Two families who had come down to Sri Lanka from Gaza together with Palestine Ambassador in Sri Lanka Dr. Zuhair Dar Zaid. Pic by Waruna Wanniarachch

By Yohan Perera and Chathuranga pradeep Samarawickrama   

Two displaced Palestine families who had managed to arrive in Sri Lanka yesterday said they have become helpless after losing everything they owned in Gaza as a result of the conflict which has killed scores of people since October 8 last year.   The two families according to Palestine Ambassador in Sri Lanka Dr. Zuhair Dar Zaid are of both Sri Lankan and Palestine origin. Mothers of the two families are Sri Lankan Muslims.   

“We had no passports and the Sri Lankan Embassy helped us to get passports,” 16 year old Saeed al-Habash told local media.   

“We had to leave our home and spent one night in a mosque. Then we had to take refuge in schools till we came to Sri Lanka.  “ I am helpless as I have no income to live. 

My children are affected more by the conflict. Their education had come to a standstill. It is difficult for them to start up their education because of the language issue.  My intention now is to get my husband also to come to Sri Lanka. We are currently living in Kegalle. However my children want to remain in Colombo,” Saeed’s mother Sithi Suiheina said.   

Fathima Rikaza the mother of Rithaj said she and her family suffered immensely as a result of the conflict. “We also had to move from place to place. We were asked not to send children out of the house and then we were told to evacuate. We had to stay at a school but we had to leave there as well as it was bombarded. We had to abandon my mother-in-law.  We were living in Sri Lanka initially but I had to go to Palestine as my husband’s mother fell ill. We had to go and live with her,” she said relating her ordeal.   

Dr. Zaid thanked the Sri Lankan government for helping the two families to escape from the Gaza Strip. “We appeal to the international community to see that peace prevails in Gaza. Israel wants to push the Palestinian people out of their homeland. 

There is genocide in Gaza which has to stop. People there have gone through enough trouble,” he said. He said some 23,000 people have been killed so far in Gaza.