'No food, no drink, no water': Misery in the south for refugees from Gaza city


Nagham Mohanna
  • English
  • Arabic

Palestinians who fled Israel's advance on Gaza city are arriving to hunger and despair in the south, despite Israeli claims that "generous humanitarian aid" would await them.

Under the scorching sun and the constant danger of hunger and thirst, thousands of displaced families in Gaza are struggling to survive in makeshift camps that offer little more than strips of cloth and wood for shelter.

Mohammed Ghabboun, 38, reluctantly left Gaza city for Deir Al Balah after Israel stepped up operations in his neighbourhood, Sheikh Radwan. “If a person is alone, they might manage somehow, but when you have a family and children, the burden is much heavier," he said.

He recalls spending more than five days “literally in the open” before finding a spot in a camp along Gaza's coast. With his wife and six children, he built a fragile tent from scraps of cloth and wood. No one, he says, has checked on them since.

“No food, no drink, no water,” was how Mr Ghabboun described his conditions.

“We’re sitting in extremely harsh conditions that no human being can endure. If it weren’t for the danger in our area, I would have gone back. But my children make me constantly think: if something happens to one of them, I will never forgive myself, nor those who brought us to this state.”

Israeli troops are mounting a new offensive to capture Gaza city, and have declared the entire area a "dangerous combat zone", ordering civilians to leave. "Every family that relocates to the south will receive the most generous humanitarian aid," the army claimed last month.

Israel dropped leaflets on Gaza city ordering people to move south. AFP
Israel dropped leaflets on Gaza city ordering people to move south. AFP

Many Palestinians were reluctant to leave despite a famine in Gaza city, fearing an Israeli design to relocate them permanently. But Israel has ramped up pressure on civilians to head for Al Mawasi in the south.

One refugee in Al Mawasi, Ibrahim Abu Warda, 56, fled with 21 relatives – his children, their spouses, and his grandchildren – only for the family to find themselves crammed inside a tent far too small for their numbers.

“All the money we had, we spent on transporting our belongings and on the price of a tent,” he told The National. “Now, we can’t even find food. Since the start of the war, we have been dead, not living.”

The family had briefly returned home during a truce, believing their ordeal was over. But the resumption of violence forced them to leave once again. In Al Mawasi, Mr Abu Warda said, water is scarce, and aid rarely reaches the people who need it most.

“Everything gets stolen before it arrives. No one is checking on us,” he said. “I only hope the war ends as soon as possible, so we can return to our normal lives, go back to our homes, and live with stability, happiness, and peace.”

Palestinians transport their belongings along a coastal road to the south of Gaza. AFP
Palestinians transport their belongings along a coastal road to the south of Gaza. AFP

For Nasreen Al Ayyoubi, 34, a mother of four from Al Sabra area of Gaza city, displacement has been more humiliating than she could ever have imagined. “The conditions are harsher than a human being could ever describe,” she said.

“No proper water, no food, no aid, no bathrooms, nothing that preserves human dignity or feelings. Everything is humiliating people in ways no one can imagine.”

Ms Al Ayyoubi resisted leaving her home for weeks, hoping to avoid the indignities of camp life. But when the gunfire and shelling intensified in her neighbourhood, she and her family were forced to flee. They ended up in Deir Al Balah, pitching a tent on relatives’ land.

“Everything is far from basic services, no water, and we have to walk a kilometre just to bring some,” she explained. “We’ve been displaced for nine days now. The children haven’t bathed or cleaned properly because there’s no water and no hygiene supplies. We hear about aid, but we never see it.”

What remains, she said, is unbearable heat, suffocating air, and a life stripped of the most basic human needs.

Mercer, the investment consulting arm of US services company Marsh & McLennan, expects its wealth division to at least double its assets under management (AUM) in the Middle East as wealth in the region continues to grow despite economic headwinds, a company official said.

Mercer Wealth, which globally has $160 billion in AUM, plans to boost its AUM in the region to $2-$3bn in the next 2-3 years from the present $1bn, said Yasir AbuShaban, a Dubai-based principal with Mercer Wealth.

Within the next two to three years, we are looking at reaching $2 to $3 billion as a conservative estimate and we do see an opportunity to do so,” said Mr AbuShaban.

Mercer does not directly make investments, but allocates clients’ money they have discretion to, to professional asset managers. They also provide advice to clients.

“We have buying power. We can negotiate on their (client’s) behalf with asset managers to provide them lower fees than they otherwise would have to get on their own,” he added.

Mercer Wealth’s clients include sovereign wealth funds, family offices, and insurance companies among others.

From its office in Dubai, Mercer also looks after Africa, India and Turkey, where they also see opportunity for growth.

Wealth creation in Middle East and Africa (MEA) grew 8.5 per cent to $8.1 trillion last year from $7.5tn in 2015, higher than last year’s global average of 6 per cent and the second-highest growth in a region after Asia-Pacific which grew 9.9 per cent, according to consultancy Boston Consulting Group (BCG). In the region, where wealth grew just 1.9 per cent in 2015 compared with 2014, a pickup in oil prices has helped in wealth generation.

BCG is forecasting MEA wealth will rise to $12tn by 2021, growing at an annual average of 8 per cent.

Drivers of wealth generation in the region will be split evenly between new wealth creation and growth of performance of existing assets, according to BCG.

Another general trend in the region is clients’ looking for a comprehensive approach to investing, according to Mr AbuShaban.

“Institutional investors or some of the families are seeing a slowdown in the available capital they have to invest and in that sense they are looking at optimizing the way they manage their portfolios and making sure they are not investing haphazardly and different parts of their investment are working together,” said Mr AbuShaban.

Some clients also have a higher appetite for risk, given the low interest-rate environment that does not provide enough yield for some institutional investors. These clients are keen to invest in illiquid assets, such as private equity and infrastructure.

“What we have seen is a desire for higher returns in what has been a low-return environment specifically in various fixed income or bonds,” he said.

“In this environment, we have seen a de facto increase in the risk that clients are taking in things like illiquid investments, private equity investments, infrastructure and private debt, those kind of investments were higher illiquidity results in incrementally higher returns.”

The Abu Dhabi Investment Authority, one of the largest sovereign wealth funds, said in its 2016 report that has gradually increased its exposure in direct private equity and private credit transactions, mainly in Asian markets and especially in China and India. The authority’s private equity department focused on structured equities owing to “their defensive characteristics.”

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