Refaat Ibrahim, writer

Refaat Ibrahim, a writer born in Gaza, wrote in Al Jazeera about his first attempt to get food from the Gaza Humanitarian Foundation (GHF) distribution site:

“I went with a faint hope of getting some food for my family. What we encountered bore no trace of humanity. The scene … resembled a battlefield.

“Israeli military vehicles stood alongside GHF trucks, with a massive barrier in front of them. Occupation soldiers were stationed on elevated positions, their weapons pointed directly at the Palestinian civilians gathering.

“At one point, two trucks arrived and dumped the aid on the ground in a degrading manner. Anyone who tried to approach was met with gunfire from the Israeli soldiers. Eventually, an Israeli soldier announced over a loudspeaker, “Now you can get the aid,” and the crowd rushed towards the boxes.

“Men shoved and pushed, children cried, and women trembled from fear and exhaustion. Just a small minority managed to lay their hands on some aid. Some tried to steal from those who had made it. The vast majority – myself included – went back home empty-handed.”

Last April, Ibrahim wrote about the death of educational justice in Gaza. And in a column from last January, Ibrahim described how repeated displacements during the war have turned him into a stranger in his own country.

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