The first Finns were able to leave Gaza for Egypt on Wednesday. It is known that there are still at least six Finns in the area.
One of them is a 24-year-old woman whose relatives have not been able to contact her for almost three weeks.
According to the woman’s brother, she lived with her spouse in the Jabalia refugee camp in northern Gaza. Israel has bombed the area heavily and ordered residents to evacuate.
– According to the last information, they have left home, but then there has been no information, the woman’s brother who lives in Finland Abdulwahad Almaqadma says in a telephone interview.
The relatives have tried to reach the woman in every possible way through friends and acquaintances, but in vain. Internet connections have been widely disrupted in Gaza.
The brother says he is very worried about the sister.
– Now we try to live in the hope that he is fine, Almaqadma says.
Consular Head of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs Jussi Tanner says that it cannot confirm information related to individual people. It has been very difficult to reach some of the Finns in Gaza because of the disconnection.
Already when the woman disappeared, the electricity and water supplies in the area had been cut off. According to the brother, the house of the woman’s in-laws had been destroyed in the bombings.
Abdulwahad Almaqadma’s wife is also currently in Gaza. The wife is Palestinian, so she has virtually no chance of getting out of the area. Egypt only allows the evacuation of foreign nationals and badly wounded Palestinians.
Almaqadma follows the news about the bombing of Gaza with anxiety.
– I also try to contact my wife all the time and ask if she is okay, Almaqadma says.
The woman and her brother have Palestinian roots and were born in Gaza. The father of the family got Finnish citizenship after living in Finland for a long time in the 1980s and 1990s.
Before the war, a woman who graduated as a laboratory technician and lived in Gaza all her life considered moving to Finland.
– I said it’s a good idea. He could have fun here and start a family in a good atmosphere. Not to be in a war zone, brother Abdulwahad Almaqadma says.
Fara’s father is stuck in Gaza
also reached another Finnish relative in Gaza. A Finnish-Palestinian living in Espoo Fara father is stuck in Gaza.
Father had gone to visit his relatives about two weeks before the war broke out.
Since then, 20-year-old Fara has been able to contact her father and her relatives living in Gaza only through intermittent phone calls and finally individual messages every few days.
The content of the messages is not pretty to read.
– There are a lot of flies everywhere and the whole of Gaza smells like death because there are so many dead bodies, Fara says.
Fara last heard from her father two days ago. At the time, he was in the town of Khan Yunis in southern Gaza, where Israel has urged Palestinians to evacuate.
– In his message, the father said that there is not a moment without the sounds of explosions.
“No food, no water, no hygiene”
Both of Fara’s parents are from Gaza, and she herself has visited the area several times. In addition to my father, there are currently several relatives in the area.
Fara says that she hasn’t heard from her grandfather for a long time, for example.
– A rocket hit the yard of his detached house, and the doors and windows of the house were blown to pieces while the family was sleeping inside. They had to run in the middle of the night without any belongings to safety, probably to a mosque, church or hospital. I don’t know where they are now, Fara says.
The humanitarian situation in the Gaza Strip is very difficult. The region has not received enough food and medical aid for the more than two million inhabitants of the region. Relatives on his mother’s side have managed as farmers with wheat and olive oil.
– There is just no food or water. If so, the children eat first, then the women and finally the men, if there are enough leftovers. You can’t even maintain hygiene or, for example, flush toilets, Fara says.
Fara says that her father is already 75 years old and suffers from type 2 diabetes.
– I don’t think that he can be treated in Gaza if necessary.
“It is very dangerous to go to the border”
The first evacuations of foreign citizens and some dozens of injured Gazans were started on Wednesday. According to Egyptian and Palestinian officials, about 400 foreigners and dual citizens are expected to leave Gaza during Thursday.
According to the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, no Finns are known to be crossing the border today, Thursday.
However, reaching the Rafah border crossing point is very dangerous due to the constant shelling, says Fara.
– There is no fuel there, so the car cannot move. How does a 75-year-old walk to the border?
Fara says she feels privileged to live in a safe Finland. At the same time, he says that everyday life is currently very difficult to live in the midst of war news.
– The number of dead children in particular is terrible. Going to sleep is absolutely terrible when you don’t know what kind of news you’ll wake up to the next morning, Fara says.
does not tell Fara’s last name for security reasons. His identity is known to .
Corrected 2.11. at 18:29: Added information that Egypt allows the evacuation of not only foreigners but also the badly wounded.