My dear neighbor Abu Khader al-Safadi was likely the oldest person in Gaza City’s al-Tuffah neighborhood. He was over 90. He was born sometime in the 1930s and lived his entire life in al-Tuffah.
He was a kind man who ran a small grocery store for much of his life.
Everyone, young and old, knew him. He would sit in a chair in front of his house, smiling at passersby and chatting to neighbors.
Abu Khader was a living history book. When he told stories about the past, it was like he was history itself. He told stories about how Gaza used to be and how its residents once lived.
He told me about the railway that used to pass through Gaza from Egypt, of which traces remain, and about a café in the Gaza City neighborhood of al-Daraj, where travelers from the Levant would stop on their way to the Arabian Peninsula, hauling dates and other fruit. ….more
