Germans in Gaza fear for their lives: "Get us out of hell"
German-Palestinian Mazen Eldanaf has been waiting for days at the Rafah border crossing in the Gaza Strip for the redemptive news. He systematically goes through the new departure lists, says the 61-year-old.
But once again, his name and that of his wife were not on it. "Hundreds of citizens from all nations are allowed out, but we're stuck here," says Eldanaf, who has lived in Bonn with his wife for 43 years and is now stuck in the war zone.
Eldanaf actually came to Gaza to visit his family, he explains. As a car dealer, he can combine business with pleasure. They wanted to stay for a maximum of ten days. To meet his four brothers and his sister. But the family visit turned into a nightmare.
He and his wife Khitam hadn't slept for almost four weeks because of the Israeli bombs. "I want to get out of here," says Khitam in a weak voice on the phone. "There's no life here, it's just death. You can only smell death, you can only see death, there is no life here," says the social worker.
The worst thing for her is that her four adult children in Germany don't know whether they will ever see their parents again. "My children can't work, they can't concentrate because they can hear what's happening in Gaza. No one knows if we will get out alive."
30 Germans left the coastal area
Several hundred Palestinians with German citizenship are currently still in the war zone. According to Egyptian figures, a total of around 7,000 foreign nationals from 60 countries are waiting to leave the country.
Only a few Germans have so far been allowed to flee to Egypt from the ongoing Israeli air raids. According to the Foreign Office, more than 30 Germans were able to leave the coastal area on Friday, compared to a "low single-digit number" on Wednesday.
"one bomb, everything destroyed"
Khitam Eldanaf and her husband have fled several times in recent weeks, she continues. She hopes that the German government will react soon and get them "out of hell".
However, her concern for the other family members in the Gaza Strip without a German passport would naturally remain. The situation as a whole is shocking. "People who have saved for 30 years for an apartment - with a bomb, everything destroyed," says Eldanaf. "More than 9,000 people dead."
Reproaches to politics
Mazen Eldanaf reproaches the German government and Foreign Minister Annalena Baerbock in particular. For years, he had voted for the Greens, a party that stood for peace.
Now he is only disappointed by the lack of support for his departure. "Nothing happens, inquiries to the embassy go unanswered," says Eldanaf. His children in Germany are also getting nowhere. Nobody listens to them.
He and his family are deeply rooted in Germany. "We have businesses, employees, pay taxes, vote, but when it comes to our salvation: nothing," says Eldanaf. He has heard from Egypt that the Egyptian government is very unhappy with the German government's stance in the conflict. "And this is now being borne on our shoulders," he reproaches.
The Federal Foreign Office in Berlin said that "intensive" efforts were being made to enable more German citizens to leave the Gaza Strip. The efforts would continue.
But 75-year-old German-Palestinian Jamal Abdel Latif also reproaches the German embassy in Ramallah. "Answering an email can't be too much in a situation like this," complains Latif, who studied at the Technical University in Berlin in the 1980s. The only thing he heard was: "We warned people not to go into the area".
Escape to the south
Latif's home is actually in the city of Gaza in the north of the coastal strip, he says. He fled to the south with his wife and two of his children. He now lives 25 kilometers away with relatives in the city of Dir Al-Bala. "Only temporarily," says Latif. He is determined to leave the country. "As soon as our names are on the list, we'll make our way to the border crossing," he says.
The journey was very dangerous. There are also regular bomb attacks in the south. "The Israelis said, flee to the south, we fled to the south and what happens, they keep bombing here," says Latif, repeatedly talking about "mass murder".
One problem, he says, is that his wife's Palestinian passport has expired. "We didn't expect this war, we didn't know, otherwise of course we would have tried to get an extension." He would not leave the country without his wife.
He therefore sent the notarized wedding certificate to the embassy, but received no response. "I can't go to Rafah without knowing that my wife will also cross the border."
He does not know what will happen next for him and his family. "Going back to Gaza would be our death sentence," says Latif. Is his house still standing? He thinks so, but he has heard that there was an impact in his street. The window panes were shattered. But he doesn't feel safe in the south either.
A few days ago, his niece sent her 10-year-old son to a store to charge his cell phone. There has been no electricity in the houses for a long time. The store was in a high-rise building. Suddenly, an Israeli bomb hit the tower block and it collapsed completely. "My niece's son was just gone, just gone, all the people in the building, just gone." That showed him once again that he had to get out of Gaza.
- Despite the departure of 30 Germans from the coastal area, many German-Palestinians, like Mazen Eldanaf and his wife, are still trapped in the war zone in Gaza, longing for diplomatic intervention to facilitate their escape from the Middle East conflict.
- The ongoing conflict in Gaza has led to countless casualties, including elderly German-Palestinians like Jamal Abdel Latif, who are now fearing for their safety and seeking a way out, but find little support from their home country's diplomacy in the region.
- As the situation in Gaza worsens, several families, including the Eldanafs and the Latifs, become entangled in a web of conflicts, waiting for a breakthrough in diplomacy to escape the devastation of war and, hopefully, reunite with their families in Germany.
Source: www.dpa.com
