UAE-based Gazan artist shocked to hear news of father’s arrest by Israeli troops
A Dubai-based Palestinian artist has spoken of his grief at the news of his elderly father’s detention by the Israeli military in Gaza.
Hazem Harb’s family has not heard from his father Riad Harb, 70, since he was taken from his home in Al Rimal district of Gaza city on February 2.
“I don’t understand why they would take him,” Hazem told The National.
“He is weak, needs constant care and would collapse without regular intake of salt. He can barely walk.”
The Israeli army did not respond to The National’s request for comment on Riad’s whereabouts, or why he was detained.
Hazem said his father was detained after Israeli troops stormed the building where he lived with family members.
Hazem had been issuing pleas on social media for news of his father, having not seen him since a visit to Gaza in September, when Riad was undergoing a heart operation.
He said his sister, Huda, was visiting their father when Israeli soldiers entered the building and began firing shots.
One of the bullets ricocheted and wounded their father.
“They placed explosives on the building walls,” Hazem said, recounting what his sister had told him.
The soldiers began entering flats in the building and ordered all residents outside, before separating the women from the men.
The men, including Hazem’s father, brother, brother-inlaw and nephews, were all stripped and arrested, he said.
Some were later released, including Hazem’s 16-year-old nephew Mohammad.
Traumatised by the incident, Mohammad has become “effectively a mute”, Hazem said.
Hazem’s pain was compounded when he saw video footage of Huda and her daughter talking about their plight on the news.
In one video, Huda, who has been displaced to Rafah in southern Gaza, talked about her experience coming under an Israeli air strike.
Hazem said the difference between what he saw on his last visit to Gaza and his family’s situation today is “surreal”.
In September, he said, Huda had cooked maqluba, a Palestinian dish, for him at her family’s home in Gaza city. Now, she is among a million displaced Gazans living in tents in Rafah.
Hazem said he had enjoyed his visit to Gaza city, even though most of his time was spent at Al Shifa hospital – now destroyed by the war – during his father’s heart surgery.
“I took 11,000 photos,” he said. “It was almost as if I was saying goodbye.”