NUSEIRAT CAMP, Gaza Strip — Three hundred young men distributed 600 food packages to poor families in the five governorates of the Gaza Strip on Jan. 19 as part of “Sameh, Toujar” (Forgive and You Shall Receive), a campaign that started Jan. 1. The campaign launched when a group of activists decided to encourage merchants to drop the debt of Gaza residents unable to pay their bills due to the tough economic situation. Salary cuts and the Israeli blockade, ongoing for 11 years, have made life in Gaza difficult.

Campaign spokesman Wael Abu Mohsen, an independent journalist, told Al-Monitor, “The campaign started out unorganized, when Osama Abu Dalal, a 32-year-old owner of a shoe shop in the Gaza Strip, decided to scratch people’s debts during a conversation with a bunch of young social activists about helping the poor. We proposed that he post news about forgiving the debts on Facebook under the hashtag #Sameh_toujar — the campaign slogan.”

“Abu Dalal slashed around $30,000, and we were surprised after the hashtag came out to see lots of traders join the campaign. Many of them publicly forgave citizens their debts. Some merchants called us on the numbers we shared as the organizers of the campaign. They told of their participation on the condition of anonymity, hoping God would reward them.”

Abu Mohsen thinks the merchants’ sense of social responsibility and their voluntary participation in the campaign are the main reasons behind its success. The hashtag led trending in Gaza for three consecutive days. In addition to forgoing the debt of around 1,000 residents so far, the campaign has managed to reduce some legal and medical fees, as doctors and lawyers have gotten into the spirit. According to Abu Mohsen, some 70 merchants have slashed $350,000 in debt, and the amount is expected to rise as the campaign continues.