Glimpses of GAZA

01/11/2024

The Greatest Man in Gaza follows Muslim refugee Omar Skaik as he tries to protect his family, help other refugees and maintain friendships with his Christian friends in Gaza. Donation link at the end of the story.

https://dissidentvoice.org/2024/11/the-greatest-man-in-gaza/

01/11/2024

My next story in the Glimpses of Gaza series has been published by Dissident Voice. It follows the trials and tribulations of Salahdeen Fares Yosuf as he struggles to care for the stray cats of Gaza while trying to stay alive during a genocide and protect himself and his family.

Nine-year-old Jana ignores the gunfire in the distance as she carries a cardboard box across the sand. The box contains her best friend: a four-month-old orange-white kitten that bears her name and cuddles with her when the bombs are falling. A few meters behind her, her twelve-year-old sister Nada....

15/09/2024

I wrote this story about Emad, a great human being, and the wonderful dog Shuhaybar, whom Emad shared his life with while his wife and child were separated from him. Please share this to your profile and with as many people as possible to help him survive and lift his spirits. His Go Fund Me link is at the end of the story.

Emad, a thirty-five-year-old Palestinian man, has a dog named Shuhaybar. He’s a small, white fluffy guy with hair hanging over his eyes. Americans call him a West Highland White Terrier. Emad calls him a friend. He looks completely out of place in Gaza, yet somehow he fits. Maybe it’s Emad’s h...

10/09/2024

The story of Gaza refugee and widow Alaa Jamal is told in this story I wrote that was published in the online magazine Dissident Voice in August.

Alaa Jamal’s pain and suffering is wound so tightly around her heart that it shields it from all the horrors she’s lived through. So even though she’s in the crosshairs of Netanyahu’s hatred’s sights, her heart beats unceasingly, in defiance of what the Occupation has done to her. Otherwis...

01/08/2024

The Sidra Project verifies fundraisers in Gaza. Go to them to get verified or to find refugees who have already been verified and are fundraising.



https://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=61561852061252

A grassroots organization promoting Palestinian relief campaigns ❤️🖤🤍💚 Currently at Capacity

https://linktr.ee/_TheSidraProject

26/07/2024

My new article in the Glimpses of Gaza series was published in Z Network. This is what the subject of the story told me after she read it:
“Eros, I read it. You wrote my story as if you were living with me. Did you know that I cried with every line I read? I recalled the events as if they had just happened. I cried a lot, but this is the reality and I am forced to accept my lot. Thank you for being with me🙏❤️‍🩹❤️‍🩹.”

During the massacre for hostages deal enforced by the Israeli military in Nuseirat, Gaza on June 8th, 2024, Fatima Jamal messaged me: “We are in danger

26/06/2024

This is my new article on Gaza refugees called "Between Rage and Despair" about Fatima Amhed Qadeeh.

“I curse you!” Fatima Ahmed Qadeeh says. “I curse you hypocrites! You live off the blood of Gaza!” On the surface she’s angry, because I haven’t been able

17/06/2024

To Whom It May Concern, I AM LOOKING FOR SOMEONE TO CREATE A GO FUND ME PAGE FOR MY GAZA REFUGEE FRIEND GHADA AKA MEMP JAY. https://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=61557112224297

I specialize in helping refugees inside Gaza and publishing their stories. I have had my articles on them appear in online magazines, had an article written about my work with them featured in the American-Jewish magazine, Moment, and will be interviewed for a forthcoming podcast on refugee mental health in June. In addition I have a couple of more articles on refugees that will be published in magazines this summer. I am writing to you now to tell you about one of my refugee friends, Ghada Shanab.

Ghada was a successful woman and mother who worked hard as an English teacher and bought her own house where she and her parents and three daughters lived. As a single mother she was hit really hard by the Israeli Defense Forces (IDF) invasion of Gaza. Her house was bombed and she and her family narrowly escaped. Since that day they have spent the entire war fleeing from place to place with little but the clothes on their backs. Although they have escaped death many times, they are now in a desperate state with the increasing scarcity of food and other necessary supplies since the invasion of Rafah. Before the war Ghada’s mother had surgery on her back and knees, while her father suffered from diabetes, kidney stones and high blood pressure. Today they live in a tent in the town of Deir Al-Balah that bakes like an oven in the summer heat, and they are constantly bothered by insects—including scorpions, flies and mosquitos among others which make the children itch and leave rashes. There is a lack of clean water to drink, let alone to bathe and to keep cool with. Her parents have not received medical care since the war began, and the food supply has been dropping sharply since the closure of the border crossings in May. The only reason Ghada’s family is still alive is luck. But that luck is running out, and her family goes hungrier by the day. Hence, Ghada, like many other refugees, has turned to asking the outside world for help. She has no money and even a small amount would allow her to buy the necessary food, clean water and other supplies for living. The rest of the money would go towards rebuilding their lives once the war has ended.

These are before and after photographs of her apartment (that she found online). It was a wonderful place that she worked hard to build from scratch. Now it is all gone and her only wish in regards to it, is to visit Gaza City one last time to see its remains. Instead, IDF quad copters shoot anyone who spends to much time traveling from one place to another.

These are her precious daughters who used to be happy children that excelled in school. Now they cling to life in a barren tent in the middle of Gaza. It seems almost impossible that they will be able to follow in the footsteps of their mother who graduated with a BA degree in English from Al-Aqsa University in 2008.

If you have any questions about Ghada you can reach me via the contact page of my website for helping refugees https://erossalvatore.com/

08/06/2024

Last night I got these messages from my friends Lolo and Fatima of the Jamal family. Lolo is a widow with two young children. Fatima is her sister. I hope they are still alive and not injured.

01/06/2024

The American-Jewish magazine Moment did an article on my online video meetings with Gaza refugees and those trying to help them. It’s called A Zoom Room With A View: One Man’s Window Into A Rafah Refugee Camp. Scroll below article to find Go Fund Me links to the refugees mentioned in the article.

You can read it here: https://momentmag.com/rafah-refugee-camp/

The family of Diana Hamada at https://gofund.me/67eac389

The family of Samar and Omar Al-Sadi at https://gofund.me/d6a5dcb2

The family of Maryam Hasanat at https://gofund.me/9e6745b9

And my co-host for the meetings, Omar Skaik and his family at https://gofund.me/66dfcdb0

Also, among the refugees I am helping:

The family Rawan Al-Jadi. Rawan is in the eighth month of a pregnancy with medical complications. You can find out more at https://gofund.me/226de26a

The family of Alaa Jamal. Alaa is a widow and mother of two young children who lost most of her relatives, as well as her husband, during the war. Alaa has gone from 70kg (144lbs) to 52kg (114lbs) since the war started, and her children have had to go to the hospital to get treatment for severe malnutrition. Her three-year-old daughter Sanaa contracted Hepatitis A and can no longer eat on her own. You can find out more here: https://gofund.me/d0591059

Since February, Eros Salvatore has been a lifeline for Gazans seeking to escape Israeli bombardment of Rafah refugee camps.

27/05/2024

Poetry and Recipes from Gaza Refugees struggling to stay alive.

This is the poetry and recipe edition of the Gaza refugee weekly meetings held from March to May 2024. Poetry and Recipes can be found here: https://docs.goo...

25/05/2024

Reminder: the final Gaza refugee meeting of the spring will take place Sunday, May 26th at noon Pacific time (10pm Gaza time). This week we will be focusing on poetry and recipes from my faithful refugee friends.
Here's a poem in Arabic. It will be translated into English by Sunday. Skip to 1:15 for girl and poem.
https://fb.watch/shmyKAxkZu/
Zoom Link for May 26th: https://us06web.zoom.us/j/81639371200

21/05/2024

Hello, I hold a weekly Zoom meeting with refugees who live inside Gaza and Americans. Our final meeting of the spring with take place Sunday, May 26th at noon Pacific time (10pm Gaza time). This week we will be focusing on poetry and recipes from my faithful refugee friends. Here is a link to the May 19th Meeting (featuring most of the poets and cooks who will be in May 26th's Poetry and Recipe Season Finale) https://youtu.be/tjry8gRX1G0

Comment or DM me for May 26th Zoom Link.

You can find out more about me and my work with Gaza refugees at my website www.erossalvatore.com

This is one of our best videos and features the family of Maryam Hasanat, a young mother with a complicated pregnancy she carried throughout the entire war u...

10/05/2024

This is a video from my latest zoom meeting with Gaza refugees. Luckily, every one of them and their families survived this week’s onslaught of Rafah.

https://youtu.be/Y5Ue8lDCMtk?si=_RNxCaaYbt6kx4FF

Please forward to those interested in what we’re doing.

Every Sunday at noon Pacific time until the end of May.

Please DM if you would like to attend the meeting.

This is the best video, so far, of our meetings with refugees inside of Gaza.

06/05/2024

I HAVE TERRIBLE NEWS:

Tonight they dropped these leaflets in Rafah ordering people to evacuate. It says

"Calling for all people who exist in these neighborhoods, the IDF soldiers working so hard against the terrorist organization that is near to you. If you stay you are putting yourself in danger. For your safety the IDF is calling for you to evacuate to Al-Mawasi. We warn you not to move back to Gaza because it is still a war zone."

Unfortunately, this area that they are evacuating includes the Rafah border crossing where all humanitarian aid is coming in from!
This one was bitten by my friend Omar's daughter Mimi. Yesterday we had raised enough money to get Omar and his wife and three children across the border. Now they will not be able to go, since it takes 20 to 30 days to get a registration date.

You can follow Omar's story on my website: https://erossalvatore.com/

04/05/2024

Anwar Ghilan who was the subject of my first magazine article on Gaza refugees was evacuated to Egypt with his wife and son yesterday. Here is a photograph taken at the gate at the border.

19/04/2024

If you are interested in talking with refugees who currently reside in Gaza, I host a weekly zoom meeting on Sundays at noon PST with them. This week will be talking with Anwar who I wrote about in the following article. He is also was the focus of a New York Times video on refugees in Gaza. Please send me a DM and state so in the comments so I can give you the zoom link.

Another family died yesterday. A dozen families die everyday. They usually manage to pull a few bodies out of the rubble. The rest remain. No one has the