The bitterness of displacement and segregation from family; Salman Mortaja, a displaced from Gaza

Salman Saadi Mortaja is a Palestinian displaced elderly, currently sheltered in a tent in Al Mawasi aread in Khan Younis, which the Israeli Occupational Forces (IOF) has repeatedly so considered to be a “safe humanitarian zone”. Alongside dozens of other families, Mortaja lives in a displacement camp, facing a dire situation with the scarcity of survival services.

Originally from the Turkmen neighborhood in Gaza’s Shuja’iyya district. After enduring several long and arduous displacements over recent months, Mortaja now lives, along with his wife and his daughter in a tent provided by the Social Developmental Forum (SDF), in partnership with ShelterBox.

Reflecting on this hardship, the displaced elderly says: “Being forcibly displaced from one place to another is an exile on its own. A process of torment, away from home, which is no longer there. My home has been destroyed, and became a matter of the past.”

When asked about his current status, Mortaja expresses saying, “Being displaced means that you are homeless with all that it holds of pain and alienation. My children are segregated in different places. Everyone is scattered away. We don’t know when we’ll be reunited, or how we’ll survive until we meet. It is a severe level of instability. Sometimes it takes months to be able to hear from any of them. No communication, no internet, nothing is available.

Mortaja has been displaced more than 15 times, moving between homes and tents, and streets without any basic utilities, fleeing bombings and missiles. The repeated and prolonged Israeli evacuation orders have left the family with no option but to flee with nothing but the clothes they wear.

This is probably my fifteenth of sixteenth evacuation. I evacuated from Gaza City to Nuseriat in the Middle Aread, then to KhanYounis in the South, and then to Rafah, where I moved from to Nusirart again, and then to the Mawasi area in KhanYounis.

Salman Mortaja

He adds, “We live in long-term suffering under a tent. Only Allah knows what we have been enduring. There’s no source of breadwinning and no hope except in Allah

The operations team at the Social Developmental Forum (SDF) visited Mortaja in Mawasi Khan Younis and reported his disastrous conditions where Mortaja, along with his family, were sheltered in a place that lacked the minimum humanitarian standards; extreme heat, inconvenient stay, no privacy, and lack of basic supplies. Those unbearable conditions prompted the team to provide him a shelter assistance after validating the family’s situation.

Regarding the aid he received, Mortaja said, “The tent we received is a crucial helping hand. It is a convenient and well-equipped shelter for my family.”

Highlighting his former living conditions, Mortaja says: “We endured extreme hardship, intense heat under the scorching sun, lack of water, electricity, food, and other essentials. SDF provided us with mattresses, utilities, and fundamental facilities. The tent is suitable and comfortable and equipped with proper ventilation and other services.”

Mortaja and his family are looking forward to returning to their home in Shuja’iyya to reunite with their children, who have been scattered across various displacement camps. Even though many of his neighbors, friends, and relatives have perished as a result of the aggression, he hopes to reunite with them and rebuild his life.

Is there a light at the end of the tunnel? we asked him. Mortaja replied, “Hope is always there. I have faith in Allah, not in negotiations or declarations, because the news and the international community don’t really know what we have been through.