Update on Amgad Al-Mahalwi and his family Written by Doug Hostetter, PCI International Representative
July 1st, 2024
Amgad Al-Mahalwi (35) and his wife Qamar (25) and their two sons, Majd (4) and Ibrahim (2) are Palestinians who lived with their extended family of about 50 in a compound of houses near Gaza City before the war. I have known Amgad for over a decade, becoming acquainted when I was the Director of the Mennonite Central Committee United Nations Office, and Amgad was on the staff of the Al-Najd Development Forum, one of the Palestinian development organizations that the Mennonites supported in Gaza.
In earlier articles, I have written about how the family decided not to move south as ordered by the Israelis when the war began as several of Amgad’s extended family had been killed trying to travel south as ordered. Amgad had been forced to move to five or six different homes and schools, each time being forced to leave due to Israeli shelling or bombing in the area. They ended up in a classroom on the third floor of the Umar bin Aas School near Gaza City, which was attacked, and the classroom where Maged’s extended family was staying was hit by a tank shell, killing Amgad’s father, his sister and an aunt were killed along with 27 other people in the school that day. Amgad’s wife and two children were wounded, so amid the shelling, Amgad took his wife and children to find medical help.
For two months, I heard nothing from Amgad and worried that he and his family had been killed or captured by the Israeli Defense Force. Then miraculously, on January 26 I got an email from Amgad that he and his family had arrived in Rafah in the South. He and his family had walked almost the length of Gaza, staying in schools, hospitals or mosques along the way.
Amgad bought wood and nylon and built a tent for his family in eastern Rafah and was able to receive food and water assistance from the UN and international NGOs working in Rafah. A few weeks later, on Feb 12th the Israeli Defense Force rescued four Israeli hostages in Rafah while bombing and shelling much of the rest of Rafah, killing 67 Palestinians (including in a man in a nearby tent), to distract attention from the hostage rescue effort. Amgad’s family lived peaceably in Rafah for the next three months, until May 6thwhen Israelis ordered everyone to leave from eastern Rafah, and a few days later, after several dozen Palestinian civilians were killed in eastern Rafah, Amgad and his family fled to Khan Younis, acity just 5 miles north of Rafah. People may remember that when Netanyahu announced that the IDF would be attacking Rafah, a city that had 1.4 million inhabitants, Biden and the UN both warned it would be a war crime to attach the densely populated city, but President Biden said it might be permissible to attack Rafah if accommodation were made for the hundreds of thousands of people who would be displaced. The IDF did attack, and no accommodation was made for the displaced refugees.
I got these messages from Amgad a few days after his move to Khan Younis.
“I tell you, no water here. There are no international NGOs or UNRWA to help with food and water. We need to buy all of our food from the market and a little potable water to drink from the street”.
I asked Amgad to give me more details last week.
“The conditions here are difficult and the situations are more difficult. The first is because of the extreme heat while we are in the tent. It becomes hot and we also need water, but it is difficult to obtain it. We walk long distances to get it and we buy it even though it is not healthy. The important thing is that it is a little drinkable.
It also means preparing food. There is no gas. We go to buy firewood and light a fire and prepare everything on the fire. This costs money and the fire with the strong sun makes everything hotter.
It is also difficult to get vegetables and meat because they are very expensive. I try to manage my affairs and buy only the most important food and clothing for the children. You also know that when there isbombing, the children pee in their beds out of fear.
We left Gaza City after the bombing and the clothes we werewearing were covered in blood when the classroom where we were staying got hit. So we don’t have many clothes, and the prices of clothes are very expensive.
Almost my whole family that is still alive is with me in our tent in Khan Younis.
I have my mother and stepmother, a younger brother and a sister and a second brother, who lost his eye in the shelling that also killed his wife, so I am also caring for his children.”
Now pray. I don’t know where to go. They say go back, and the borders that will be struck are close. I want to know whether the fragments of rockets and missiles know where they are going. We are sleeping in a nylon tent that will not protect us from missile fragments. Also, mobility is not good now because we do not know where to go. Every place costs us fatigue, effort, dismantling, and building new tents, as well as new costs, and the road is not safe.”
I asked if there was any suggestion as to where people should go. Amgad responded,
“They say to go to the west of Khan Yunis. The question is, when we enter from the east and the blows strike, the sounds and the shrapnel will reach the west as well. All the displaced people are now in Deir al-Balah and west of Khan Yunis, and the people have become so numerous that there are no places for new people to settle.”
I asked Amgad how many of his relatives are actually living with him now in Khan Younis. He responded:
“We all 16, including 6 children under 6 years of age
I love my family and need to try to keep them safe.
Every day has its meaning. I thank God, since the family is fine and safe and I am working hard to care for them. I am fine”
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