Faced with conditions on the ground, Shadi Saleh, a 41-year-old Belgian-Palestinian, had no choice but to leave the Gaza Strip. Thanks to his Belgian passport, he is now safe in Louvain, where he has been reunited with his wife and children. But to do this, he had to leave his Palestinian family, for whom he constantly worries. I was able to meet him. Here is his story.
“I lived in Belgium in the past but returned to Palestine with my family consisting of my mother, my brothers and sisters and their children.“, begins Shadi Saleh.”My wife and children were living in Louvain, Belgium, and I was a project manager in Gaza, waiting for them to join me in Palestine. Enabel (Development Agency of the Belgian Federal Government, Editor’s note)”.
Shadi Saleh, who lives in Gaza, and his family are used to the sound of shells: “This is not the first time that bombings have escalated. I already saw some in 2014. In 2021, I was in Belgium, but some were in 2012, 2018… It keeps repeating itself.“. But lately the battle has intensified in earnest: “The first events took place on Saturday 11 November. Suddenly explosions were heard everywhere… a lot of things happened“, he explains.
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