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Gazans Solace Themselves

By Ola Attallah, IOL Correspondent

GAZA CITY — Um Ahmed's children are crying.
The Gazan mother gets up to bring some food to feed them, but finds nothing.

"Do you have some bread," Um Ahmed asks her neighbor.

"Here you are," answers the neighbor, Um Khaled, extending her hand with a number of bread loaves.

"If we didn't stand by each others, who will stand beside us?"

Long queues in front of bakeries have become a normal site in Gaza, home to 1.6 million people, because of Israel's choking siege.

Only 14 of Gaza's 47 bakeries are operating and are operating at a very reduced capacity, according to the World Food Program.

Sameya, a mother of seven, was happy to find wheat flour to bake into bread.

But the happy moment evaporated as she did not find gas to stove the bread.

"Let's stove it at our neighbor's house," says her husband.

A few minutes later, the husband returns home with the ready bread.

"Our solidarity solaces our pains," says Sameya.

"It is magnificent to stand one hand against injustice and suppression, hungry and siege caused by the Israeli occupation."

Solidarity

Abu-Sami gives money to his needy neighbors.

"We have to work to ease our pains and wounds," he told IslamOnline.net.

Abu-Anas has donated clothes and blankets for Gazans taking shelter at UNRWA-run installations.

"I'm planning to donate more," says Abu-Anas, who owns a carpet shop in Gaza.

"Many of my friends also donate for the needy families. It's a mercy of Allah to be hand-in-hand."

Amgad, a pharmacist, has donated dozens of bottles of milk for poor Gazan families.

"I'm not alone in doing this," he told IOL.

"Many pharmacists do this. There are doctors who also donate medicines for helping the wounded.

"Gaza is bleeding and the only cure is to join hands."

Israeli troops killed 822 Palestinians and injured 3,350 others in two-week deadly attacks in Gaza.

Thousands of houses and buildings have also been destroyed in the Israeli blitz.

Abu Ghaleb hosted his relatives at his house, who fled their homes over the Israeli attacks.

"At these critical moments, standing together will not allow Israel to break our will," says the defiant Gazan father.

"Our unity will defeat the occupation."

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