Under the scorching sun and the blaze of fire, the Palestinian displaced woman, Umm Yaqoub, is preparing bread in the southern Gaza Strip, in a scene that embodies the suffering of Palestinian displaced people who live on the brink of poverty amid war and destruction. Umm Yaqoub narrates that she has been displaced from north to south, and works daily in the bread profession to collect the food of her children, explaining that she collects cartons and paper from here and there to set fire to people and bake for people in return for a small wage. According to a report broadcast on Al Jazeera Mubasher, Umm Yaqoub continues her work despite her deteriorating health conditions, as she suffers from diabetes, pressure, heart and kidney problems. To manage her family’s affairs. Umm Yaqoub asserts that the smoke affects her chest and causes her respiratory crises, but she does not have another option in the absence of work and lack of income.
She adds that the heat here is “like fire on top of fire,” as the sun’s scorching heat adds to the oven’s intensity. But she has to persevere despite everything because she has children and a household to support.
Um Yaqoub explains that her husband is married to another woman and lives in the north, while she is in the south with her children, making her their sole provider. She is forced to work despite her illness to manage her family’s affairs and buy her medication.
Speaking about the war, Um Yaqoub recounts losing more than half of her children, who were killed. Her four-story house was completely destroyed. “We were displaced from the north to the south,” she says. “We were baking while the shelling was overhead, and we saw the martyrs with our own eyes.”
She recalls a horrific incident when she was baking for a girl and the girl was shot in the shoulder. This incident deepens her feeling that the war is not over and that the situation is worsening day by day. Umm Yaqoub describes her psychological and physical state as one of collapse, saying that joy has disappeared from Ramadan, Eid al-Fitr, and Eid al-Adha, and that all days have become filled with sadness and pain. She appeals to the world, stressing that the Palestinian people are tired and need rest, but she emphasizes that she will remain steadfast on her land and will not give it up.
