Dr. Salah al-Sousi arrived in Gaza in 1994, with the Oslo Accords, when there was optimism and peace seemed closer than ever. These days the thirtieth anniversary has passed. A veteran of all of Israel’s offensives, he now faces a new episode of violence. «I don’t talk about war because we don’t have two countries facing each other or two armies. This can’t be a war. The big news this time is that the initiative has been from the Palestinian resistance with its incursion into the colonies that surround the Strip. They had studied it and we were the first to be surprised,” he says from his house in Gaza City, very close to the sea.
Al-Sousi is the coordinator of the Spanish colony in the Strip and has daily contact with the Consulate in Jerusalem. In 2008 and 2014 evacuations were organized and on this occasion he is confident that, if the conflict drags on, “the departure of Spanish citizens through Egypt can be carried out because there are no longer borders with Israel. It is important that the stage be set to be ready when Israel announces that foreigners must be evacuated. “We are already working on that idea of evacuation in case it is necessary to leave.”
Kayed Hammad has also experienced first-hand all the clashes between the Palestinian militias and Israel in recent years. This Gazan aid worker with family in Malaga has extensive experience as an interpreter with Spanish journalists and diplomats. «We are facing the hardest bombings we have suffered, bombings from all sides. They choose large buildings, very tall towers,” says Hammad, who says that “this time I notice people more in favor of the resistance than ever. On other occasions more critical voices were heard, but now the surprise has been such and everything was already so bad in the Strip that people are fed up, on the edge, with nothing to lose.
“Impossible to get used to”
Despite experience in other offensives, “it is impossible to get used to it.” «We are without electricity or water. The house internet does not work. Just the one with the phones. Most stores are closed and going out is risking your life. It is not safe,” says Hammad.
This time Isabel Pérez has to experience the war from Zaragoza, but she knows well a Strip where she lived for four years and where she planned to return shortly. She was there in the 2014 offensive and believes that “what is happening now has nothing to do with it. I have the feeling that Hamas has been preparing for years. He has programmed everything in detail and is going for it. All or nothing. There is no turning back”. Married to a Gazan journalist, Pérez notes “the hand of Iran behind this operation. At some point they will give us the details, but that complete attack on the computer system, canceling all the alarms… We are facing a sophisticated operation.
With a PhD in Communication and Information, Pérez has just defended her thesis ‘The Islamic Jihad in Palestine: an analysis of journalistic discourse’. She is in contact with her relatives in Gaza and she knows that “very hard days await them” because “this is going to be a long time and we don’t know how it will end. During the last years, Islamic Jihad kept the pulse of the fight and Hamas remained silent, now we know that it is because it reserved its men for this moment.
The Spanish Consulate in Jerusalem has recommended Spanish residents and tourists in Israel to remain in their residences.
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