Democracy Now! / October 4, 2024
Guest : Akram al-Satarri – Gaza-based journalist
As Israel’s military escalates its attacks on Lebanon, it has continued its relentless bombardment of the Gaza Strip, where almost a year of war has now wiped 902 entire Palestinian families off the civil registry. There are another 1,300 families where only one family member has survived. The official death toll in Gaza has reached nearly 41,800, but that is believed to be a vast undercount. Gaza-based journalist Akram al-Satarri says one year into Israel’s war, the medical and humanitarian crisis remains unchanged. He describes some of the horrific injuries suffered by Palestinians, including many children, that have resulted in mass amputation of limbs, and says people are in a constant struggle for shelter and safety. “The suffering is continuous, and now the war in Lebanon is adding further burdens on the Palestinians and is giving more space for the Israeli forces to continue the bombardment in different areas,” says al-Satarri.
TRANSCRIPT
AMY GOODMAN: This is Democracy Now!, democracynow.org, The War and Peace Report. I’m Amy Goodman.
We turn now to Gaza, where authorities say Israel’s yearlong war has now wiped out a shocking 902 entire families off the civil registry, another 1,300 families where only one family member has survived. The official death toll in Gaza has topped 41,800, but that’s believed to be a vast undercount. On one day in Gaza this week, Israel killed over a hundred people, with 51 in Khan Younis alone, including 12 children. Over the last 24 hours, the Palestinian Health Ministry reports at least 14 people were killed, 50 wounded in Gaza as Israel bombed residential buildings near the Nuseirat camp and struck civilian homes in Deir al-Balah and Khan Younis.
This comes as Israeli forces have killed at least 50 Palestinians across the West Bank since launching raids on August 28th. An Israeli airstrike Thursday on the Tulkarm refugee camp killed at least 18 Palestinians when Israeli fighter jets targeted a crowded cafe, the largest and deadliest airstrike in the occupied West Bank in more than two decades. Israel’s military claimed the bombing targeted the head of Hamas’s infrastructure in Tulkarm. There is a West Bank-wide strike today protesting that attack.
But we’re staying in Gaza right now, where most corporate media in the United States rarely get a report from, as Israel has banned international journalists from being there. For more, we are joined by Akram al-Satarri. He is a journalist based in Gaza, standing outside the Al-Aqsa Hospital in Deir al-Balah and in central Gaza.
Very little attention, Akram, is being paid right now to what is happening in Gaza as the attacks intensify there, because of the attention on Lebanon and Iran. Can you describe what’s happening on the ground?
AKRAM AL-SATARRI: Well, the situation in Gaza is still the same for the last one year. The corporate media is not paying enough attention for the situation in Gaza, not because of the war in Lebanon, but because of the embarrassment that is caused by the fact that the Palestinians have been suffering for such a very long time, and the suffering has reached all different components and aspects of their life.
Families were lost, like you have just said. The children are living now with their parents, as you have just rightly said. Some people ended up living alone without their families, elderly people, as you have just said. Some children are left in the hospitals for strangers to care for them as foster family, because they lost their families, and no other family members remaining to look after them.
The international community, including the Arab region powers and the international powers, have been talking for the past year about the importance of upholding the principles of the international humanitarian law; however, they failed to observe those international rules. They failed to maintain the dignity of the Palestinians. They failed to maintain the right of Palestinians to a decent life. They failed to maintain the right of the Palestinians to shelter. They failed to uphold the right of the Palestinians to access medical care.
And because of that, we have a very large number of Palestinians, around 95,000 Palestinians, who need urgent medical care outside of Gaza. However, they are staying in Gaza. Some of them are already dying because the very lacking situation when it comes to the medical supplies, and also for the medical and surgical expertise that his needed to conduct such precise surgical interventions to save their lives or to improve their health conditions or to prevent any kind of disability.
Two-point-three million people in Gaza have been subjected to continuous evacuation orders, where they are asked by Israeli forces to move from one area to another. One hundred fifty thousand people were moving in 24 hours in Khan Younis area. Around 250,000, a quarter-million, were asked also to move all together in three hours in Gaza central area. And now I think Israel is contemplating some more options, including the forceful transfer of the people in the Gaza north to the Gaza south and declaring the Gaza north as a military zone.
So, the problem of the Palestinians is that the international community could not dictate any kind of solution, could not even make Israel reconsider its positions when it comes to the way it has been dealing with the larger Palestinian population, 2.34 million people, including women, around 1 million child, because around half of the Palestinian population is under 18.
So, the suffering is still continuous. And without the war in Lebanon, Palestinians were not helped a lot, and all they could access is below the minimum of any average human being outside of the Gaza Strip. So, the suffering is continuous. And now the war in Lebanon is adding further burdens on the Palestinians and is giving more space for the Israeli forces to continue the bombardment in different areas. In Khan Younis area, like you said, in one night, 54 people were killed. Twenty-two of them were same-family members, and 12 of them were children. Today, just now, few minutes ago, four women were killed in an area in Gaza, central area, four women — two old women and two of their daughters. Some other grandsons and granddaughters were injured.
And the sound of sirens in this place is also reminding us of the continuation of the crisis of the people of Palestine and of the political and moral failure by the international community to help the Palestinians and to realize their very very basic rights. People are just passing by. Right behind me, you can see now people are mourning the death of their dears, nonstop flow of the people, nonstop flow of the mothers, the daughters, the sisters, the sons, the grandparents, who are coming there just to see off their dears. Some of them are lucky enough to make it to the hospital because the body of their dears is in the morgue. But many more, up to 10,000 Palestinians, are still missing.
Missing means they have already been decomposed under the rubble of their houses. Missing means there have been some people who are living and eating and sleeping in the hope that they would find the decomposed body of their dears that has already become something that melted under soil. Missing means some families that were scattered, and they will never be reunited, that they’re still suffering and they’re still hoping justice would be served.
This is a glimpse in the life of the Palestinians. And this is part of the suffering that the people have been living and are still living. And this is only one aspect of the suffering that I have been seeing in Gaza. Food is still very scarce. Cooking gas is still very scarce. Water is extremely polluted. Living conditions are extremely below the standard. Some of the diseases are befalling the people in the Gaza Strip. Children have been suffering from digestive problems. Elderly people have been suffering from digestive problems. They have not been living in decent shelters. They are using only sheets of clothes to make sure that they stay. So, everything that has to do with the humanity is compromised in the Gaza Strip and is missing.
AMY GOODMAN: Can you talk, Akram, about the children who are wounded? More than a thousand children in Gaza have lost at least one limb. We have a conflict in Gaza that has created the term ”WCNSF,” “wounded child, no surviving family.” Can you talk more about this as you cover what’s happening there?
AKRAM AL-SATARRI: Well, I had the chance to meet some of the people, not only children, but elderly people, who are affected by the ongoing bombardment. And also, the weapons that are being used against the people in Gaza have been causing some kind of strange cuts. I spoke to one woman around 35, 37 years old. She was telling me that there was a missile that hit her home, and all of a sudden something — the missile penetrated the soil, and something went out of the soil, cutting her two legs. And now she has to live with two amputations, and she needs to be trained as to how she can respond to her basic needs. There were some attempts by international organizations to build some limbs, artificial limbs center. They are facing a considerable challenge bringing in the needed stuff, bringing in the needed materials.
The children are bearing the brunt of those things. In Nasser Hospital, in Shuhada Al-Aqsa Hospital, Kamal Adwan Hospital, the intervention hospital, I have seen children with different degrees of the injuries and also with different amputations. Some of them lost their two limbs. Some of them lost one limb. Some of them lost three limbs. Some of them lost sight. And they are all in need, number one, to training to make sure that they can be reintegrated in life and that, and more importantly, they can deal with the reality that has unfolded after they have been injured. Number two, they are facing a great challenge: the very lacking situation that Gaza is living. Again, people are struggling to secure the food, let alone the medical consumables, the medication, the bandages that are needed for the dressing. So, their life is extremely complicated.
And I have seen different people who were just talking to me about their condition and who were asked to take their children out of the hospital. And they were telling me, because somehow I was communicating with them to know the exact situation of their children. They were telling me, “How can we probably take our children back home when we have no home? How can I take a child with two amputations in two limbs, in two legs, and they cannot walk, and they need to find some appropriate and conducive, adapted environment for them to be able to survive and to live with, adapt with the new disability? And how can we take them home when they have no home and when we are living in tents?” Tents that are erected — in al-Mawasi area, they are erected on the sand, close to the beach. Now by the tidal movement increasing — and there is one more bombardment, if you could hear it just now. With the tidal movement, they are now soaking in seawater. So, a person who is not amputated is suffering with this. Now you can imagine the suffering of a child who’s living in a tent that is not equipped to deal with his disability.
So, the situation is very lacking. And the most important thing is that the number of children who are like that is increasing because, again, of the ongoing bombardment. One hundred thirteen people were killed in the last 72 hours, and around 400 were injured. Around half of them are children. And you will definitely find some children who lost their limbs among the people who are affected, and that brings more suffering to the lives of the people, and that increases the number of the children who are suffering, with no clear answers as to how can they be safe.
Now there are some attempts to bring children outside of Gaza. Like, in the last few days, around 70 children were leaving outside Gaza. But when you have around 1,000 children in need to limbs, and they are not allowed to leave Gaza, and they have also some medical course to be followed, and they need advanced medical care because of some of the infections in their fresh amputations and the wounds, the situation is very critical. And again, the international community fail to bring comfort to the life of those children after all they have seen.
AMY GOODMAN: Akram al-Satarri, I want to thank you so much for being with us, a journalist based in Gaza, joining us from outside the Al-Aqsa Hospital in Deir al-Balah, in central Gaza. Please, stay safe.
