‘Unimaginable pain’: Palestinian man in the UK mourns his family, fights for others in Gaza

A 32-year-old Palestinian did not know that he would never see his brother and mother again, that he would keep worrying about the safety of his wife and 6-month-old daughter day and night, when he left Gaza just before 7 October.

Dalloul Neder is one of the thousands of Palestinians whose loved ones have been killed amid ongoing Israeli attacks across Gaza where he left on 21 September last year, some 15 days before the beginning of the “unbelievable destruction” of the besieged enclave.

He moved to the UK in 2017 and lives in Manchester, North-West England. Neder was running a restaurant until he had to close it due to the loss of his family, as he said he “couldn’t be able to manage it anymore.”

On 3 December, his mother, two nieces, brother, and brother’s pregnant wife were killed in an Israeli attack while they were staying at their home in northern Gaza.

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Neder is not only mourning for them, but he is also worrying about the safety of many others, as 20 of his family members, including his wife and 6-month-old daughter were also injured in the same attack.

He is grieving, but Neder has also been fighting for other Palestinian families who have lost their loved ones in Gaza. He attends marches and campaigns and holds speeches to call for a ceasefire in the face of atrocities that Palestinians are suffering right now in Gaza.

“We need to build pressure on the government to take serious action to stop the genocide and demand whole nations, Western countries to make a pressure rather than supporting and providing Israel with the weapons,” Neder said in an interview with Anadolu.

He said they also demand the international community to ask for a ceasefire immediately to save these lives in Gaza, noting that there has not been any serious action until now.

“I lost five members of my family in Gaza but we are fighting for the rest of people, not only for my family. My family members were a part of 25,000 that have been killed up to now in Gaza,” added Neder.

‘World never act seriously to stop this genocide’

Neder said he was recently able to speak with his wife and brother who are currently in North Gaza, where he said the situation is “catastrophic”.

“It is already famine there that people couldn’t find the food, water and electricity. That’s obviously since 7th of October, they couldn’t manage to get electricity,” he noted.

He added that his family finally managed to get potatoes and tomatoes after days, defining the desperate hunger as a “weapon” used by Israel.

“Up to now, we haven’t seen any food trucks or humanitarian aid trucks crossing to north Gaza where thousands of people are suffering, struggling for food, electricity and medical treatment in north Gaza,” he said, referring to insufficient volume of aid that is not meeting the need of Gazans in the north.

International community, including UN agencies, has repeatedly called for more aid flow into Gaza, while Israel continues to attack starving Palestinians awaiting the aid trucks.

“When I see the photos and the footage for Jabalia where I grew up, I couldn’t realise that my house used to be this. The house has been demolished completely. This is something indescribable, unbelievable, unimaginable,” said Neder.

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He added: “You will never imagine the pain in this thing until you go and see by yourself. It is really unbelievable, the amount of the destruction and the atrocity the Palestinians are suffering right now in Gaza.”

“The history did not start on 7 October,” said Neder, recalling that Palestinians have been suffering under Occupation for decades since 1948.

“We have been humiliated, slaughtered, killed, massacred by the Israeli government and the world (has) never acted seriously to stop this genocide,” he said.

Rather, Neder said, 7 October just “opened the eyes” of the rest of the world to let them know about the Israeli atrocities on the Palestinians in Gaza.

Dragged out of Labour meeting

He recently made the headlines after being forcefully dragged out of a Labour Party meeting in Stockport, near Manchester. After entering the venue, he talked about his loss and criticised the Labour Party for not calling for a ceasefire.

The footage shows Neder, saying: “I have lost my family in Gaza,” while holding photos of them.

“They have been in the same path and the same, the same strategies with the Conservative Party,” said Neder, referring to the Labour Party’s stance on Gaza.

Angela Rayner, the deputy leader of the Labour party, was among the participants in the meeting where she remained silent while Neder was dragged out.

He said people cannot put pressure on the government to call for a ceasefire if Labour Party, as the main opposition, is not doing so.

“I have received lots of messages, lots of support from the community from the whole people around the world,” he said, thanking everyone who has expressed sympathy with him.

“My message to the rest of the world is to keep fighting and make pressure as much as they can  … to make things happen and to make (sure) the ceasefire (is) taking place,” said Neder.

He also called on everyone to keep boycotting all Israeli products, adding that they need to put pressure in every single way.

Israel launched a deadly offensive on the Gaza Strip on 7 October, killing at least 27,000 Palestinians and injuring over 66,000. Nearly 1,200 Israelis are believed to have been killed in the Hamas attack.

However, since then, it has been revealed by Haaretz that helicopters and tanks of the Israeli army had, in fact, killed many of the 1,139 soldiers and civilians claimed by Israel to have been killed by the Palestinian Resistance.

The Israeli offensive has left 85 per cent of Gaza’s population internally displaced amid acute shortages of food, clean water and medicine, while 60 per cent of the enclave’s infrastructure has been damaged or destroyed, according to the UN.

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