Moate resident from Gaza says attacks on his homeland won't end

The destruction and killing unfolding in Gaza over recent weeks is horribly familiar to Moate resident Mohammed Skaik, because he lived through it.

Mohammed's family has been based in Gaza for hundreds of years, and he spent 20 years of his life there, from 1995 to 2015.

The married father-of-three is now aged 44, and has been living in Moate since 2015.

In an interview with the Westmeath Independent last week, he explained that while he was living in Gaza, he was shot by Israeli forces on more than one occasion. He experienced bomb blasts which he said were a "normal" feature of life for the Palestinian people.

Sixteen years ago, a close friend of Mohammed was blown up right in front of him.

"In July 2007, my friend was shot by a rocket. They blew him up in front of my eyes. It took me six hours to take all his body and put it in a bag," he said.

"I went to his mother, who is stronger than anybody. She could see that my hands were covered in blood. I gave her the black bag and said, 'we are sorry'.

"She replied to me, 'I am sorry for you'. Because she knew that I loved him. Me and him spent seven years together. We sat together more than we would sit with our parents.

"Since that time, I don't cry. After that, if I heard that somebody died, I would say, 'Ok, he is at rest now'. Everybody would say, 'Where is your feeling?'. And I say, 'Don't ask about my feeling, my feeling is gone for a long time'."

But he said that changed, and he has become emotional, about what's been happening in Gaza since early October.

The Associated Press reported last week that more than 3,600 Palestinian children had been killed over the previous 25 days, according to Gaza's Hamas-run Health Ministry.

"This year is the first time since then when I cannot stop from crying. Because I cannot do anything," said Mohammed.

"My family here are peaceful, but I wish that I could get inside Gaza just to help people. I tell myself, I would do something for my people."

While his family has always been from Gaza, Mohammed was born in Kuwait. At the end of the 1980s, war broke out between Iraq and Kuwait, and his family moved to Iraq, where they lived before returning to Gaza in 1995.

"The situation in Gaza from 1995 to 2000 was that life was not good, but not bad," he said. "It was stable at that time."

From 2000, it became less stable, particularly after the killing that year of 12-year-old Muhammad al-Durrah, who was shot dead while being shielded by his father amid crossfire between the Israeli military and Palestinian security forces.

Outlining the history of the Palestinian struggle, Mohammed shared a recent article from the Journal.ie by Trinity College adjunct professor Yaser Alashqar.

In this article, Mr Alashqar writes: "The roots of the Palestinian national struggle date back to more than a century.

"Put simply, the evolving events are a direct Palestinian response to a long historical process of colonialism, dispossession, land confiscation and the denial of national rights in Palestine. This process continues to be a living reality in the Palestinian national experience."

A report by Reuters last week quoted United Nations experts as saying Palestinians in Gaza were at "grave risk of genocide".

When asked if he agreed with that, Mohammed replied: "Who cannot agree with that? Because Israel cannot defeat Hamas, they (inflict) huge damage in Gaza."

Mohammed said Palestinian people have not been supported by their neighbouring Arabic states, and he believes the attacks on Gaza by Israel will not end.

"What's happening now, they will never stop. We believe no one is with us, just God.

"What they are doing today and what they will be doing in the future will not finish until all the occupation will be gone from all Palestine," he said.

He said that violence was visited upon the Palestinian people, and that they are peaceful and law-abiding by nature.

"As Muslim people, when we say 'As-salamu alaykum' that means, 'Peace be upon you'. Inside Gaza, normally we don't have violence. Normally we don't have stealing or killing in Gaza.

"Now, in Gaza, we've had 22 days of bombing everywhere. If that happened in some other countries, you would hear about plenty of people rioting, plenty of people stealing... that is not happening in Gaza."

He had been hoping to visit his homeland next summer, but that visit will not be taking place now because too many people he knows have been killed.

"All these people I know there, they are gone," he said.

In a statement last Thursday, President of Ireland Michael D Higgins said: "The ongoing horrific loss of civilian life in Gaza and Israel has to be addressed. It should concern us all.

"Violence by non-State as well as State actors must be described for what it is – breaches of international law. If international law is to be respected, it is important that hostages be released and an immediate humanitarian ceasefire be put in place."

Mohammed said he was lucky to have started a new life in Ireland, and he doesn't believe he would still be alive today if he had stayed in Gaza.

He also appreciates the support and messages of goodwill he has received from Irish people.

"I am glad to be in Ireland, because people here know the meaning of suffering. They know about what happened with people dying from hunger.

"When I meet people here and they tell me they are sorry (about what's happening in Gaza), I can feel that. They understand," he said.