Palestinians with Ukrainian ties follow the war closely

GAZA CITY (AP) — The al-Astal family in the Gaza Strip is once again facing the horrors of war: air strikes, food shortages, blackouts, frantic phone calls. But this time they see it from the outside.

Dozens of Palestinian-Ukrainian families in the isolated territory have experienced several wars — most recently in May — and now they see another one unfolding in Ukraine, where many of them have loved ones.

Oksana al-Astal says she has hardly slept since the war began. His parents, both octogenarians, live in a village where food, medicine and electricity are scarce. Every time she returns home from work in her clinic, the gynecologist calls them to see if they are alive.

“Air strikes are constant, my parents have to hide in damp, cold basements,” he says. “There is no electricity or heating or electricity. It's terrifying.”

She knows what that's like, since she went to live in Gaza with her Palestinian husband in 2008. They have experienced three wars between Israel and the Hamas militia government. In each of them, Israel carried out waves of air raids that it said were against military targets, but which killed hundreds of civilians in the small territory where 2 million Palestinians live.

“I have witnessed the deaths of adults and children. I've seen houses destroyed, ambulances racing, bombs dropping on hospitals and what happens to people after that,” he said.

Many Palestinians have ties with Russia and Ukraine that date back to the years when the Soviet Union championed their cause and offered them scholarships and other opportunities. Palestinians are divided over the war, with some expressing support for Russia against Western countries that have always backed Israel.

On social media, many have taken advantage of a tweet by Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy, who in May last year declared himself horrified by the Palestinian rocket attacks on Israel. They say it ignored the uneven death toll in the war, in which 260 Palestinians died, including 66 children and 40 women. Thirteen civilians, including two children, and one soldier were the Israeli casualties.

Other Palestinians have expressed solidarity with the plight of Ukrainian civilians. A handful of families have flown the Ukrainian flag over their homes, while others hoist the Russian flag.

Israelis, too, are divided over the conflict, and their government is walking a tightrope in its attempt to mediate.

The al-Astal family has always raised the blue and yellow flag of Ukraine in front of their home. It is a tradition that recalls when Oksana's husband, Raed, a pulmonologist, studied in the Ukrainian city of Sumy. There he met Oksana, daughter of one of his teachers.

Every time they go to Ukraine, like last summer, their father-in-law gives him a new flag to ensure that he doesn't fade under the Gaza sun. Her three children remember those trips fondly and Oksana says they are worried about the children they played with in Ukraine.

Motaz al-Halabi, who studied medicine in Ukraine and returned to Gaza in 2001 with his Ukrainian wife, helped organize the evacuation of Ukrainians from Gaza during last year's war. He says there are about 1,400 Ukrainian-Palestinians in Gaza. It used to be 2,000. Many have joined the exodus from the territory, which is being suffered by an Egyptian-Israeli bloc since Hamas took power in 2007.

“We've been through all the wars here and we never left,” says Nataliya Harb, who moved to Gaza in 1998 with her Palestinian husband.

A few days ago I was nervously watching a news program from Ukraine along with two other compatriots of his in a house in Gaza where the power went out every so often. They all wore their hair covered by the Palestinian veil and the long dress worn by most women in Gaza.

“The situation was very difficult for the children,” he said. “We know what the word 'war' means, what 'fallen rocket' means, which means 'children running. '”