Update from Gaza

Supplying hope in a hopeless place

Mahmoud was able to get one of those family packages from one of the aid deliveries. Yes, in an ideal world there would be so many of these coming in from 500 truckloads of aid a day that every Gazan family would get one for free, but in this tortured world in which Israel is only letting in just enough to stave off a Sudanese level of starvation (which would be bad for the cameras, you know) the box went right into the black market and costs Mahmoud $400, which I was able to send him because of the generosity of a circle of friends who have begun to help me him him and his family.

I would have loved to breathe easy after this, and for one night I did, but anyone paying attention has to be acutely concious of the possibility that the aid could be cut off again at any moment. So I told him to tell me if any options for buying additional food appeared, and he said, yes, 1 kg bags of flour for $30 each. I debated how much I could send, and what he also needed besides food - basics like shampoo, toothpaste, and most crucially, diapers for his severely disabled brother, which are extremely difficult to find and extremely expensive. So for the $300 I had blessedly received from my now sacred circle of friends, he was able to buy the below, and he sent me this video last night.

I was all prepared to NOW breathe easy, but suddenly occurred to me that they need water to brush their teeth and wash their hair and clothes, and it’s a topic I’ve been afraid to ask about, frankly, for fearing hearing some horror story of brackish water they were forced to consume (like so many Gazans) and about which I could do nothing. Then he told me that a neighbor who lived there before he was surrounded by refugees had sunk a new well when the first cut off occurred, and sold clean water from that. And I asked how much was left in Mahmoud’s water tank, and he said,“Very little.” And the $37 he had left would not cover a refill.

I was all set to slap some more on the Visa—I mean, it’s WATER for God’s sake—and then ding goes my Zelle notificiation, $100 dollars -- in the middle of the night, his time-- sent by high school friend Neil R. - (No last names because he is one of my few Jewish friends who contribute and he might get grief from friends/relatives. But he is a special guy I know all the way from high school who actually broadcast from a peace-themed pirate radio station off the shore of Israel in the 80s.) I don’t know if he uses charitable donations to treat insomnia, but God bless him, as I am at my wit’s end waiting for some substantial client checks and I don’t even want to tell you how much I’ve spent in this undertaking that I never imagined undertaking.

I don’t want to get woo-woo on you, but that Zelle notification was definitely a woo-woo moment. And after I posted this latest video, another contributer, Tony (who, along with his wife, Alaina, I truly adore) commented: “Donating money seems the best way I have to counteract all the just plain evil that seems to be all around lately.” He is the fourth person to write me something very similar. That giving to an organization, however admirable it is, gives you an abstract satisfaction, but giving to real human beings and seeing your money actually keeping them alive is simply a much more powerful sensation. And in the context of the current onslaught of insane news coming from Washington, and the prospect of a very real slide into fascism here, we need to do battle against despair that threatens to submerge us. I think helping Mahmoud has restored to my friends a sense of agency - it certainly has for me.

I get so many texts of Dems asking for money and I would love to support all of them, but I’ve started texting back STOP. I don’t have enough for both right now. Keeping hope alive— and very real humans— in Gaza is simply much more important.

Every morning, or course, I await reassurance that they were not incinerated while I slept. At any moment, an Israeli airstrike could consume them, as it has thousands since Israel resumed this lethal and heartless offensive. They think they are killing terrorists, but they are creating scores more with every killing. Even if you are vehemently pro-Israel, it is strategically stupid beyond all sense.

This is an excellent article about what four years of being the Guardian correspondent in Jerusalem taught this journalist.
https://www.theguardian.com/world/2025/may/29/i-worried-i-might-start-finding-it-normal-but-i-never-did-what-i-learned-as-the-guardians-jerusalem-correspondent

MCO 2025

P.S. If you’d like to buy me a cup of coffee…
https://ko-fi.com/marquismarq