There are currently 18 citizens of from Bosnia and Herzegovina (BiH) in the devastated Gaza, and besides them, another 21 people who have a family relationship with our citizens requested evacuation from the BiH embassy in Cairo. They hope to survive the evacuation. The embassy says that they are doing everything in their power to make it happen as soon as possible.
Only that the bombing and suffering stop, is the main thought of the citizens of BiH who are in Gaza. They are waiting for evacuation in fear. It’s hard to live on the West Coast these days, either. Bosnian Selma Nazal lives there with her family.
“My family is fine, thank God. We don’t need anything, just for it to pass as quickly as possible and for them to open the borders so that it is possible to get out anywhere. We want to go out but we can’t you know? We hope that this will end as quickly as possible”, told Selma Nazal.
Ghasan Husni, who lives in Tuzla, is also from Palestine. Making contact with acquaintances is often an unfulfilled thought. He rarely succeeded at that these days.
“This friend of mine that we hear from has a satellite and we hear from each other briefly sometimes. Communication and the Internet are turned off. There is no communication in Gaza, civilians cannot be protected, it is not possible to go out to save people, not even an ambulance… now people are left to fight for themselves and if there are victims, they take them to hospitals,” says Ghassan Husni.
Many of them do not survive. Majed Maarouf learned that five members of his family have died so far. He calls every day and searches for information. He also contacted BiH citizens.
“I had contact with them four days ago. I hope they are well. One part of them is at the border crossing, two from Zenica who are Palestinians are there, I hope they are well, but how well can they be when it is like this is the real question”, said Majed Maarouf, from the Association of the Palestinian Community in BiH.
“Here we are talking about 18 citizens of BiH, the rest are in a close relationship with the citizens of BiH and they are applying on that basis. I have just received messages from the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Egypt, in which it can be seen that there may be some hint that the evacuation could happen relatively soon”, adds Sabit Subasic, Ambassador of BiH in Cairo.
Civilians in Gaza live in that hope, watching the horrific scenes. Meanwhile, solidarity is being shown in BiH. Citizens are particularly affected by images of wounded and killed children. The association Pomozi.ba launched an action to help the Palestinian people. So far, they have collected even more than a million BAM.
“To be exact, so far, we have paid 250 thousand BAM for three international humanitarian organizations that will distribute, two of them are located in the southern part where there is no bombing, they will distribute food, water and basic necessities”, said Maja Arslanagic, from Pomozi.ba.
The help that is necessary. But for now, help is not reaching those who are most in need. In isolation, they await the outcome of the situation and hope that it does not mean their death.
Photo: AA
