When IOF launched their continuous attack and bombardment on Gaza 7th October 2023, Nobody would have thought the siege would continue till today. It has been 384 days since Israel announced to the world ," We are annihilating the Palestinians in front of your eyes". To be honest, I cannot see any end of this except the end of Gaza and Palestine from the map of the world. It is such evil that is ongoing and the world continues to just witness the cruelty and insanity happen.
Gaza has always been my ultimate goal - to enter. As you can see from my posting 10 years ago, the mission with AP did not materialised and since 2014 - no medical team from Malaysia had entered Gaza for humanitarian relief. The heartache from 2014 remained as a scar and the what have nots that I did not achieve.
Mercy Malaysia toyed with this idea since November 2023, but I was sceptical as I knew it was almost impossible for Malaysians to enter Gaza. I joined MSF with the thought that I would be able to enter the holy land with an established NGO. MSF did not expect my entrance to be denied as well - and when sought after the reasoning for rejection it was the passport. FYI Malaysia is one of the really few countries who blatantly print in our passport that WE DO NOT RECOGNIZE THE STATE OF ISRAEL. There are a number of countries who do not, but not all are brave enough to have it PRINTED clearly on the first page to show our solidarity in not recognizing the illegal occupation.
I was updated regularly by Prof Shalimar and the possibilities of going to Gaza- in the beginning no details were given except that of whether I am willing to commit to this mission. Mercy Malaysia was recently recognized as a WHO field hospital type 1 - an accreditation they went through in the past few years starting off before Covid. I have to admit I am guilty of not having to help them directly then despite being a part of their EMT initiative for so long. And it is through this ticket that MM was involved in various meetings with WHO-UN regarding providing medical relief in Gaza.
It was definitely a "race" - The Malaysian Government had to streamline all the NGOs who supports palestine under the OPS IHSAN initiative. It was in a way a good thing to do as coordination is upmost important to ensure that we can streamline the funds properly rather than repeatedly doing the same thing. One thing that the government was not keen for direct intervention by NGOs into Gaza. Wisma Putra issued few memos stating clearly this in forbiding NGOs to enter Gaza. Well obviously, what is still happening is the danger and high risk conflict situation until now. There is no UN nor any neutral forces in Gaza - just plain one way attack by the Israel towards Gazans. Obviously, its a very dangerous place to be in the world right now.
MM organized a 2-3 day short course/orientation just before 2024 to those who had given their names to volunteer for Gaza mission. It was held in MM HQ in KL. I only to managed to attend the first night but had to go back to hospital the next day for emergency work! It was during this course that we were STRONGLY advised by the army to NOT GO TO GAZA because of its high risk security situation. Since then I was not sure of what will be the outcome of this proposed mission.
However, (I can still remember clearly that day), I received a sudden phone call by Pak Azam on FT day (1st February). It was a public holiday and we were at no 10 for lunch! It was the usual gathering by wifey/s family for makan-makan. My heart raced when I saw Pak Azam.s name on the screen. I knew he was in Cairo because I followed up MM FB closely since the start of the Gaza War.
Pak Azam asked if I can commit myself for this mission as there seems to be a way for MM team to enter Gaza. Without hesitation I said Yes. I said Yes count me in. I made the decision just like that because it was 10 years in the making. It was not a decision made in the haste of time - I have visioned to do this one day and I will not find any excuse to the team offering me the ticket to go to Gaza.
