Karl Schembri, a Maltese man who spent four years living in Gaza, took to social media to share images he had taken from his time living in the currently besieged land.
‘Gaza City, Al Rimal, Omar Al Mukhtar Street, The Square of the Unknown Soldier, as I photographed it in May 2011.’
Schembri recalled his time walking, living, buying his groceries and meeting new friends there, with ‘people of all classes’ going there ‘for a stroll.’
‘Families having ice cream, doing their shopping, enjoying little freedoms. The tiny corner shop underneath me had all the essentials I needed – bread, coffee, cigarettes, toothpaste, and its owner’s old, warm, beautiful smile.’
‘The owner of a flower shop greeted me every morning on my walk to work. He’d insist on me taking a flower or two so I’d leave him a few shekels to give flowers to his next customer.
A coffee shop called Mazaj was the meeting place for countless hours of discussions with my friends. Pizza Land was my refuge for fast food.’
‘Al Waha is where I’d have a sheesha and a coffee and write down poems or whatever came to mind on my Gaza notebooks.’
‘The view from my bedroom of the city and the Mediterranean sea was my daily spiritual nutrient, as it is for many Palestinians who look at the horizon and dream of freedom,’ he concluded.
#MaltaDaily