they have been away without thought or hesitation. One child even responds “since Wednesday,” by which he means Wednesday nearly two months ago.
Nine-year-old Maged and his younger sister have been in Egypt with their father for 46 days, returning from pilgrimage in Mecca, while their mom waits for them back in Gaza. He is visibly tired and reticent, uneager to discuss his thoughts and feelings on their situation.
Other children are more willing to talk but all have the same thing to say: they miss their siblings and families and only know they are here because the border has been closed.
Reports from Rafah
Blogger Nawara Negm traveled to Rafah to report on the humanitarian crisis on the Egyptian-Palestinian borders…
Make sure you check out her three postings with photos… here, here and there…