Hassouna sells a stall in Deir al-Balah camp after Israel destroyed his house and pharmacy (Al Jazeera)

Gaza -

Before the outbreak of the Israeli war on the Gaza Strip, the young Palestinian man, Muhammad Hassouna, owned a pharmacy in the Sheikh Radwan neighborhood in Gaza City, which brought him good profits.

But today he spends his day selling in a small stall on a sidewalk in Deir al-Balah camp in the central Gaza Strip, after he was displaced to the center of the Strip to escape the hell of brutal attacks launched by the Israeli occupation army on the Palestinians since the seventh of last October.

Hassouna (35 years old) learned from friends who still reside in Gaza City that the occupation army had completely destroyed his house and pharmacy, and they sent him over the Internet some pictures that made his heart bleed.

In 2013, Hassouna obtained a bachelor’s degree in pharmacy from Al-Azhar University in Gaza. He initially worked in medical warehouses, then as an advertising representative for pharmaceutical companies, before he succeeded in establishing his own project, which was a pharmacy he called “Tasnim.”

In the past, the pharmacy generated good profits for Hassouna, he says, and he was working on developing his project and opening a chain of pharmacies, before the war broke out and he lost everything.

Muhammad Hassouna established a small stall to sell household supplies after the occupation destroyed his pharmacy and home (Al Jazeera)

Start again

At first, Hassouna felt frustrated and desperate, after he lost his pharmacy and his home and saw his life’s dream collapse, but he decided to start again, so he made the decision to create a small stall in which he would sell some household supplies, so that he would not have to “extend his hand” and borrow from people.

Pharmacist Hassouna told Al Jazeera Net that he started his project with an amount of 400 shekels ($110), which was the last money he had after his wife was forced to sell a piece of gold jewelry she owned to support the family.

He added, "After I learned of the destruction of my pharmacy and my home, my morale was shattered. I am now below zero and the future seems miserable and sad, and there is no horizon. So I started thinking: How will I live? How will I continue my life? I do not want to extend my hand to anyone and ask for aid, so I decided to work on Basta, because work does not shame anyone, but rather improves my morale and pushes me not to think about the past.”

The stall contains cleaning tools, in addition to some food items. The stall generates a little money, but Hassouna believes it is a fair amount to cover his family's expenses.

medical consulting

While he is on the stall, Hassouna uses his knowledge and experience to provide advice to the displaced and residents. When a customer came to him looking for medicinal soap (not available in the market due to the war) for his daughter, who suffers from eczema in her hands, Hassouna advised the girl to use any regular soap, provided that she used a moisturizer such as Vaseline immediately after use.

An old woman also went to him to explain to her the nature of the medicines she had obtained from the UNRWA clinic. He replied to her, saying, “This is aspirin to protect the heart, and this is a medicine for high blood pressure. Do not take it at night, because it contains a diuretic substance, and it will cause you insomnia.” The inconvenience is that this is metformin, which helps reduce blood sugar and maintains the functioning of the pancreas, and this is a medicine that regulates the heartbeat.

Regarding these consultations, Hassouna says, “I try to convey my information and the experience I obtained to people.”

From owner to seller

Like the pharmacist Hassouna, the merchant Akram Abu Al-Hassan lived before the war in the Shujaiya neighborhood in Gaza City, and owned a large store that generated a good income that enabled him to support a family of 12 people. But the Israeli ground aggression on Gaza forced him to repeatedly migrate until he settled in the city of Deir al-Balah.

On one of the sidewalks, Abu Al-Hassan works as a seller of a small stall containing food supplies. Abu Al-Hassan told Al-Jazeera Net, "Before the war, my profession was excellent. I had a respectable store in a good area, and I was supporting a large family of 12 people."

Abu Al-Hassan says that the conditions of the displaced are very difficult, as foreign aid is very scarce, prices are rising greatly, and there are no job opportunities, explaining that the majority of the displaced are without work, or are working in professions that are not related to their specializations, and in this regard, he points to one Fellow vendors, he says, "This was a big building contractor, and now he sells tea and coffee on the sidewalk."

The capital of his project is about 300 shekels ($83), and it generates an income of approximately 20 shekels a day ($5).

Akram Abu Al-Hassan owned a large store, and due to the war, he became displaced and sold simple goods on the sidewalk (Al-Jazeera)

From butcher to cigarette seller

When Abdul Karim Al-Mutawaq (50 years old) was living in his town of Jabalia, north of the Gaza Strip, he worked as a professional butcher in the widespread farms and slaughterhouses, and earned a good income of about 100 shekels a day ($28).

Al-Mutawaq also has good knowledge of the profession of “butchering” and fattening livestock. After the war broke out, Al-Mutawaq fled with his family to several places, and ended up in the city of Deir Al-Balah.

With the difficult living conditions and his lack of money, Al-Mutawq resorted to the profession of rolling Syrian cigarettes and selling them to smokers.

Al-Mutawaq told Al-Jazeera Net, "Now I work in rolling Levantine cigarettes, and I sell a cigarette for 2 shekels (dollar: 3.6 shekels). I sell cigarettes so that I do not extend my hand to people."

This profession does not generate much money, as he says that he earns approximately 10 shekels a day from selling cigarettes.

He concludes his speech by saying, "We are displaced, poor, and homeless, and we cannot obtain aid that comes from abroad, and if we do not work and manage our affairs, we will not find anything to feed our children with."

Source: Al Jazeera