Emad Joha: A long displacement journey land off in Deir Al-Balah
Emad is a Palestinian 60-year-old man. He lives in a shelter tent in Al-Bokhari Camp in Deir Al-Balah, the Middle Area of the Gaza Strip along with his father, his 4 brothers, their siblings, grandchildren, and other relatives. They have endured their repetitive waves of displacements together.
Joha and his family have fled more than five times. For the first time, they had to leave their home near “Al Tayran” crossroad in Gaza to Al-Nuseirat Camp in the far north of the Middle Area, which despite being so-designated as a “safe zone” by the Israeli Occupational Forces (IOF), they had to leave it under fire, heading to Khan Younis, only to be chased by heavy raids that forced them to return to Al-Nuseirat.
Not so long after Joha’s family (over 16 people crammed into a single tent) came back to Al Nuseirat, they had to flee again to Deir Al-Balah as the IOF targeted the neighborhood they were living in shortly after Eid Al-Fitr, following a military escalation in the camp for over two weeks.
“All of us here are unemployed. No one works, and we have no source of breadwinning,” Joha said during his conversation with a Social Developmental Forum (SDF) staff member during a relief intervention of distributing vegetables and food parcels to displaced people in the camp.
Highlighting his family’s immense struggles, Joha explained, “My father suffers from a stroke, and I have a child with diabetes who has no access to insulin doses. I couldn’t even find a single dose all over the Middle Area. I submitted his medical reports to several agencies, but I didn’t hear back from any of them.”
Joha fled Gaza around mid-October 2023, following the IOF’s evacuation orders to citizens of Gaza and the north. “It was a fully-fledged tragedy. We fled to Al-Nuseirat, then to Khan Younis, only to return to Al-Nuseirat again where we were forced to flee to Deir Al-Balah after having all our displacement properties destroyed in an Israeli raid at Al-Nuseirat camp,” he explains.
Joha used to work as a taxi driver in Gaza City. He even lost this modest economic prospect after the Israeli Occupational Forces (IOF) destroyed his car in Al-Nuseirat Camp. “I pulled the remains of my destroyed car out from under the rubble. It doesn’t work anymore. I lost my source of breadwinning.” Joha said.
IOF bombed a mosque, sealing off the entire area. We have been devastated under the rubble. We survived, and we had to flee again!
Describing his recent wave of displacement to Deir Al-Balah, Joha says.
Joha welcomed the reception of a food aid parcel distributed by the Social Developmental Forum (SDF) in collaboration with the Welfare Association (Taawon), within the vegetable distribution project. Taawon and SDF’s representatives could tell the impact of this temporary relief on Joha’s burden. Given the skyrocketing prices of vegetables and food items in the local markets, which he simply can’t afford.
Joha praised the distribution process, saying, “The youth team are very respectful and considerate. The distribution process went smoothly and professionally without violating our privacy and dignity as displaced beneficiaries.”
Joha’s 8-and-a-half-year-old son, Ameer, who suffers from diabetes mentioned that the food parcel gives the family a glimmer of hope.
