In Palestinian camps in Lebanon, the struggle in Gaza rekindles traumas – Cyber Tech

Because the compelled exodus of just about half of the Palestinians in 1948, when the State of Israel was created, the lifetime of Maha Morra’s household, initially from the Haifa area, has been one lengthy story of dispossession and dispersion. The specter of violent dying continues to lurk: Considered one of Morra’s sisters, Cheikha, lives within the Gaza Strip, amid Israeli bombs.

“Her son Hani was killed in an airstrike whereas in search of meals for his youngsters. One other, Mohammed, perished in a earlier battle. My sister needed to depart her ruined house in Khan Yunis. She’s exhausted, she’s struggling psychologically,” mentioned Morra, within the preschool the place she is a supervisor, in Bourj al-Barajneh, on the outskirts of Beirut – one of many 12 Palestinian refugee camps in Lebanon.

For her, the struggle in Gaza has a private dimension. The battle additionally rekindles previous traumas: Three of Morra’s brothers have been killed within the Lebanon struggle (1975-1990), and she or he has skilled shifting from one camp to a different amid the destruction.

Cheikha, she mentioned, left Bourj al-Barajneh for love in 1982. That 12 months, the Israeli military invaded Lebanon. Some 12,000 males, most of them fighters for the Palestine Liberation Group (PLO), have been compelled into exile in different Arab international locations with their chief, Yasser Arafat. In addition they included activists comparable to Khodr Fayad, a Fatah-affiliated journalist from Gaza and Cheikha’s fiancé. In Yemen, the couple began a household. In 1994, following the Oslo Accords, Arafat entered Gaza. Following him, Fatah members who had been expelled from the nation settled within the enclave. Fayad and Cheikha have been amongst them.

Greater than 32,000 Palestinians, most of them civilians, have been killed in Gaza since October 2023. “You do not have to have family there to be revolted by Israel’s struggle of annihilation,” mentioned Morra, who hasn’t seen her sister in 30 years.

‘They lack all the things’

Within the camp, portraits of Arafat, in addition to Fatah and PLO pennants, are in all places. Nonetheless, now, alongside the primary road, there are additionally posters of rival Hamas figures, comparable to Abu Obeida, the spokesperson for the Islamist motion’s armed wing. Within the slender, poverty-stricken alleyways, the place tangles {of electrical} wires obscure the view of the sky between buildings, Hamas is written all around the partitions, in spray paint. “Not everybody has turn out to be a Hamas supporter. However Abu Obeida made us really feel that we Palestinians may have a state. That the two-state resolution may lastly be carried out! However Israel would not need it: Earlier than [the Hamas attack of] October 7 [2023], Gaza was suffocating. Within the West Financial institution, Israeli abuses are steady,” mentioned Morra.

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