Romanian woman on hunger strike downtown Bucharest, trying to save her daughters trapped in Gaza Strip

A mother of three is on hunger strike for five days already the old centre of Bucharest. She urges the repatriation of her daughters from the Gaza Strip. The woman is afraid that their life is in danger because of their Palestinian father, who could kill or mutilate them for life, tvr.ro informs.

The woman is trying to persuade the authorities to bring her three daughters home.

“I am here to save the lives of my daughters who are in an extreme situation in Gaza Strip, they have violated a taboo, have left home because they could no longer bear the threats and beatings they were subjected to in their father’s house. Now they are wanted, I was also sought by a person in the family,” Cerasela Tutuianu says.

The Romanian Foreign Ministry explains that “the diplomatic mission in Tel Aviv has contacted the Israeli authorities several times to expedite the procedures for obtaining permission to leave the Gaza Strip for the mentioned three Romanian citizens.” The foreign ministry says the procedures to leave Gaza Strip are governed by the Israeli law, which needs time and security checks that take time.

Cerasela married a Palestinian doctor in 1992 and gave birth to her daughters in Romania. Then she left with her family to the Gaza Strip, where the ordeal began: she was beaten and was left hungry. After repeated abuses, in 1999 she asked for help from the Embassy of Romania in Israel.

In 2000, Cerasela’s husband let her return to Romania, but without her daughters. The woman had never suspected that apparent benevolence was, in fact, a plan to separate her from the girls.

She returned to them in 2011, but failed to bring them home. Now the girls are 20, 22 and 23 years respectively. Their mother says that although they are licensed, their father has not allowed them to work, kept them locked and has beaten them many times. A month ago, the sisters ran away from home and have been hiding ever since. They did not have travel documents on them, but they asked for help from the Romanian representatives in Tel Aviv and Ramallah. Their mother has asked for help from the Ministry of Foreign Affairs. The ministry claims that this case is a priority, tvr.ro informs.

photo: antena3.ro