'I am fortunate to be out of Gaza but I grieve for those who are still there'

Eighteen years after the last time they met, Kayed Hammand and his older brother, Sadi, were able to give each other an emotional embrace on Saturday afternoon in one of the car parks at Malaga airport, where Kayed had arrived minutes earlier from Istanbul - on flight TK1305 . The translator was evacuated a few days ago with his family from the Gaza Strip thanks to the diplomatic efforts of the Spanish Ministry of Foreign Affairs in response to the request made by dozens of journalists, academics and ex-politicians.

In recent years, Kayed Hammad - who in the early 1990s studied electronics in Spain, where he learned the language - has worked as a translator for correspondents and special envoys of different media in the Middle East, as well as collaborating with several NGOs and accompanying Spanish staff at the Consulate in Jerusalem during their visits to Gaza or senators who went to the Strip on visits organised by international organisations.

"I consider myself fortunate to have been able to leave Gaza but I grieve for the two million people who are left there suffering and where those who do not die from bombs die of hunger," the Gazan translator told reporters at the airport's arrivals terminal.

Kayed Hammad, his wife, Amal, and their three children (Monhed, Dalia and Mohamed) - a fourth, Omar, 24, was killed in a bombing in Gaza last year - were met by his sister-in-law, Soad Haddour, while his brother waited for him in the car park as he has difficulty getting around due to illness.

The reunion gave Sadi, who received the best birthday present two days before blowing out 70 candles, the chance to meet his three nephews and nieces and to see his sister-in-law Amal, whom he only saw for two days 27 days ago during his brother's wedding. Kayed and his family will also be able to meet his brother's children, aged 23 and 24, who live in Alozaina. For the time being, the evacuated family will settle in Alozaina. "We hadn't thought about emigration, but we had thought about escaping from hell. This is like a break to see if the situation in Gaza improves, where I have most of my family, or if there is a solution to our cause", the translator said.

On the situation in the Gaza Strip, which has been under Israeli bombardment and blockade for almost two years, Kayed Hammad recounted their harsh experiences.

"We have come to eat animal fodder," he said, recalling that the damage caused in hospitals led him to suffer, last Christmas Eve, when he was hospitalised for heart pain, the absence of medicines and to contemplate the "torn apart" bodies of victims of the attacks and how operations were carried out "without anaesthesia and on the floor".

On the conflict in his country, he said it was "pure revenge" by Israel. "It is not a war. 71% of the dead in a war are women and children? Where does that happen?" he questioned, while he called for the attacks to stop and thanked the governments of Spain and Ireland for their support for the Palestinian people, while denouncing the "double standards" of the international community in cases such as Ukraine and Palestine.

Kayed Hammad explained that it was the first time his children had left the Gaza Strip and everything they had seen in Jordan, Turkey and Spain was "new to them" and that they kept asking him if they would be safe in Spain.

"I told them yes, nothing will happen to them here and they will be safer than anywhere else. Tonight we will be able to sleep without the noise of the drones, which are getting in here (he said, pointing to his head), without the bombings, and they will be able to eat well or sleep in a bed", he added.