Good evening to everyone

First let me thank Limkokwing University staff and students, as well as his Excellency the Ambassador of the State of Palestine for this opportunity to speak about Gaza under siege.

Dear all,

I am Sulaiman Alzamly from the Gaza strip. I arrived in Malaysia 2 weeks ago. Today I came to share with you what I witnessed when my homeland was attacked.

But first I need to explain a little bit about the Palestinian way of life to those who do not our history.

Palestine is separated into two parts - The Gaza strip and the West Bank.

The population of Gaza Strip is 1.4 million, which considered the highest population crammed within 360 square kilometres of space. 

The west bank population is 2.5 million, and both Gaza and West Bank have been occupied since 1967.

However, there are 1.3 million Palestinians living within Israel which has occupied Palestinian land since 1948. And 5.5 million Palestinians live as refugees in other countries as well.

Gaza strip and west bank equal 22 % of the historic land of Palestine.

Our story is too long to tell here so I will begin from the Israeli siege of June 2006.

The Israeli occupation closed all Gaza strip borders and blocked the entry of raw materials, food, medicine and fuel.

Therefore causing shortage of electricity and difficulty in transportation; so we have to walk long distances to reach our jobs and schools.

You imagine that a husband has to take his pregnant wife in a cart to deliver her baby.

Another important thing is that milk for children milk cannot be found easily. Patients in hospitals pass away because of shortage of medical supplies.

The closing of the borders has prevented many students from continuing their studies.

A lot of them have lost scholarships. I was one of them.

I was to suppose to start my studies at UKM here in Malaysia in July 2008 but I didn’t get the chance to be there on time; so I missed 2 semesters.

I got the chance to come 2 weeks ago when the borders opened for two days in February 22.

Others were not so lucky because their visas had expired.

Now I will talk about what I saw and experienced during the 22 days of the Israeli attack on Gaza.

On the 27th of December 2008 Israel launched a mass military attack against Gaza, which continued without stop for 22 days.

In these 22 days I couldn’t leave my house.

I sat with my family waiting for death because we could not find a safe place to protect ourselves.

As you and all know there was no safe place in Gaza at all, so many schools, mosques and hospitals had been attacked by Israel air strikes and tanks day and night.

I am sure you heard about EL-fakhora primary school and Al-Quds hospital, which was crowded by civilians; about 42 people lost their lives in EL-fakhora primary school.

It was raining bomb in these 22 days, where there is an air strike the ground shakes under our feet, like earthquake immediately the children cry in hysteric way. no mercy, no humanity. you found the death and sadness in every home. One of these was my friend’s homes. 

Let me narrate to you some Statistics of the Israeli massacre on Gaza:

1440 martyrs; 431 were children and 144 women

5380 injured; of which 1872 were children and 800 women

53 buildings of United Nations were destroyed such as: schools, medical center sand so on

4000 houses completely destroyed

14000 partially damaged

20 mosques destroyed

68 governmental buildings destroyed

31 NGOs buildings destroyed

60 governmental medical centers attacked

29 ambulance cars became targets for air strike which caused the death of 19 rescuers and 22 injured.

This is just a brief summary of what happened in Gaza.

Finally, I want to tell you something, we Palestinian comprise of Muslims, Christians and Jews. Our fight is about territory and not religious like some people think.

I really appreciate your support.

Thank you.