Evacuation - Photojournalist Wesam & Family

Hello.

My name is Wesam Balousha. I work as a photojournalist and sound engineer located in Gaza.

I live and work in the Gaza Strip. Life has taken a drastic turn for the worse and our lives have been turned upside down with the sounds of screams and pain, with non stop bombardment. Broken limbs blown up children and destroyed homes.

Today I say enough is enough. I do not want my children my family those I love to suffer the same dire fate that so many innocent civillians have. I cannot bare to watch my babies die or suffer the trauma of losing us. They have seen as children what war veterans are afraid to see. A lifetime of therapy won’t cure what they have gone through and witnessed. So I’m not allowing them to see any more.

I am trying to evacuate my family. Because of the frenzied war on Gaza. My family, which consists of fifteen members, half of whom are children, has been displaced again and again from one house to the next from tent to tent and often with hardly any clothes no food no winter wear.

From time to time, we move from one place to another in search of safety. Safety does not exist only terror, death, destruction, starvation and war torn land. No love no hope and pure devastation.

Safety ceases to exist in Gaza. Therefore, we are now looking for a place outside Gaza to find a spec of safety for the rest of our lives maybe we can have some moments of peace that may undo what we have gone through. May be undo it a little or just enough so that we don’t have nightmares of death and worry every moment that this will be our last.

Perhaps we will not have enough time to leave. Perhaps this is a wasted effort as at any moment ITF could raid Rafah and we will be exposed to death or worse injury with no medicine anaesthetic or hospitals. Unfortunately a fate worse than death.

However we put our last smidgen of hope in you, the people, as perhaps through your help we can escape to safety in some way.

If you can’t donate please share our message with others who can. Just share our message as it may be the last message we send out.

Thank you from the depths of my heart for caring, reading understanding and trying to remove our pain with a glimmer of hope.

May god bless you all.

Wesam