In Gaza, 2009, the GEO team’s Bana house was destroyed in an attack

The house I stayed in during Geo News’ 2009 coverage was destroyed today, Beth Hanun and this memory-filled home now stands in ruins. International journalists including the Geo News team were allowed to enter Gaza after waiting at the Rafah border for two days.

As it was a total blackout and the roads were deserted upon entering Gaza, cameraman Azeem Ahmed Khan and I decided to head north from Rafah to Beit Hanoun, where the famous Erez crossing is located, meaning we covered the entire forty-kilometer strip. From the south to the north, they traveled in a dark and tense atmosphere.

For this purpose I chose the famous and central Salah al-Din highway in Gaza, I remember that the day US President Obama was probably being sworn in and the date was probably January 20, 2009.

The taxi driver charged a whopping 100 dollars and we preferred to stay at our translator’s house. Engineer Muhammad Al-Masri’s well-educated family and children who were always ready to help helped us every moment during our stay. Relatedly, recently when a story about tunnels in Gaza was put on digital media, it can be seen how Omar grabs my arm while I descend into a deep tunnel and says be careful Ali.

Sometimes in Beit Lahia, sometimes in Zeitoun area, sometimes in Shifa Hospital, sometimes in UN-run schools, reports on Palestinian refugees were everywhere. Al-Masri family’s Omar and his older brother, Jaber, were with us.

Be it a report on the historic mosque or the Israeli currency or gas shortages, a report on Israel’s cutting down of olive trees, or a review of Gaza’s infrastructure, including the Omar Mosque, from drivers to roads, streets, all kinds of difficulties, or good restaurants. The selection was the work of Omar and Jaber, probably the head of the family, engineer Muhammad Al-Masri, had strict instructions to take special care of the guests.

The children were subject to their father’s orders at all times, even at night it might have become their duty to ensure our ease until bedtime. Had a chance to eat sweets, I don’t like sweets but I will never forget the sweets of Gaza, a funny thing, Umar was listening to Ali Haider’s old song “Dekho kehin hai kya babat Chandni Raateen”. Once, while going to Bait Laihia, I translated the English song to Umar and told him that I am your translator today.

The buzzing and surveillance of Israeli drones while recording on the roof of his house was a concern at first, but then we got used to it. Omar enjoyed teasing and fighting with his brother Helmi, the Erez crossing on the Israeli border was visible from the roof of the house.

The Begum of Engineer Muhammad Al-Masri not only fed me delicious food but also gave me a prayer place as a gift on the occasion of my leave.

After the start of the war, Umar Bait Hanun, with his young daughter and pregnant wife, stumbled through Dar Badr to the Nusirat camp, and sometimes with great difficulty could be contacted by messenger. He could not bathe and eat for a week. He never shared the problem of drinking with me, I used to mention to my begum about the problems of Omar, a computer engineer from Gaza, with a prayer request because there was nothing else I could do.

In this regard, we made some diplomatic contacts so that the three brothers of this family could be evacuated from Gaza as soon as possible, but nothing could be done. We were in contact with their father Muhammad al-Masri in America or our second translator and Omar’s brother Jaber Al-Masri living in Salwania. How Omar can be expelled from Gaza.

Umar rarely mentions hardships and hunger, but he was very worried about his unborn child, then suddenly a bomb fell on Nusirat camp, a bomb that was followed by blood and screams, Umar and his wife barely had children. He wrote mercy for him even in destruction and hopelessness.

A beautiful daughter was born to Umar, he told me that this is my fighter daughter, the daughter was about to arrive that Umar’s immigration case from America was approved immediately, yet the strange Egyptian creatures at the Rafah border wanted Umar. 5 to 10 thousand dollars.

Even in these circumstances, this was the shameful attitude of the Egyptians on the Rafah border. Omar’s brother Ahmed has refused to leave Gaza even in the heavy bombardment, as if it were like the scene of the 2006 movie Apocalypto that the hero says that it is my Gaza. I am the son of this Gaza.

After a bomb fell in Nusirat camp, the daughter was supposed to come, Omar left Gaza, but another bomb erased the traces of this beautiful house in Beit Hanoun, which was part of our beautiful memory.

For the first time, it felt like Israel had directly harmed me personally, because if there was one place outside of the country that I longed to stop at again, it was engineer Muhammad Al-Masri’s house with Bait Hanun.