Spanish woman trapped in Gaza pleads for urgent help

By Alyssa McMurtry

OVIEDO, Spain (AA) - Islam Hamdam, a Spanish woman living in the Gaza Strip with her family, made an urgent plea for help on Thursday amid constant bombardment.

“I have a three-month-old baby, and I need drinking water to make his bottles. But there isn’t any. There are no diapers, no milk, there’s nothing,” she said amid tears in an interview with Spanish broadcaster Cadena Ser.

Hamdam, a Spanish citizen who got her PhD in nutrition from the University of Valencia and moved to Gaza five years ago, said she has been in contact with the Spanish consulate to no avail.

“We ask the Spanish government to pressure Israel to make an exception and allow us to leave Gaza,” she said. “And if they can guarantee an evacuation, we would need to be sure that it was safe to travel to the border. It’s extremely dangerous right now.”

Hamdam has two young children who are also Spanish citizens. She estimates that there are around 30 Spanish families in similar situations.

She said that the Rafah border crossing, which she would normally use to leave, has been bombed. "Israeli forces aren't respecting anything, not even schools," she said.

Hamdam, who is married to a Palestinian man, is currently living with her in-laws. She said the lively central neighborhood where she used to live, once full of shops and restaurants, has been completely destroyed.

Even though her in-laws are farther away, she said bombs are falling all around them, as everything is “close” in Gaza.

“We are very stressed, our children are in our arms 24 hours a day. They are very scared. They don’t want to sleep. They don’t want to eat,” she explained.

Although the situation is already apocalyptic, she is worried about what will happen in the days to come.

“They aren’t letting humanitarian aid in and they don’t want to. A lot of people lost their homes, wallets, and don’t have anything. But even if you want to buy something now, like food or warm clothes for children, you can’t,” she explained.

On Tuesday, the Palestinian Red Crescent said fuel could run out in five days. Food distributors are warning that reserves could run out in several days.

Israeli Minister of Energy on Thursday insisted that there will be “no electricity or water” in Gaza until the captives Hamas captured last weekend are returned safely.

Meanwhile, Spain’s Foreign Minister Jose Manuel Albares on Thursday said the country had “successfully” concluded evacuations of Spaniards trapped in Israel. Hundreds of tourists or those on business were flown out on military aircraft, but Albares that emphasized Spain would not be evacuating around the 10,000 Spanish residents in Palestine and Israel at this time.

Albares has defended maintaining and even increasing humanitarian aid for Palestine since the conflict began, both at the EU and national level. On Wednesday, he announced Spain will send another €1 million ($1.06 million) in direct aid to Palestine, but how it could reach the people in Gaza is an open question.

Hamdam moved to Palestine to work in a hospital specializing in prosthetic limbs, which she said are needed due to all the conflict and amputations in the region.

Her brother Tamer Hamdan is still in Spain and told the same broadcaster that he is desperately trying to get his family to Spain safely. "It's a feeling of constant fear and helplessness," he said, adding that he has received no response from the Spanish consulate.

In a dramatic escalation of Mideast tensions, Israeli forces have launched a sustained and forceful military campaign against the Gaza Strip, a response to a military offensive by the Palestinian group Hamas in Israeli territories.

The conflict began when Hamas initiated Operation Al-Aqsa Flood against Israel, a multi-pronged surprise attack including a barrage of rocket launches and infiltrations into Israel via land, sea, and air, which Hamas said was in retaliation for the storming of the Al-Aqsa Mosque in occupied East Jerusalem and Israeli settlers’ growing violence against Palestinians.

In response to Hamas' actions, the Israeli military launched Operation Swords of Iron against Hamas targets within the Gaza Strip.

More than 2,700 people have been killed since the outbreak of the conflict on Saturday, including over 1,400 Palestinians and 1,300 Israelis.