Oday, a French VTC driver who has been blocked in the Gaza Strip since the Hamas attacks on October 7, made an appeal via our antenna to the French authorities to ensure that he can leave this relentlessly bombed area.
“The situation is really critical.” Oday has not been able to leave the Gaza Strip for 20 days. The French VTC driver from Aix-les-Bains (Savoy), who arrived a month ago to get married, must now seek refuge in Rafah, in the south of the small area of 362 square kilometers that has been relentlessly attacked by Hamas since the bloody attacks Israeli army shelled the soil of the Hebrew State on October 7th.
Like Oday, 53 other French people are also stuck in the Gaza Strip. Emmanuel Macron’s during one speech in Cairo According to information, humanitarian aid workers, but also employees of the French institute in Gaza and dual nationals will be there this Wednesday, October 25th Franceinfo.
Overall, the head of state pointed out that France wanted to protect “almost 170 French people, employees of our institute and rights holders”. “We are in the process of consolidating with Egypt a protocol for the evacuation of our nationals and the people we want to protect in the Gaza Strip,” he announced from Cairo.
“It’s worrying”
Oday is penniless and on Wednesday he again witnessed a bomb attack 500 meters away from him. He “hopes that Mr. Macron can do something.” “I have hope in him,” he added on BFMTV. For the time being, he remains in contact with the consulate in Jerusalem and the crisis team in Paris.
“But unfortunately they can’t do anything because the border (with Egypt, editor’s note) is really closed,” he complained about our antenna.
“They contacted me, took my GPS coordinates and told me: ‘We always keep in touch with you and as soon as there is news about the opening of the border, we will evacuate you as quickly as possible,’ he confided. But, for now there is no way out.
Therefore, Oday patiently faces his troubles in his home area where “there is no safe place.” “It is frightening. I’m afraid. It is the first time I am returning to Gaza and it will be the last time.”
He concluded: “Palestine is like my mother – I was born in Gaza – and France is like my father, she took me in her arms. I have my friends, my colleagues, my work… I only feel at home in France today.”
The dramatic humanitarian situation in Gaza is also a concern for the international community. According to the World Health Organization, six hospitals are already closed due to a lack of fuel in the Gaza Strip, where 2.4 million Palestinians are crowded together in catastrophic conditions.
The UN is demanding urgent supplies of fuel to run generators at hospitals where thousands of injured are streaming, to pump and purify water and to keep trucks moving.