A large number of Palestinians living in the Kingdom have urged the international community to stand in solidarity with their brethren in Gaza as the Palestinian death toll passed 1,374 on Thursday, the 24th day of the Israeli assault.

Ahmed Magi Balshi, a Palestinian Medical Consultant (ICU), in King Saud Medical City, Riyadh opposed the killing of innocent civilians by Israel. “The situation is grave. Even hospitals are not secure in Gaza. We know from the media that because of the Israeli blockade, the hospitals are deficient in everything in terms of medical aid, medicines, doctors and health staff,” he said.

“It is extremely painful for Palestinians to think about the families who are killed or wounded and the surviving civilians living in dire state without electricity or safe drinking water or any decent means of survival,” he said.

Balshi requested that “the government of Saudi Arabia and all nations should help Palestine not only through monetary aid but also by forming a volunteer group of medical staff and officials to serve in Gaza.”

He further shared that: “Like me there are many Palestinians in this country who have been displaced from their motherland and are in great suffering. Our land, in Akkaah city in North Palestine was seized by Israeli forces in 1948. Consequently, my grandfather shifted our family to Lebanon. We arrived in Riyadh in 1967 and our family received a warm shelter in Saudi Arabia.”

Many are denouncing the Israeli attacks on Palestine as unjustified and disproportionate military offensive since the Israeli forces launched Operation Protective Edge 2014 in Gaza Strip.

Haula, another Palestinian living with her husband and children in the Saudi capital said:

“Since the fighting began, we have not been able to sleep or have iftar peacefully. We are praying for the safety of our people in Palestine.”

Even while we are here, we feel the pain that reflects from thousands of pictures of innocent children and people killed and wounded, being shared across the world.

Haula said, “I feel the pain because a situation forced my family to be displaced from our land in Palestine. Following the unrest in 1968, my father moved our family to Jordan. Since then, we have not been able to meet my brother who stayed at our ancestral home in the West Bank to protect the land from occupancy. My mother yearns to see my brother and our ancestral land but we are not allowed entry in our own country due to the Israeli blockage.”

Talking further to Arab News Haula said, “In reality, a large number of people sympathize with the Palestinian cause but are surprisingly uninformed about the issue, or its history. Considering what has largely been propagated by the mainstream media for years, many don’t know the truth of the situation.”

“We support the ideological struggle of Palestinians and the truth is reaching far and wide through social media platforms,” said Haula.

An overwhelming majority of Palestinian refugees live in the Middle East. Saudi Arabia alone hosts nearly 299,000 Palestinians in the country, providing them with formal residency status, according to the UN Refugee Agency (UNHCR).