Wednesday 27 / November / 2024
Muscat: Lucky to survive the Israeli bombings, the seven people rescued from Gaza and brought to Oman, narrated their sordid saga of escape.
They were able to survive by changing locations frequently and finally got a safety valve of the Rafah border crossing through which they escaped into Egypt and saved their lives.
In an exclusive interview with Times of Oman, Seema Basher, a mother of three children, spoke about the conditions she encountered due to the war in Gaza.
Seema, an Omani woman, married to a Palestinian, living in Gaza for the last 13 years, said: “We lived in Al-Rimal neighbourhood in Gaza, and our house was destroyed on the very third day of the war. We were forced to move from one house to another throughout the 90 days of our ordeal, until our escape.”
She also said that their dreams were shattered with the bombing of their house. “Years of hard work turned into ruins in seconds,” she said.
The Oman Embassy in Cairo announced on Monday that they were able to evacuate Omani nationals from Gaza Strip in coordination with the Egyptian Foreign Ministry, and the family of five arrived safely in the Sultanate.
Elaborating on her hardships, the 31-year-old Seema, mother of Youssef, 12 years old, Jana, five years old, and Rakan, four years old, said: “We were short of basic needs like food, water, and medicines. Also, the potable water had become scarce, and we received it with great difficulty. We also suffered due to high prices of food products, and got only canned goods. Besides, humanitarian aid was not reaching us on time.”
When asked about the availability of medicines, she said the situation was worse and most of the pharmacies were almost empty with medicines available only in hospitals to treat the injured and the sick. Even the hospitals were running out of stocks.
Seema also mentioned that her mother-in-law suffers from chronic diseases like, and the local administration were not able to meet her needs.
In an effort to save her family, Seema contacted the Oman’s Embassy in Ramallah, which directed her to contact the Omani Embassy in Cairo.
Finally, with the coordination of both the embassies me and my family were safely evacuated from Gaza through the Rafah land crossing. Seema also extended her special thanks to His Majesty Sultan Haitham bin Tarik, Foreign Ministry, the Sultanate’s Ambassador to Palestine, Salem Al-Amiri, and Sultanate’s Ambassador to Egypt Abdullah bin Nasser Al-Rahbi.
She also took the opportunity to express her thanks to the second secretary, Mahfuza bint Muhammad Al-Ghazili, and the staff at the two embassies for their cooperation with her family in helping them get out of the war zone.
