AMY GOODMAN: We’re broadcasting from the U.N. climate summit in Dubai, in the United Arab Emirates.
We begin today’s show in Gaza, as Israeli tanks are moving into the
center of Khan Younis, Gaza’s second-largest city, after days of intense
shelling and airstrikes. Palestinian health officials say the death
toll in Gaza has topped 16,200, including over 6,600 children. This is a
resident of Khan Younis speaking after Israel bombed his home.
HAMDI TANIRA:
[translated] There were 30 people inside the house. Twenty of them were
children, children aged 15 days, 1 year, 3 years, 4 years. We set up a
place for them to sleep throughout the bombardment. We put them to
sleep. We went to sleep. All of a sudden, what happened to us, we don’t
know. The fire hit us. And like you see, all of it collapsed on top of
us. None of us made it out completely OK. Everybody is hurt. How and
why, we don’t even understand what happened ourselves. We rushed to the
hospitals to check on the children and came back this morning to check
the house. Look at this. I swear, we don’t even know how we made it out
alive.
AMY GOODMAN:
On Tuesday, Jan Egeland, the secretary general of the Norwegian Refugee
Council, released a statement, saying, quote, “The pulverising of Gaza
now ranks amongst the worst assaults on any civilian population in our
time and age. Each day we see more dead children and new depths of
suffering for the innocent people enduring this hell,” he said.
We’re joined now by Yousef Hammash, advocacy officer in Gaza for the
Norwegian Refugee Council. He’s joining us today from Rafah.
Yousef, thanks so much for being with us. If you can start off by
talking about what’s happening right now, from Khan Younis, where you
were, to Rafah, where you have fled now?
YOUSEF HAMMASH: Thanks for hosting me, Amy.
Unfortunately, after seven days of the humanitarian pause, we weren’t
expecting that we will see this madness getting increased. The madness
is getting bigger and bigger. And directly after the humanitarian pause,
the bombing started mainly in the south, and the Israeli land operation
started taking place in Khan Younis, and they turned Gaza into three
pieces. While it used to be cut into two parts, now it’s three parts. So
we have Gaza City and the middle area and Khan Younis and Rafah.
And as the ground operation started the eastern part of Khan Younis,
and they asked the residents to flee to Rafah, that’s what forced us to
flee for the third time now to Rafah. And hundred thousands of people
had to do this, to take this choice to flee into Rafah and to build
these small tents made by wooden sticks and plastic under this harsh
weather. And it became really crazy situation suddenly. And we had to
witness the same as we witnessed in the northern part of Gaza when the
military operation — even the war started on 12th — after the war
started on 12th of October, when they asked us to flee to the south. And
we didn’t have other option, and we fled to the south to Khan Younis,
and now we found ourselves doing it again. Hopefully, it’s going to be
the last time.
Unfortunately, the humanitarian situation is catastrophic here.
People are using anyplace as a shelter. People are living on sidewalks
and streets and any empty area they found. They put anything to cover
their heads, and they consider it as a shelter, without any means of
protection. And it’s a horrible situation that I don’t think I have the
ability to describe it. If you see it by your own eyes, you will be
shocked. We never witnessed such horror. And you can see it in people’s
face. They are in a miserable situation that doesn’t have any option to
do. All what they do is looking for their safety, fleeing from a place
to another place.
AMY GOODMAN:
Yousef, it’s not usual in most situations where the journalists
themselves are trying to save their own families and their own lives as
you report on the entire situation. If you can track your own journey
with your family? I think some 60 journalists, Gazan and Palestinian
journalists, about that number, have been killed in these last weeks,
including the head of the Gaza journalists’ association, so many
cameramen and reporters. But if you can start with your journey where
you left, first north, and then going home to Jabaliya, and go from
there, and why in each situation the terror and the destruction that you
left behind?
YOUSEF HAMMASH:
So, at the beginning of the — on 7th October, I had to flee my house,
because I lived in Beit Lahia, which is more near to the border, and
usually, as in our previous experience from wars and escalation, it’s
the first areas to be targeted. And I thought it’s better for me to take
my children and my extended family to Jabaliya camp, which is the
center of the north, and convincing myself that it’s going to be a bit
more safe. And since the moment that I did this decision, I left
everything behind. I didn’t care what I’m going to lose. I just was — I
was looking for the safety of my family. The two, three days after the
war, my house was targeted, and my parents’ house was targeted, and the
other house with my brother was targeted.
And on the 12th of — we had to stay in my grandparents’ house in
Jabaliya. On the 12th of October, we started to receive these phone
calls from Israelis and settlers just threatening us and warning us
about what’s coming. And then I had to decide to flee again from
Jabaliya to the south, based on what they asked us. And again, our
responsibility towards our children and our extended families forced us
to take these options. We fled to Khan Younis without anything,
literally. We had to start our new life. And I was lucky because I have
some relatives there, so I had to — I managed to find a roof to cover my
head.
And I wasn’t expecting that we will live this horror again, and we
had to take this option again for the third time to go to Rafah. But,
unfortunately, in Rafah we don’t have that option to have a roof to
cover our heads. And since two days, I’m trying, surfing around Rafah,
looking for anyplace to shelter my family. And unfortunately, until now,
I didn’t succeed to find a place. Today I had to go to build a tent for
my family, finding a safe place, as they call it, in al-Mawasi area,
that’s going to be much safe there. And we follow what’s the instruction
that — what we receive. And I had to do the same as the other hundred
thousands of other people in Gaza who had to take that option also. So, I
had to build a tent. I don’t know how we will manage to fit in it, but
this is the option that we have.
But especially the two days when the military operation started in
Khan Younis, the horror that we saw from the bombardment, the
nonstopping bombardment — I was calculating for the timing between each
missile was eight seconds, imagining we were living in an earthquake,
Amy. And that’s what’s, again, always putting us in a situation in front
of our children that we are useless to protect them. We cannot even
provide protection for our children and our — my sisters, for example. I
felt very useless in front of them because I cannot do anything for
them. So we had to take that option, convincing ourselves again that we
will be safe. I am pretty sure there is no place safe in Gaza. But we’ll
do as much as — I will take whatever it takes. I will do it to protect
my family.
AMY GOODMAN:
Now, you’re not a journalist. You’re an aid worker. You are an advocacy
officer in Gaza for the Norwegian Refugee Council. But your
descriptions of what is happening there are so critical. How do you do
your work and the other 50 or so Norwegian Refugee Council workers do
their work in Gaza as they’re being forced to flee? And are you trying
to get now over the border from Rafah into Egypt?
YOUSEF HAMMASH:
Yeah, Amy, we are trying to do our best, because this is our role, and
this is why we are here. But, unfortunately, we are in the same
situation like everyone is here. During the humanitarian pause, we were
assessing the situation, trying to do distribution plan, because we are
trying to help as much as we can people in need. The majority of — the
entire population in Gaza are in need. So, you have to understand the
situation in general. Half of the population before 7th October was
relying on humanitarian aid. Imagining adding this catastrophic
situation to the need of people. The entire population in Gaza is in
need. And if you combine us all as humanitarian actors, we cannot cover
the need that we are having here.
We used these seven days to manage to have our trucks entered through
Rafah and to do our distribution plan and trying to assist as much as
we can. But then we found ourselves in the circle of violence again. And
unfortunately, even in front of the situation now, we are useless. We
cannot protect ourselves even as humanitarian workers. There is no
protection for any of us. We are all in Gaza under the same
circumstances. We are trying, but the situation is preventing us. And
trust me, many of my colleagues are — had to sleep in the streets —
AMY GOODMAN: Can you talk about what —
YOUSEF HAMMASH: Sorry. Go ahead, Amy.
AMY GOODMAN:
Can you talk about what kind of aid is getting through and isn’t
getting through, and what it means when you have something like 1.8
million, 1.9 million Palestinians, out of — what? — 2.3 million, who are
on the run, who are internally displaced?
YOUSEF HAMMASH:
Honestly, Amy, what all of us as humanitarian actors can do is like a
drop in the ocean of needs here. And we keep asking for allowing more
and more trucks of aid to enter, but it’s too political, and everyone
understands the situation now. They allow only — there is not even an
accurate number for how many trucks per day we can get through Rafah.
It’s too political situation, what’s bringing us to understand it. Trust
me, in the past few days, we were chasing our trucks. We were trying to
find solution how to get it through Rafah, manage — store it in some
place, then trying to distribute it as fast as we can, because we
understand it’s nothing comparing to the need. So we are trying to do
our best. Even if it was few people that we can assist and help, it is
something. But even to reach that small something is not easy. It’s
almost impossible because of the situation that we are living in. The
amount of aid that’s coming to Gaza is literally —
AMY GOODMAN: Yousef Hammash —
YOUSEF HAMMASH: — not tangible and is not affecting the need. It’s not really affecting the amount of need that we are having in Gaza.
AMY GOODMAN:
I want to thank you so much for being with us, Yousef Hammash, advocacy
officer in Gaza for the Norwegian Refugee Council. He fled Khan Younis
earlier this week, joining us now from Rafah. He was in Beit Lahia
originally, fled to the Jabaliya refugee camp, then to Khan Younis, then
to Rafah near the border crossing with Egypt.
Coming up, Democracy Now! questions — attempts to question the head of the UAE state oil company, who is presiding over the U.N. climate summit. Stay with us.
