All the world’s gold can’t outweigh being able to go home, says displaced Palestinian

GAZA CITY, Palestine (AA) – “I hope to wake up from such a nightmare,” says Abo Ibrahim, who is living in a rickety tent in Rafah city, in the southern Gaza Strip.

Abo Ibrahim moved several times because of the deadly Israeli attacks on the people of Gaza before sheltering his family in a tent in Rafah city.

Abo Ibrahim, who preferred not to mention his name and to use his nickname instead, left his home in Abasan al-Kabira town, eastern Khan Younis city, under the Israeli heavy and devastating bombardment on his area.

His family depends on wood and paper to have a fire to cook food. “Look at my hands and my face; they are black from the fire and its smoke; we can’t find anything to cook except for wood pieces, nylons, and paper sheets, which pollute my hand and face and burn my eyes,” he says.

– ‘Water and food are polluted but no alternatives’ –

Abo Ibrahim says that even what they have of water and food is polluted. “We drink contaminated water, we know it is contaminated; we eat polluted food, and we know that because we cook it by using nylons and plastic bags with their black smoke that cover the food,” he says. “But we don’t have other choices; I have kids, and I have to feed them.

“We live in a state of hysteria because of the inhuman conditions around us; we didn’t expect to go through such a nightmare,” Abo Ibrahim adds.

He doesn’t know the fate of his home in Abasan al-Kabira town but hopes to return to it. “I hope to return to my house, and to leave such life of homelessness.

“All world’s gold doesn’t replace returning home,” Abo Ibrahim says.

Israel has pounded the Gaza Strip since October 7, killing at least 21,507 Palestinians, mostly women and children, and injuring 55,243 others, according to local health authorities.

Israeli attacks have left Gaza in ruins, with half of the coastal territory’s housing damaged or destroyed and nearly 2 million people displaced within the densely populated enclave amid acute shortages of food and clean water.