in Paris, the personal drama of the Palestinian ambassador, Hala Abou Hassira
“Every time a bombing is announced, I scan the names of the martyrs. With, always, this fear that my last name will appear among the list of victims. I’m trying to find out where the bombing took place. Next to our building? Far ? Which street was affected, which family? I never thought I would experience moments like this. » Hala Abou Hassira is the ambassador of a territory in tatters and a pulverized city, her own: Gaza.
On November 5, the Palestinian head of mission in France, in office for two years after having been stationed in Belgium and Canada, described the unspeakable on the social network X: “We have just buried thirty of my cousins, their children and grandchildren. Twenty-eight are still under the rubble. »
Requested by The world, Hala Abou Hassira, 47, recounts the hours that have passed since then, her hand clutching her phone in vain. Depending on the complete cuts of telecommunications networks in the Palestinian territory and their partial restoration: “I call Gaza twenty times a day, or more. Sometimes it rings and no one answers. It’s a nightmare. »
Three generations erased by one strike
Met in her Parisian residence on Saturday, November 18, the tested representative of the Palestinian Authority kept her eye glued to the Al-Jazeera channel, where images of the flight of hundreds of civilians waving white flags and those of the carcasses of buildings destroyed by the bombings. She describes the death of those close to her. Three generations erased by a keystroke: “An older cousin, his children, their wives, his grandchildren and neighbors: sixty people were killed when the building was targeted. None survived. »
Gathered in the same house located near the sea, in the port district of Gaza City, a stone’s throw from the Al-Shifa hospital surrounded and since taken over by Israeli forces, the Abou Hassira died without warning from the shots. . Like many Gazan families, parents and children gathered there, some welcoming others fleeing their neighborhoods and streets under fire. “ The Israelis no longer warn before bombing. At first they did. Now they are shooting. Even if they know that there are sixty, one hundred people in the homes they are targeting”, said the ambassador.
Hala Abou Hassira rejects the Israeli army’s assertions that it targeted Hamas cadres during its strikes, and cites the bombing of the Jabaliya refugee camp on 1er November, which left a square of buildings in pieces and dozens of dead and missing: “They said they were targeting Ibrahim Biari (a Hamas brigade leader), the guy wasn’t even there… There is no logic behind this massacre, other than revenge. They want to destroy Hamas, but they are destroying the population and civilian infrastructure. »
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