Familiar residential neighbourhoods which Palestinian Sanaa El-Nahhal remembered full of life as a child have been turned into ruins with hundreds of homeless people living in camps.

They hang around hoping for any form of help and tend to the wounded who cannot be taken in by the overcrowded hospitals.

Such scenes were described by Mrs El-Nahhal yesterday on her return from her brief humanitarian trip to Gaza on Sunday week armed with 60 boxes of supplies donated by the Maltese to the victims of the war.

Although the area where most of her family is located has little damage, nearby, where other relatives live, is completely gutted, she said. One of her relatives there died because he could not be taken to hospital since it was full.

"The more I went around the more I saw wounded people and dilapidated homes. As I spoke to people I learnt that, although the news shows a lot of help headed there, it takes long for the much-needed provisions to make it to the people. All the people I spoke to have not received anything yet," she said minutes after landing at Luqa.

"I saw how much they are suffering and feel happy that I did something small to help. Giving them things made them happy and it was beautiful to see. But they need so much more," added Mrs El-Nahhal, who lives in Malta with her husband and their two children.

While there, she bought a computer for her sister, so they can stay in touch "when there is electricity". She was also ecstatic as her brother will "hopefully" be joining her in Malta on Thursday if he is granted an entry visa.

Mrs El-Nahhal began her journey to Gaza on January 18 in an attempt to transport medicine, food and clothing, donated by the government and the Maltese, to her conflict-ridden homeland. Most of her family live in the Palestinian part of Rafah.

Last Tuesday she managed to get through the border but, due to complications, she was only able to take five boxes into Gaza with her. The rest will remain in a garage in Egypt until her relatives manage to transport them.

After a two-day ordeal trapped at the Rafah border she then managed to re-enter Egypt on Friday with the intervention of the Maltese Ambassador in Egypt.

Thinking back to her experience she recalled how she was very happy when she managed to get into Gaza. "It was at night and all my family turned up to greet me. But they immediately started worrying about how I'd get out.

"I knew I'd get out since I am Maltese and had the backing of the Ambassador, but people were worried for me and I too started to worry as I started thinking about my family in Malta," she said as she held a welcome-back bouquet of red roses given to her by her daughter Lina.

The 18-year-old confessed that she was worried when her mother got stuck in Gaza. "It was quite a stressful time for me as I was concerned for my mother but had to focus on my university exams."

Mrs El-Nahhal's husband, Khalid, was also relieved that his wife is back unscathed. "When she gets something in her head there's no talking her out of it," he smiled.

In fact, his wife is determined to carry on working to help the people of Gaza. "I will continue. I won't stop. If I need to go back I will."

Meanwhile, the Maltese yesterday donated about three or four container-loads of provisions, collected in Qormi by the Civil Protection Department.

CPD director Peter Cordina said the supplies will be flown to Gaza this week.

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