Democracy Now! / August 29, 2024
Guest : Akram al-Satarri – Palestinian journalist in the Gaza Strip.
We get an update from Gaza, where at least 68 Palestinians have been killed in the last 24 hours as Israel continues its relentless assault on the territory. After nearly 11 months of war, the official Gaza death toll now stands at over 40,600, although the true figure is estimated to be much higher. The World Food Program (WFP) announced it is pausing the movement of all staff in Gaza until further notice after Israeli forces shot at one of its clearly marked vehicles despite receiving multiple clearances by Israeli authorities. This comes just two days after U.N. humanitarian efforts in Gaza virtually ground to a halt due to new Israeli evacuation orders that disrupted operations again. Israel has issued several evacuation orders across Gaza over the past week, displacing a quarter of a million people in Deir al-Balah alone, including from Al-Aqsa Hospital, where tens of thousands of residents and wounded were seeking shelter. Journalist Akram al-Satarri, speaking from just outside the hospital, describes “continuous military operations, continuous devastation, continuous targeting and [an] increased number of Palestinians affected by those ongoing operations either by being killed or being injured or by becoming displaced because of the new evacuation orders.”
TRANSCRIPT
NERMEEN SHAIKH: In Gaza, at least 68 Palestinians have been killed and 77 wounded in the last 24 hours, according to the Gaza Health Ministry. Nearly 11 months into Israel’s war on Gaza, the toll now stands at more than 40,600 Palestinians killed and nearly 94,000 wounded, though the true casualty figures are expected to be much higher with thousands unaccounted for.
As Israel’s daily bombardment continues, the humanitarian crisis is only deepening. The World Food Programme has announced it’s pausing the movement of all staff in Gaza until further notice after Israeli forces shot at one of its clearly marked vehicles as it was moving toward an Israeli military checkpoint. The U.N. food agency said the vehicle was shot despite receiving multiple clearances by Israeli authorities to approach. The U.N. food agency said the incident was a, quote, “stark reminder of the rapidly and ever shrinking humanitarian space in the Gaza Strip.”
This comes just two days after the U.N.’s humanitarian efforts in Gaza virtually ground to a halt due to new Israeli evacuation orders that forced the shutdown of the main U.N. operations center in Deir al-Balah. The U.N.’s main humanitarian aid hub, with warehouses and accommodation for staff, had already been relocated once before in early May following Israel’s ground invasion of Rafah in southern Gaza. The new hub was set up in Deir al-Balah in central Gaza, but an evacuation order by the Israeli military on Sunday also included the new headquarters.
Israel has issued several evacuation orders across Gaza over the past week, displacing a quarter of a million people in Deir al-Balah alone. The new orders also forced many families and patients to leave Al-Aqsa Hospital, the main medical facility in Deir al-Balah, where tens of thousands of residents and wounded were seeking shelter.
AMY GOODMAN: We go now to Gaza to just outside the Al-Aqsa Hospital, where we’re joined by journalist Akram al-Satarri.
Welcome to Democracy Now!, Akram. If you can explain the situation right now? The attention now is on the West Bank, but in the last 24 hours alone, 68 Palestinians have been killed in Gaza alone, with more than that injured.
AKRAM AL-SATARRI: Good morning to you, Amy, and to all viewers.
Indeed, the situation in Gaza is ever escalating. The situation in the West Bank is marking a new beginning, where Israeli occupation forces are using the very same tactics of destruction and devastation and also besieging the hospitals and the other infrastructure for the sake of just — as they said, for the sake of preventing the movement of the armed people, but, indeed, that brings more devastation to the infrastructure and more devastation to the civilian population.
In the Gaza Strip, 68 Palestinians were killed in the last 24 hours. Around 21 Palestinians are killed since the morning as of today. And the number of Palestinians who are injured is also increasing. The number of military operations that have an aim of destroying residential blocks is increasing. The bombardment that is resulting from the ongoing operation destroying residential blocks in Rafah area, in Khan Younis area, in Deir al-Balah in Gaza central area, Al-Bureij and also in Al-Zeitoun area is also hit from all different parts of the Gaza Strip, continuous military operations, continuous devastation, continuous targeting and increased number of Palestinians affected by those ongoing operations either by being killed or being injured or by becoming displaced because of the new evacuation orders that were given to the Palestinians to move them from the humanitarian zone, to move them to the humanitarian zone that is also ever shrinking.
NERMEEN SHAIKH: Akram, if you could describe the scale of these evacuation orders? Over 88.5% of Gaza is under evacuation orders. What’s the impact of these evacuation orders on people who are in Gaza?
AKRAM AL-SATARRI: For you to better understand the situation, people are asked to move to areas that have no infrastructure whatsoever, that have no regular water supplies, that have no regular even garbage collection services, with the municipal services coming to a full halt. So, you would be walking down the streets seeing tents erected on the sides of the road, seeing tents erected on the open areas, no infrastructure, not even sewage, no water supplies, no electricity, no hygiene, and the people are living there.
And all of the sudden, they are asked to move from the very same area, that is very lacking, to another area to start removing the tents and building the tents in some other area. People are asked to move to an area of around 11% of the Gaza Strip, to be more precise. And in those areas, that are called the humanitarian zone, there is nothing that have to do or has to do with the humanitarian need. The humanitarian needs are not met.
And people are exposed and vulnerable to extremely increasing risk of the bombardment. In those areas, people were erecting their tents, and they ended up being targeted and killed in those tents. In Al-Mawasi area in Khan Younis, around 100 Palestinians were killed when the Israeli occupation forces targeted the whole area and then claimed to have managed to assassinate Mohammed al-Deif, who is the commander general of Hamas military wing. People are — even when they are moved into a humanitarian zone, they are not receiving humanitarian services.
The U.N. agencies and the other international agencies are also facing increasingly difficult situation because of the movement restrictions that have been taking place, because of the fact that they have always to redefine and replan for the sake of making sure that they can access the people and they can also make sure that their teams are safe. Their teams are not safe. The journalists are not safe. The medical teams are not safe. The international teams are not safe. And about every category, there is a list of incidents and of deaths and of injuries and of the destruction of the properties and the vehicles also when they were targeted by the Israeli occupation forces.
So, the bottom line, that the situation is overall unsafe. And the Israeli ongoing ground operations and aerial operations and the continuous targeting, including quadcopters and artillery fire and the F-16s and all the other kind or other kinds of the weapons in their arsenal is making things more difficult for the Palestinians and making life in Gaza more unlivable.
NERMEEN SHAIKH: Akram, under these conditions, if you could talk about the diseases that are so rapidly spreading in Gaza, including, most recently, polio?
AKRAM AL-SATARRI: Yes, some statements were made, and at least one case of poliovirus was already confirmed in Gaza for a child who’s 11 months old, and the risk of the outbreak of that disease, given the very severe limitations on the movement of the international staff and also of the local staff and also the impact of the ongoing operations on the primary healthcare centers, that most of them are not functional anymore because of the bombardment.
There were some also alarming percentages about the hepatitis A, that has been widespread in the Gaza Strip, and around 1 million Gazans have already been infected with this hepatitis A, that is extremely contagious. And that can be transmitted also through touching.
The water is polluted. The food is polluted, no hygienic conditions. And the result of that is very big risks for the public health of the people in Gaza. And the concerns have already voiced by the UNRWA, by other U.N. agencies, such as the UNFPA, the U.N. women program, where women, children and elderly people are bearing the brunt of that very lacking situation and of that ongoing bombardment. So, people at large are affected by that. They’re affected also by some digestive issues because of the quality of the water and the quality of the food and lacking to hygienic situation for also cooking the food.
So, overall, the situation is extremely risky and dangerous for all different categories of the Palestinian population. And if you need a soap in Gaza, if you need washing soap, or if you need even bleach to wash the clothes, you will not find it in Gaza. You will not find it in Gaza central area, in Khan Younis, in Rafah, or even in Gaza City. People are suffering, and people are denied the access to the very, very basic things that have to do with their life. They cannot clean themselves. They cannot clean their clothes. They cannot clean their houses or their tents. And they are left to face the exacerbating humanitarian crisis, and they’re left to face those increasingly acute humanitarian needs without any help extended to them, because, according to some of the international organizations, the Israeli occupation is not allowing the hygienic stuff into the Gaza Strip. and that exacerbates the problem of the Gazans.
AMY GOODMAN: Akram, we only have a minute to go. We do not take for granted that we’re even able to speak to you in Deir al-Balah, in Gaza. Deir al-Balah itself has been under attack. Ninety percent of Palestinians have been displaced at least once. How do you keep yourself and your own family safe?
AKRAM AL-SATARRI: Well, I’m one of the Palestinians who have been displaced. Our family — I’ve been displaced for around 12 times. It is something that makes you feel unsafe. This is something that makes you feel detached from your original habitat. This is something that makes you feel vulnerable. This is something that makes you fear an imminent death that is coming to you, something that I have seen with my eyes. I saw the bombardment. I saw the people getting injured. I saw the destruction of the homes of the people. And I saw people frantically trying to grab anything and run for the sake of just starting a new life anywhere else, where they are in a situation that is extremely lacking. No one is promised tomorrow in Gaza.
And I will conclude by quoting the UNRWA commissioner-general, who said, “No one safe, no place safe.” And that will still continue and remain like that if no solution reached, if no agreement concluded between all the parties. The situation is extremely catastrophic. I think sometimes I had the chance of being in Western countries. I had the chance of being in African countries, in China. I tell you, what we are living is inconceivable in the sense of everything that has to do with a normal life. We are extremely sure that we might not live for the next second, not for the next minute. But we still have to endure that, and we still have to chase life, despite death, uncertainty and destruction.
AMY GOODMAN: Akram al-Satarri, be safe. Thank you so much for being with us, Gaza-based journalist, joining us from outside the Al-Aqsa Hospital in Deir al-Balah in central Gaza. We usually break at this point, but because we’re going to the occupied West Bank, to Jenin, which is under siege, we don’t want to risk losing our next guest.
