Since October 7, Emad Ismail Hegazi, a 57-year-old Latino from Ghazati, has been living in anxiety in Linares, where he works as a mathematics and chemistry teacher. His wife and three children, all Spaniards, who are in Gaza. For your brothers and cousins. For my people. They suffer daily bombings after Israel declared war on Hamas.

What Shabbat black Hamas invaded Israel and, according to the latest data, killed 1,200 Israelis and kidnapped 241 citizens of various nationalities. In the Gaza Strip, more than 11,000 Palestinians have already been injured by Israeli bombing, most of them children and women, according to the Health Ministry, who are in the hands of Hamas. Emad and his daughter Nour from Gaza City are asking the government of Pedro Sanchez to guarantee the departure of Spaniards like them. There are about 190 of them, including 80 minors. “There are no Spaniards on the lists, which surprises us,” says Nour from Gaza City.

“I experience a lot of suffering, especially because of the little one. Ismail is eight years old, and he is the one who has it the worst. A few days ago he had a fever and they could only give him cold clothes because there is no medicine. He asks me to go and save him, so I demand that the government of Pedro Sanchez give guarantees for my family to leave Gaza,” says Emad Ismail Hegazi.

The family was divided when the coronavirus epidemic broke out. Emad’s wife, Erim, originally from Gaza, remained in the strip’s main city with her two older daughters, Hoda, a journalist, and Nour, a nursing student, and little Ismail. Emad worked as a teacher in Linares, where he lives with his son Ahmed. They returned from the Strip on August 29 to join the new course, with plans to meet for Christmas in Spain.

The problem is how to leave Gaza with security guarantees. “If you go alone, you risk your life.”

Emad Ismail Hegazi, Ghazati Professor of Spanish

Emad came to Spain to study in 1985, and when he received his degree, he married Emir, who was also from Gaza. “All my children were born in Linares. They are Spanish and speak Spanish better than me,” says Emad, who reported everyone’s names to the consulate in Jerusalem. “The problem is how to leave the city safely. If you go on your own, you risk your life. To go south, they need guarantees that don’t exist now,” he points out.

So far, only two Spaniards have left Gaza: Dr. Raul Incertis of Doctors Without Borders, who managed to cross the Rafah crossing on November 1, and Jesus Sanchez, an official with the UN Office of the Special Coordinator for the Middle East. Eastern Peace Process (UNSCO). About 80 seriously wounded were the first to leave the sector, and then several hundred citizens from countries such as the USA, Austria, Great Britain, Jordan, Saudi Arabia, Italy and Japan were able to pass through.

Acting Spanish Defense Minister Margarita Robles acknowledged that there were concerns about the delay in the operation to withdraw Spaniards from the Gaza Strip. “The entire team in Egypt, both from a foreign affairs and a defense point of view, is waiting for permission for the Spanish citizens to leave,” Robles said recently.

From Gaza City, Nur Hegazi, Emad’s daughter, confirms that the family will remain there until there is a device that allows them to move around safely. “We Spaniards ask that all necessary efforts be made so that we can leave. There are different countries that have already removed their civilians, and it seems very strange to us that a country like Spain, with all the resources it has, has still not been able to achieve anything,” says Nour.

The girl says that a week after the start of the war, a Spanish diplomat contacted them. Then they were told that they would have to go south on their own. “Fear forced us to stay. There were people who came to the border but couldn’t leave. What are we doing there? Where are we staying? And the worst thing: on the way they bombed trucks and ambulances,” adds Noor. . “They always give us hope, but the Spaniards don’t come out.”

And before and after 7-O

On Saturday, October 7, the family’s life turned 180 degrees. They stopped going to school, university or leaving home, except to move from one place of residence to another. That same day they had to leave their building because they were bombed right in front of it and their house was damaged. From there they went to their grandparents’ house, but this was also an unsafe place.

There are nights when my little brother says that this will be the last night, that we will all die.”

noor hegazi

“The third time we went to my uncle’s house. There are about 40 of us. There are elderly people, people in wheelchairs and children like my little brother. He is a child, and he gets scared and cries from the noise of the bombings. “There are nights who say this will be the last time, that we will all die. He cries because he wants to be with his father, wants to live a normal life again, go to school and play. We try to entertain him, but he It’s very difficult to disengage from all this horror,” Noor’s account in a WhatsApp audio message. There are communication problems and this is the easiest way to contact Gaza City.

There are victims in all Gaza families. Nour tells us how they are mourning the loss of their cousin, journalist and director Rushdi Sarraj. “On October 22, early in the morning I was at home. The bombing began in this area, and a rocket fell on the house where I was. A metal door fell on my cousin. At first he still survived. was able to transport it due to the bombing. The family took him on foot. First he was in Al-Quds and then in Al-Shifa. He had a daughter, Denmark, who turned one a few days after her father’s death,” Nour recalls.

Emad spends the day on the phone. You need to know how you’re doing. Rushdie’s death was a tragedy. On the first day of our conversation, I was worried about my daughter-in-law losing her home. He is afraid to talk to his young son because he knows how much he needs him. “We have never seen anything like what Israel is doing now. There were missile launches two years ago, but we have never seen such great damage to civilians,” the professor says.

“I don’t approve of what Hamas did, but Israel cannot pay for it with the people of Gaza.”

Emad Ismail Hegazi

According to Emad, “Hamas is acting this way because we have been seeing Palestinians killed in the West Bank and Jerusalem for a long time. And how the ultranationalists entered and occupied Palestinian homes. This was Hamas’s revenge. I don’t share this. We “I knew that Israel would respond. But what we see is beyond imagination. I do not approve of what Hamas did, but Israel cannot pay for it with the people in Gaza. Even the Jews did not take revenge on the Germans like that. That is why am I telling the Spanish government and the EU “to the international community to stop this massacre, this genocide.”

Many, like Emad, believe that this war will not only not destroy Hamas, but will strengthen it. “If they destroyed your family, what are you going to do? How are you going to tell today’s children that we must make peace with Israel, which is bombing their home? They sow hatred in new generations.”