SURVIVAL & WAITING FOR PALESTINIAN DESTINY 2024

January 1, 2024 = 86 Days of Genocidal War in Gaza, driving Muhammad’s family and millions of Palestinians into a few bombed-out square miles of Gaza Territory. For the Ismaels, forced from their home in Deir al Balah to Khan Younis, from there to the edge of the Sinai Desert in Rafah, and now to a “tent camp,” their daily norms have been thirst, starvation, illness and sheer terror as Israeli weapons rain down destruction. Muhammad’s messages resume with this new page.

Lina, Muhammad, JoJo, Dina and Ghada Ismael 5 months ago in their new home

“…DECEMBER 26—

“Hello brother, I hope you are well and healthy. Today with the dusk, my close friend Tawfiq’s family have arrived here in Rafah, while tomorrow my larger family is supposed to come also. History is repeating itself—for tomorrow my father, who is 75 years old, will walk from Deir Al-Balah to Rafah, just as his mother walked from our ancient village Shaphir to exile in Gaza in 1948. Happily, today I learned from Tawfiq that, according to some eyewitnesses, our former and beloved home in Deir al Balah is still standing on its foundations, with only some minor damages…”

JANUARY 1, 2024—

“Good morning ( Kalimera ), dear brother . I hope you are having a sunny day, the winter sun is so brilliant and so healthy. We are sitting here in the schoolyard at Rafah to enjoy the sunshine. Somehow we are well and the children remain healthy. Of course, brother, when this painful suffering is over we will do a lot of things for the memory of Saleem al Nafar. Right now I am perplexed, as I cannot believe that he really passed away with all his innocent family. Unfortunately, their bodies are still not retrieved, they sleep under hundreds of tons of rubble. Saleem was Palestine’s best poet, he has a huge number of followers in the Arab world, his last book is supposed to be published next month in Cairo—and I am so sad that he will never see or touch this book. Nothing new here in Rafah, as we go on waiting for an unknown fate. But despite all the hardships, we are strong and still doing our best to keep ourselves alive. Please eat well, sleep well, be happy and smile all the time. We are all sending you our big LOVE and kisses .”

Poet Saleem al Nafar (3rd from left) shares in discussion of Muhammad’s groundbreaking 2023 book Fedayee & The Sea, a record of Palestinians fleeing the atrocities of 1948 by sea.

MUHAMMAD’S YOUNGER BROTHER AND BROTHER-IN-LAW MURDERED BY ISRAEL’S BLIND ARTILLERY BOMBARDMENT

JANUARY 3, 2024—“Hello dear brother. Yes, we are weeping all the time for our painful loss of my younger brother Ahmad. He was so brave, powerful, and strong, I predicted this in his character when he was little child, that’s why I nicknamed him ‘Abu Sakher,’ or Father of the Rocks. Ahmad was a genius, speaking fluent English: he studied engineering, and he worked as a freelancer through the internet. Ahmad’s birthday was December 25th and he was murdered on December 31st. He was 26 years old. Recently he wrote on Twitter, expecting his death: ‘We have been dying slowly for the past few days, watching our loved ones being obliterated left and right while waiting for our turn. It seems we have to witness all the insane horror and imagine new ways of death every hour, before we really die. Although we are facing a total genocide, somehow we are feeling stronger than any human being on the planet. And that is something I will take with me to the grave.'”

Muhammad Al Alem—“He was my brother-in-law (my sister’s husband). He was 29 years old, with two children (a boy named Hassan 4 years old and a daughter named Juri 2 years old ). Muhammad studied law, he worked as a water supplier (bringing people water to drink). Muhammad had been an orphan since his childhood, and now his two little ones also are orphans.”

JANUARY 5 2024—

Hello dear brother, we hope you and Angie are well, healthy, and happy. Today, we are going to leave this school shelter in Rafah and move to a camp of tents. We are told that there is no internet service in that area, so please do not worry about us, we will be OK, but there will not likely be any messages from us. In the meantime, we LOVE you all and send our hugs and kisses .”

JANUARY 11—

Dear brother, here you see Jojo beside our tent in Rafah near the Egyptian border. Our situation is not good, it is cold and raining here, and last night we slept over wet ground. While the fighting is some distance away, we do have some food and water, and we are well, dear brother. I will send you more photos and news when I have access to the internet again. We are sending our LOVE and kisses to you, Angie, and our dear friend Vicky too. “

It is now 11 days since Muhammad‘s last message on January 11th. Meanwhile Israel’s military has killed dozens more Palestinian civilians, demolished Gaza’s main university, and their minister Ben Gvir (convicted of racism in Israel) tells news media that “Everything is ours”: that Palestinians might like to “migrate voluntarily”—to Scotland.

The total blackout of phones and internet in Gaza can only mean that Israel does not want the world to see what they are doing now. Perhaps Muhammad’s family–if they are lucky—have been “relocated” already into the Sinai Desert not far from their last known location in Rafah.

Over 2 million refugees huddle there today: Al Jazeera cameras show supply-trucks waiting “as far as the eye can see” as Israel slowly searches each one for dangerous items such as chocolate (and if any are found, the entire truck is disqualified). Reports describe spreading hepatitis and jaundice, desperate hospitals with no antibiotics or anaesthetics, scarce poor food and worse water.

Please support South Africa’s case against Israeli genocide in the ICJ, make your human voice heard, and keep the Ismael family (along with all their people) in your heart. But, what is done is done: the Joint Terror State of USrael will never, ever wash so much needless blood, suffering and destruction from their hands.

Israeli white phosphorus (an outlawed weapon) burns in the courtyard of Muhammad’s beloved former home in Deir al Balah, Gaza. Photo by Muhammad Ismael October 2023

JANUARY 26, 2024—

“Hello dear brother 💙, internet service was cut off all the previous 14 days. We are living in our tent in Rafah (somewhere in the wilderness between the urban city and Egypt’s border). We have lived and still are living this tough and bitter life, but we are lucky that our children Jojo, Dina, and Lina are in good health. We are doing our best to keep ourselves alive and the children warm and healthy. I will write you more after I charge my mobile battery, it is approaching 2 %. We are all sending our LOVE and kisses to you and Angie 💕💞😘❤♥💖.”

JANUARY 26—

“Good evening dear brother, we hope you and Angie are well and in good health. I am storing in my mind a very huge amount of information and details about our current tragedy: after this war ends we will need too many meetings and video-chats in order to present all of it. We are so grateful for the Irish people, because they sent us big amounts of purification tablets: we add one tablet to each gallon of our unclean water and it makes it pure, healthy, and drinkable. Wheat flour has become available, also milk, oats, macaroni, and lentils. We were lucky also to find good thick jackets for our little daughters Dina and Lina. Most simply, we are taming our pains and trying to adapt ourselves to our ordeal. We will be careful, dear brother, and we love you and Angie more than words can express .”

JANUARY 27—

“Good morning, dear brother, we hope you and Angie are well and healthy. Today, bulldozers and rescue teams are supposed to start working in Saleem [al Naffar’s] neighborhood [to the north in Gaza City]. We hope they will retrieve the bodies of Saleem, his wife, his son, and his three daughters, in addition to Saleem’s brother (named Salamah), his wife, and his five children. [Our page here of Saleem’s poetry, Visions of Hope, has our #1 readership around the world this week.]

“I am so proud and so happy with your work on WordPress, so many Americans (like the beautiful Burmahl family) are taking it a reliable source for what is happening in Gaza. I have sent you photos from outside the tent, but we prefer not to take photos of the inside. We are sending our LOVE and kisses to you and Angie .”

JANUARY 29—

“Good morning, dear brother. We are so anxious about the recent news that we listened to this morning through Israeli radio. They are threatening that the ground invasion of Rafah will come soon, within a few days. I do not know whether this will really happen or not, and if it does, I do not know where we shall go. Some other depressing news reached us from [our former home in] Deir al Balah, that our house was hit with three tank shells. I do not know whether our house is damaged or not. But, do not worry about us, brother. We are powerful like the camels of Sahara, who can challenge thirst, hunger, heat, and thorns of the way.

“Yesterday Jojo was asking me with his innocent-thinking imagination, ‘Papa, are you talking with uncle Jack? Is he still alive in this war and shelling? What happened to his cats?’

“We are sending our LOVE and kisses to you and Angie .”

JANUARY 31—

“Good morning, dear brother. Today the weather is sunny, a good opportunity for our tent to dry, and for us to charge our flesh and bones with some warmth. Right now, there is no Israeli ground invasion in Rafah, we have only artillery shelling the eastern parts of the city. Also, however, the United Nations Relief Works Agency (UNRWA), the Red Cross, and other international associations have been alerted and ordered by Israel to evacuate the city. People here are afraid of what is going to happen in the coming days, they are very anxious about their fate. Tell Angie, please, that her tears for our situation are more precious than pearls. We are all so very tired of this life, we wish we could really rest, but we are strong with the tireless support from you, Angie, Vicky, and all the other friends around you. I will keep you updated with our latest news. JoJo laughed from his heart when I told him your message about your cats sending him and his sisters a great big “Meeoww!” We are well, dear brother, and we all send you our LOVE and kisses .”

MUHAMMAD’S MESSAGES CONTINUE (HOPEFULLY)…