November 15, 2023
SEPANG – Starvation, death and anarchy – this is the reality of the people living in the conflict area of Gaza, says Malaysian Nurul Ain Haron, who finally returned home safely.
Tears streamed down the 37-year old’s face as she stepped foot outside the special lounge exit gate of Kuala Lumpur International Airport and embraced her family members on Tuesday (Nov 14) night.
Nurul Ain’s father, Haron Hamim, 65, and mother Mastura Yusof, 61, wore faces of relief as they embraced their daughter who had been performing charity work in Gaza.
But for Nurul Ain, who returned with her Palestinian husband, Mohamed AM Shaat, her experiences in Gaza had traumatised her, as she was seen visibly shaken while talking to the media.
“Even though I received many donations from people, there was no food, no blankets, nothing…,” Nurul Ain said as she broke into tears.
“Every day, people would fight on the streets to buy bread but the biggest bread factory in Gaza was bombed, which made everything worse,”
“We couldn’t even get money as Israel had cut off money supply to banks and even if we could withdraw money, fights would break out among the people and it was an indescribable scene of hopelessness,” she said.
She also recounted gruesome scenes of death that she encountered after one of her husband’s relatives’ house was destroyed by Israeli missile strikes.
“We almost fell into despair when we heard Shahir’s (no full name given) home was destroyed as he had just cooked for us a few days prior.
“We couldn’t even recognise his corpse,” Nurul Ain said as she broke into tears again, adding that the situation in Gaza was far worse than it had been back during Israel’s 2014 intrusion.
The visibly distressed woman then thanked the government for the efforts to bring her home and begged for a ceasefire in Gaza for the sake of her husband’s family that were still living there.