Connecting Gaza: New Brunswickers are among a network supporting families amid genocide

Photojournalist Rizek Abdel Jawad was trying to buy a tent in his hometown of Gaza City — shortly before he was forced to flee due to the ongoing Israeli ground invasion — when he realized the area was being bombed.

“I heard the sound of bombing by Israeli planes near the popular market,” he said in a WhatsApp message to the NB Media Co-op. Though terrified, he went to the place where the explosion had occurred: the Bank of Palestine had been struck by a missile, he said. 

His video footage from the scene, posted on social media, shows at least one building reduced to ruins, and neighbouring structures badly damaged. A representative of the Bank of Palestine confirmed in a message to the NB Media Co-op that its main branch had been destroyed. 

Men and young boys can be seen quitting the area, their arms filled with debris. Jawad explained that when houses and apartments are bombed, the Israeli military may give residents 10 minutes notice to evacuate the building. Displaced people leave their homes with practically nothing, and then return to take what they can find, including debris for firewood to cook food.

“The price of a kilo of wood in the Gaza Strip today has reached three dollars per kilogram,” he said. 

It's just part of the misery experienced by those at the brunt of Israel’s assault on the Gaza Strip, a military campaign that has been widely condemned as a genocide and which has lasted almost two years. Israel’s assault has left the Gaza Strip “uninhabitable,” Jawad said.  

An accomplished photojournalist — Jawad’s work has been published by the Associated Press and the Chinese news services Xinhua — he’s been bearing witness to the destruction while keeping in contact with allies that include people in New Brunswick. 

“I have a large group of friends from Canada. They have been providing support since the war started here. Moral support is very important in the circumstances we are in,” he said, adding that material support is also crucial because of the high cost of necessities, as Israel has blocked aid shipments. 

Connecting Gaza describes itself as "a global network of compassionate individuals united by one urgent goal: supporting Palestinian families in Gaza as they endure genocide."

The network currently supports 27 families in the Gaza Strip with badly needed money while also offering friendship. Volunteers from Canada, the United States and Britain stay in contact with people there via Whatsapp, to help break the isolation of life under military occupation, famine, and daily bombardments.

Fredericton residents Rebecca Burns and Reena Cabanilla are part of the Connecting Gaza network. They expressed sorrow and outrage over the suffering they've confronted through the eyes of people in the Gaza Strip.

"I feel the world has failed Palestinians," Burns said. "What we're doing is a tiny drop, but I do think it is a form of resistance because it's humanizing those who have been dehumanized for so long."

"I definitely feel rage and anger that our leaders are not doing enough to stop this," Cabanilla said through tears.

The initiative was launched by David Mivasair, a retired rabbi who lives in Hamilton, Ont. He said it has raised more than $500,000.

“Every penny we get goes to people in Gaza,” he said, adding that those who cannot donate can also contribute. “They can just bring their love for their fellow human who just needs somebody to listen to them, pay attention to them while they’re going through such suffering.” 

The retired rabbi noted parallels between the Holocaust and the catastrophe currently underway in the Gaza Strip. “After concentration camps were liberated, sometimes they would go into the barracks, and they would find scrawled on the wall: 'If only someone knew.'”

This video features interviews with Burns, Cabanilla, and Mivasair, along with photos and videos provided by Jawad. You can find more of his photojournalism online. 

Instagram: www.instagram.com/rizek_eldremle
Facebook: www.facebook.com/rezek.eldremle

To support Connecting Gaza, go to www.connectinggaza.org/donate

To read the full article, go to nbmediacoop.org

David Gordon Koch is a journalist with the NB Media Co-op. This reporting has been made possible in part by the Government of Canada, administered by the Canadian Association of Community Television Stations and Users (CACTUS).