As conditions continue to worsen in the Gaza Strip under Hamas rule and a crippling Israeli blockade, residents are increasingly trying to flee the enclave, sometimes with tragic consequences.
But one case, in particular, has shone a light on the desperation suffered by those remaining in the coastal territory.
Tamer Sultan, a 38-year-old father of three, left Gaza in May to seek dignity and free life. But three months later, his lifeless body was being returned home.
Thousands of Gazans gathered in front of his home in the north of the Gaza Strip on Sunday, waiting for his body to arrive from Bosnia and Herzegovina, where he had moved. His corpse had been transferred to Turkey, then to Cairo and after that to the enclave.
He died of leukemia on August 17 after what the Palestinian Authority’s Interior Ministry said an autopsy showed to be leukaemia.
Those who came to bid the father farewell called him “the martyr of emigration”. The circumstances around his death remain unclear as his family say he was healthy when he left Gaza.
In a room full of women at the family home, his pregnant wife, 31-year-old Marwa, says she is waiting to see him again so she can say goodbye.
“I hope my children will not experience the life that their father lived,” she said. “I hope they can have a better life. Tamer was hoping to live in freedom and dignity.”, The National reports.
(Photo by: Majd Mahmoud)
