Mohammad el Sharif has been missing since being taken by soldiers in Gaza
Gaza: Mohammad el Sharif, a child psychotherapist, has gone missing. He was last seen when soldiers took him away while he was trying to move his family to safety.
His family was walking from Gaza City when they hit a checkpoint. The soldiers split them up, putting the men on one side and the women and kids on the other. Then, they took all the men away.
Jane Salmonson, the director of Firefly International, is really worried. She thinks he might be detained and interrogated. His wife, Alaa, and their three young boys are now homeless and starving, with no clue about his whereabouts.
It’s heartbreaking to hear that he’s one of about 20,000 men who have vanished from Gaza. El Sharif was running a child mental health clinic that got bombed after the recent invasion by Israel, which followed the Hamas attack on October 7, 2023.
Even after being displaced multiple times, he kept in touch with Firefly staff until he was picked up by the IDF on November 27. He has no ties to Hamas and was seen in a touching video with his sons, pleading for peace.
There’s also a video on YouTube showcasing the great work his clinic did before it was destroyed. Salmonson mentioned that it’s hard to know how many of the kids in that video are still alive or safe.
Since they can’t operate in Gaza right now, Firefly International is helping a project in Cairo, teaching around 300 kids from refugee families. This initiative was started by Egyptian volunteers wanting to support their Palestinian neighbors.
About 100,000 Palestinians have fled to Cairo since the invasion. Salmonson said it’s just a small effort compared to the 60,000 Palestinian kids in Cairo, but it’s a start. Keeping their education going is so important.
