Messages of hope and solidarity from Egypt to Gaza

Desperate times call for desperate measures is what describes the following heroic acts done by many Egyptians for the past two weeks.
It started with Anas Habib, a twenty-seven years old Egyptian activist who escaped Abdel Fattah al Sisi’s regime after being wrongly imprisoned at the age of fifteen. He and his brother Tariq managed to leave the country and now live in the Hague, where they create content on various topics and share it on different social media platforms. Almost two weeks back, while watching the news of the Gaza famine in his apartment, Anas’s feelings of pity and helplessness were replaced with sheer discontent, feeling that there must be something done to help alleviate the suffering of the famished district. He called his brother Tariq and suggested that they’d go to the Egyptian embassy, where he’d tie himself to the gate in protest like what Europeans do. He wanted him to film the act and post it on social media as he was convinced of his own detention.
While the two were on their way, Tariq had another idea: what if we lock the gates instead as a sign of the closing of Rafah crossing where tons of aid await? With that in mind, they went to a shop and bought locks before reaching the Egyptian embassy and locking the two main gates. Then they slipped a crate of eggs through the gate and scattered flour on the ground symbolising the halted food supply in Rafah. The brothers documented their act to the bafflement of the Egyptian officers and visitors who didn’t understand the significance of the act, even when Anas told them that the gates were locked from their end not his — a reference to the blame game between Egypt and Israel for the crossing’s closure.
Later, they went to the Jordanian embassy and repeated the same act. Anas’s bravery was fuelled by a sole idea: what worst could happen to him compared to starving Gazans killed by Israeli snipers while queuing for food? The video ends with the Dutch police breaking the locks while Anas shouts in English to let the food in. The move was hailed by many around the globe and similar lock-in acts were repeated to Egyptian embassies in many countries such as Dublin and Norway, along with protests demanding the opening of Rafah crossing.
However, Egyptian Ten TV mocked the move, with its anchor asking Anas to lock in the embassies of countries providing weapons to Israel instead. The second act started as a suggestion on the Facebook page of Mohammed Ali Hassan — an Egyptian academic living in Japan — which comprised filling empty plastic bottles with dry food such as rice and pulses — including a calculation of the air space needed for different sizes to ensure their buoyancy — before sealing it tightly and throwing it to the Mediterranean, where the eastward moving currents would ensure their arrival within three to four days to Gaza. It sparked an initiative called “From Sea to Sea: A Bottle of Hope to Gaza” with videos of families residing in coastal areas, filling the bottles with whatever food they have, along with written encouragement messages.
A moving video showed a man throwing the bottles in the sea while asking for Gazan’s forgiveness for not being able to provide more. The happy news is that some bottles did arrive and were found by Gazan fishermen who shared videos thanking their Egyptian brothers for their unwavering support. These simple yet brave acts remind us how global empathy and solidarity grow simultaneously with Israel’s increasing atrocities and deceptions. All eyes are still on Gaza.

Rasha al Raisi The writer is author of The World According to Bahja