Gaza doctor Ezzeldin Abuelaish, who lost three daughters and a niece when Israeli forces fired on his home in one of the most tragic events of Israeli winter military offensive, is heading for Canada:

Leaving the Pain Behind

Ma’ariv

by Arik Weiss

A few hours before he boards the plane that would take him and his children far away from the conflict and its bitter memories, Dr. Ezzeldin Abuelaish tries to stay optimistic.

His life fell apart one night during operation Cast Lead, when an IDF tank shell killed three of his daughters, but he is encouraged by the support he got from the street.

And even though he chose to leave and live in distant Canada for a few years, he is confident that he will return and hopes for a better future in the region.

“Even before the tragedy I got two job offers, one from the University of Haifa and the second from the University of Toronto, and both I and the children preferred to move to Haifa, but after what happened to us it was eventually decided, eventually, that Canada was a better idea,” he told Ma’ariv a few hours before he left the country. “Nobody should think that I am bailing out, I have more rights in this country than many others and I am the first who will return to Gaza when things improve. I can only hope that this will happen soon.”

The story of Dr. Abuelaish became, for many, a turning point in Israeli public opinion about the military operation in Gaza. Abuelaish, a senior gynecologist who worked at Tel Hashomer Hospital, lost three daughters when an IDF tank fired two shells that smashed the family home. 20 year old Bisan, 15 year old Maiar, and 14 year old Aya were killed on the spot in front of their family; his daughter Shadar, 17, sustained serious injuries.

Dr. Abuelaish, who during the fighting was interviewed by a number of Israeli media and even spoke out against Hamas policies in Gaza, called Channel Ten reporter Shlomi Eldar and begged for the lives of his children on the air.

The horrifying conversation presented the distress of the Gaza inhabitants in sharp focus, and led to agitated responses in the Israeli street and around the world.

“Until now, there was not a single official Israeli representative who called to apologize for what happened,” said Dr. Abuelaish. “Not Shimon Peres, not Ehud Barak, not Olmert and not anyone else—but that doesn’t bother me. I have no anger at the leadership, because of the tremendous support that I have gotten from the people on the street. Israelis, Muslims, Druze, everyone arrives to talk, to console. I think that this is the nice side of my difficult tragedy, my story touched people, it made a difference in them. Even though they did not see me, they only heard my outcry on the air, that was enough for people. With all of the chaos and pain, this tragedy also did a good thing: it exposed the irrational cruelty of the war to both sides, it proved that people can also look at what happened with compassion.”

In the months that passed since the operation, Dr. Abuelaish has been living on the line between reconstructing the ruins of his home in Gaza and caring for his daughter Shadar, who was hospitalized in Israel.

Just prior to his departure, he insists that the conclusions of the IDF inquiry are not accurate.

The IDF took responsibility for firing the shells, but in the inquiry it was claimed that gunfire originated next to the house.

“I heard endless stories before and after the inquiry, they said that someone fired from within the house, and they said that Hamas were the ones who shot at us—these are all stories,” he said bitterly. “Eventually, the truth comes out like the sunlight, but this entire inquiry was done behind a screen and they did not show me anything beyond the final conclusions, but I can say that no one shot from near my house, and there were no snipers there. An inquiry cannot tell you what really happened there: the fear of the soldiers who are in Gaza during the war, the lack of trust between Israelis and Arabs.”

“I thought to use the money from the compensation that I would get for what happened to me to improve the situation, to donate it to a fund to promote education for girls and women in the Middle East, but no one offered me any compensation. There was courage to take partial responsibility, but no more than that. It is a shame, but it is time to look forward, and that is what my family is doing now.”

The situation in Gaza, he says, has not returned to normal since the IDF operation ended. “Gaza today is like a patient who has undergone surgery that suddenly ran into complications, and now his situation is rapidly deteriorating. Everything around is still destroyed, and people are more despairing because they do not see the end approaching, they do not see any hope.”

Despite all this, it is important for Dr. Abuelaish to clarify that he is not running away and not abandoning Gaza or his work in Israel. “One of my conditions for accepting the job in Canada was that for a few months in the year I will arrive in Israel and continue working here in Tel Hashomer Hospital,” he declares. “It is important for me to work here and it is important for me to live here, and I hope that within five years the situation in Gaza and in Israel will get better.”

He knows, one needs a lot of optimism to believe in such a scenario.

“What do we have left in life other than optimism?” he asks. “My daughter received her matriculation exam grades two days ago, and that made the entire family happy—she got an average of 95. I brought all of her textbooks and notebooks to the hospital and she did all of her studies during the treatments, and she succeeded.”

“If my daughter taught me one thing in this story,” he concludes, “is that it is possible to overcome everything, you just have to put in just a little more effort. Maybe by the time we come back, they will learn that here.”