Headlines
by Amy Goodman
DemocracyNow!
October 09, 2024
Israeli Soldiers Push into Gaza’s Jabaliya Refugee Camp, “Firing at Anyone Who Moves”
Oct 09, 2024
Israel’s military has once again invaded the Jabaliya refugee camp in northern Gaza, its third such offensive in the last year. The Palestinian Red Crescent Society says the assault has left dozens of people dead or injured, as soldiers “fire at anyone who moves.” The Palestinian Ministry of Health reports Israeli troops surrounded the Kamal Adwan Hospital and gave medical workers 24 hours to completely empty the hospital of patients and staff. Israel issued similar orders to the Indonesian and Al-Awda hospitals. The orders threaten to collapse the healthcare system for an estimated 400,000 Palestinians who remain trapped in northern Gaza.
In central Gaza, mourners gathered in Deir al-Balah earlier today to pray for 17 people killed when Israel bombed tents housing displaced people in the Nuseirat and Bureij refugee camps. This is Ragab al-Khalidy, who carried the body of his young nephew Hossam, who was killed in the attack.
Ragab al-Khalidy: “They were sleeping safely. Why are they targeted with two rockets? What fault did they commit to be targeted with two rockets? Why should we have to get them out of the fire?”
Israeli Bombs Rain Down on Lebanon as Hezbollah Says It Repelled Israeli Border Incursions
Oct 09, 2024
Israel’s military continued its devastating attacks on Lebanon overnight, with massive explosions reported in Beirut’s southern suburbs and the Beqaa Valley. The bombings compounded the misery of displaced families, many of whom have been forced to find shelter in open-air encampments in Beirut’s streets.
Rabih Ayoub: “We fled from the bombing, from the rockets that were coming at us. Our homes were destroyed. Come and see the people who are displaced here. They have been humiliated.”
Amira: “Is there anyone who is not scared of war? Especially that we have a child with us. God help us, and God help the people.”
Earlier today, Hezbollah said its fighters repelled two incursions of Israeli troops attempting to invade southern Lebanon. Hezbollah’s deputy leader Naim Qassem said in a statement the group was prepared to negotiate a ceasefire with Israel.
Israeli PM Netanyahu Warns Lebanon Could Face “Destruction and Suffering Like Gaza”
Oct 09, 2024
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu directly addressed the people of Lebanon in an English-language video message, boasting that Israel had killed Hashem Safieddine, who was meant to replace assassinated Hezbollah leader Hassan Nasrallah. Netanyahu warned Lebanon’s nearly 6 million inhabitants they could face “destruction and suffering like we see in Gaza.”
Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu: “Do you remember when your country was called the pearl of the Middle East? I do. So, what happened to Lebanon? A gang of tyrants and terrorists destroyed it. That’s what happened. Lebanon was once known for its tolerance, for its beauty. Today, it’s a place of chaos, a place of war.”
Syria Says Israeli Strike on Damascus Killed 7 Civilians
Oct 09, 2024
Syrian media is reporting seven civilians were killed and 11 others injured Tuesday in an Israeli airstrike on a residential building in a suburb west of the capital Damascus. Women and children were reportedly among the dead. Israeli officials claimed the attack was aimed at killing a Hezbollah official involved in weapons trafficking.
U.N. Chief Warns Israel Against Blocking UNRWA’s Work Aiding Palestinian Refugees
Oct 09, 2024
U.N. Secretary-General António Guterres says he’s written directly to Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu warning him against dismantling the U.N. agency tasked with providing food, healthcare and social services to Palestinians in Gaza and the occupied West Bank. Two bills under consideration in Israel’s parliament would prevent UNRWA from continuing its essential work. Guterres said passage of the legislation would “be a catastrophe in what is already an unmitigated disaster.”
Secretary-General António Guterres: “Without UNRWA, the delivery of food, shelter and healthcare to most of Gaza’s population would grind to a halt. Without UNRWA, Gaza’s 660,000 children would lose the only entity that is able to restart education, risking the fate of an entire generation. And without UNRWA, many health, education and social services would also end in the occupied West Bank, including East Jerusalem.”
Israeli Defense Minister Cancels Plans to Meet in Washington, D.C., with Pentagon Chief
Oct 09, 2024
Israeli Defense Minister Yoav Gallant has canceled plans to travel to Washington, D.C., to meet with his U.S. counterpart, Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin. Israeli media is reporting Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu blocked Gallant’s visit because he first wants to speak with President Biden about Israel’s plans to attack Iran, in response to Iran’s missile attack last week.
Palestinian Activist Issa Amro and British Israeli Architect Eyal Weizman Win Right Livelihood Awards
Oct 09, 2024
Prominent Palestinian human rights defender Issa Amro has received the 2024 Right Livelihood Award for the work of his organization, the Hebron-based Youth Against Settlements. The group, based in the occupied West Bank, was recognized for its “steadfast non-violent resistance to Israel’s illegal occupation, promoting Palestinian civic action through peaceful means.” Amro has been detained by Israeli forces several times over his activism, beaten and tortured in Israeli prisons. Other Right Livelihood winners include British Israeli architect Eyal Weizman, who accepted the award on behalf of Forensic Architecture, which has mapped out possible war crimes committed by the Israeli occupation in the Gaza Strip and Palestinian territories. Click here to see our interviews with Eyal Weizman and Issa Amro. The other Right Livelihood Award laureates for 2024 are Indigenous human rights and environmental activist Joan Carling of the Philippines and Anabela Lemos, a Mozambican environmental activist.
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“The First Live-Streamed Genocide”: Al Jazeera Exposes War Crimes Filmed by Israeli Troops Themselves
by Amy Goodman
DemocracyNow!
October 09, 2024
A new documentary from Al Jazeera takes a look at evidence of war crimes in Gaza in the form of social media posted by Israeli soldiers recording and celebrating their own attacks on Palestinians. We play excerpts from the film Investigating War Crimes in Gaza, now available online, and speak to two of the journalists involved in its production, director Richard Sanders and Gaza-based correspondent Youmna ElSayed. “Israelis themselves were telling us precisely what they were doing and why they were doing it,” says Sanders about the evidence the team reviewed. “They don’t think it’s complicated. They don’t think it’s nuanced. Their rhetoric is often overtly genocidal.” ElSayed adds, “They’ve had all the courage to do that because they know that they are not even going to be condemned.”
Transcript
This is a rush transcript. Copy may not be in its final form.
NERMEEN SHAIKH: Health officials in Gaza say the death toll from Israel’s war has now topped 42,000, though many fear the actual death toll is far higher. We begin today’s show looking at how Israeli troops have repeatedly filmed themselves committing and celebrating war crimes in Gaza.
Al Jazeera’s Investigative Unit has just released a documentary on Israeli war crimes, based in part on social media posts from Israeli soldiers themselves. The documentary begins with the Palestinian novelist Susan Abulhawa, as well as footage of the Al-Awda school massacre in July, when Israeli troops killed at least 31 people at a school sheltering displaced Palestinians. The moment the bomb exploded was captured on video by someone recording a youth soccer game in the Al-Awda school courtyard.
SUSAN ABULHAWA: The West cannot hide. They cannot claim ignorance. Nobody can say they didn’t know. We live in an era of technology, and this has been described as the first live-streamed genocide in history. And I believe that to be true.
ISRAELI SOLDIER: [translated] That blew me away!
SUSAN ABULHAWA: They are conducting a genocide now with glee. They’re setting their atrocities to music and putting them on catchy reels on TikTok. Ordinary Israelis see what their military is doing and celebrate it.
NARRATION: A crowd is singing, “May your village burn!”
SUSAN ABULHAWA: It’s not just fringe elements who see this and think it’s a good thing.
PRESIDENT ISAAC HERZOG: When a nation protects its home, it fights. And we will fight until we’ll break their backbone. … It’s not true, this rhetoric about civilians not aware, not involved. It’s absolutely not true. It’s an entire nation out there that is responsible.
AMY GOODMAN: An excerpt from a new documentary on Israeli war crimes made by Al Jazeera’s Investigative Unit. That last speaker was the Israeli President Isaac Herzog.
This is another clip from the documentary. We hear from Human Rights Watch’s associate director for the Middle East and North Africa, Bill Van Esveld [sic]. The clips begin with video posted online by the Israeli 202nd Paratroopers Battalion that shows a possible war crime of the shooting of unarmed Palestinians in Gaza. This is a graphic warning.
YOUMNA ELSAYED: As troops leave Gaza, they place commemorative videos online.
ISRAELI SOLDIER: [translated] When they meet the 202nd battalion, they are going to regret being born.
YOUMNA ELSAYED: This video documents the activities of the 202nd Paratroopers Battalion.
CHARLIE HERBERT: I’m just going to halt this here. I’m going to play this back again. This is extraordinary. The fact that he’s put this onto video, he’s released this on YouTube, to me, is kind of quite extraordinary, that degree of impunity.
YOUMNA ELSAYED: The video shows two other instances where unarmed men are shot by snipers.
CHARLIE HERBERT: Of course I don’t know the context of what happened before. I don’t know what happened two minutes before that. They may have been involved in contacting and shooting at Israeli forces, and they may have been legitimate targets. But it sure doesn’t look like it to me.
AMY GOODMAN: An excerpt from a new documentary on Israeli war crimes made by Al Jazeera’s Investigative Unit.
We’re joined now by two guests. Youmna ElSayed is a correspondent for Al Jazeera who is based in the Gaza Strip. And Richard Sanders is the director of Al Jazeera I-Unit’s new feature-length documentary, Investigating War Crimes in Gaza.
Youmna, let’s begin with you, as you narrate this film. If you can talk about the video footage that we see, that is actually taken by Israeli soldiers themselves?
YOUMNA ELSAYED: Yes. Thank you for having me on your show again, Amy.
Of course, Israeli soldiers in Gaza taking these videos and posting them on different social media platforms, they haven’t been — they’ve had all the courage to do that because they know that they are not even going to be condemned by posting these videos. They are showing off how much they dehumanize Palestinians, how much they kill. They destroy their properties. They completely torture them and dehumanize them in different ways, whether they’re children, they’re men, they’re women. They brag about it, and they’re very proud of their doings.
And all this comes back to the fact that the Israeli army acts with complete impunity, and they know that even these videos being posted online, they won’t even be shown in other Western news outlets to point out how horrific these videos have actions committed by the Israeli army towards the civilians. On the contrary, Benjamin Netanyahu comes out and says, “We are the most moral army in the world,” when in reality they are the most inhumane army in the world.
As a journalist, as a civilian in any war zone, I am supposed to have the guarantee that a soldier from any other — any other place in the world, any other nationality in the world, as long as he carries that term, that definition that he is a soldier, he must have morals, he must have ethics that he would not hurt me as an unarmed civilian, as a journalist, as a paramedic. But in Gaza, for them, every single Palestinian, as long as you are a Palestinian, you are a legitimate target.
NERMEEN SHAIKH: I just want to issue a slight correction: The person in the first clip that we showed from the documentary was not Bill Van Esveld of Human Rights Watch, but, rather, Charlie Herbert, a retired British major general.
So, Richard Sanders, if we could turn to you, talk about the origins of this documentary, the fact that it begins with the Palestinian novelist Susan Abulhawa saying we are “in an era of technology, and this has been described as the first live-streamed genocide in history.” I mean, in a way, the film itself documents precisely how it is a live-streamed genocide. If you could elaborate?
RICHARD SANDERS: Well, thank you for having me, Amy.
Yes, and that’s precisely why we begin the film with those comments from Susan Abulhawa. The essential point of the whole film is no one can hide. The Israelis themselves were telling us precisely what they were doing and why they were doing it. The film is rooted in these soldiers’ videos, of which there are thousands and thousands. And we didn’t pick particularly damaging examples. They’re all like that. I mean, one thing that’s very striking is, what you don’t see in these videos is combat, or very rarely. There’s very little combat. Every now and then you see soldiers expending an enormous amount of ammunition, but they’re frequently standing up, and there’s clearly no incoming. So, that’s what you would think soldiers would want to post online, but they don’t.
Now, it’s not only soldiers’ videos, of course, we have in the film. There is Israeli media, Israeli politicians and Israeli social media. We’re not picking – again, as Susan says at the beginning of the film, we’re not picking unrepresentative examples. In the West, there is sometimes this rhetoric — even when people aren’t overtly supportive of the Israelis, there is this rhetoric of “it’s complicated,” “it’s nuanced,” “it’s difficult.” And what we’re really saying in this film is listen to Israelis. Listen to Israelis. They don’t think it’s complicated. They don’t think it’s nuanced. Their rhetoric is often overtly genocidal. It’s certainly frequently all about ethnic cleansing. They couldn’t have been clearer about what they were doing. And if we are ignorant, we’re willfully ignorant.
NERMEEN SHAIKH: So, Richard Sanders, how do you interpret the fact that these videos were made and posted so liberally by Israeli soldiers themselves? I mean, the obvious question is: To what extent did they think they were totally immune from any kind of repercussions as a consequence of what they were doing, which, you know, if you see those clips that you show in the documentary, are so obviously war crimes? In fact, the international legal expert whom you spoke to said that it’s very uncommon to have clips like this. He said “a treasure trove which you very seldom come across … something which I think prosecutors will be licking their lips at.” So, if you could just, you know, talk about that, how — what do you make of the fact that soldiers themselves so openly, transparently and widely distributed their own acts that could be construed as war crimes?
RICHARD SANDERS: They clearly felt this would be popular in Israel. They were competing for clicks, you know. And they were right. These videos were popular. You know, they were using some of the photos they took of themselves on dating apps. And yes, as you say, it speaks to an astonishing sense of impunity. I mean, the clip you’ve played there, where you actually see unarmed men being shot, that’s fairly unusual, but even so, that was put on YouTube by the people who did it.
Now, you know, what we very much hope is that this material — and, of course, there’s an awful lot of material additionally which isn’t in the film — this material will be of use to the ICC. It’s quite interesting, within Israel, if you follow Hebrew-language social media, there’s been a panicky deleting of social media accounts over the last few days. But it’s too late. We’ve got it all saved.
AMY GOODMAN: I want to turn to another clip from your new Al Jazeera Investigates documentary, when we see Israeli soldiers, in footage that they themselves shared, talking about the complete destruction of the Shuja’iyya refugee camp in Gaza.
ISRAELI COMMAND: [translated] Butterfly station, this is command. We’re launching Operation 8th Candle of Hanukkah, the burning of Shuja’iyya neighborhood. Let our enemies learn and be deterred. This is what we’ll do to all our enemies, and not a memory will be left of them. We will annihilate them to dust. Command out.
YOUMNA ELSAYED: The destruction of buildings is regularly featured, often set to music.
BILL VAN ESVELD: You see huge blocks getting blown up, universities getting blown up.
NERMEEN SHAIKH: So, that clip ended with Human Rights Watch, Bill Van Esveld. Richard, could you respond to what we saw there? And also, you know, what most surprised you as you were researching this documentary? I mean, there’s extremely disturbing testimony that we hear. And just a couple of examples: a man who says he was forced to lie on a decomposing corpse, as well as another in a detention center in southern Israel who witnessed a young inmate being raped by a dog.
RICHARD SANDERS: To be absolutely honest with you, nothing surprised me. It’s what I would have imagined was happening inside Gaza. I would say, imagine 40 years ago, before social media and, you know, before every camera — every phone had a camera. This would all have been done in the dark. But, in a sense, it makes no difference, as we say in the film, because they’ve posted it all online.
One of — the only thing, I would say, that surprises me — I’m not surprised that the Israeli soldiers feel complete impunity and so on, but the fact that higher up the chain of command and in the government, they clearly feel the same impunity, as well. No one has come down the line and cracked down on this and said, “Stop doing it.” It’s quite clear that Israeli politicians and Israeli military commanders feel that they enjoy complete impunity for what they’re doing in the Gaza Strip, as well.
AMY GOODMAN: I want to bring — go back to Youmna Elsayed. Last year, we spoke with you in Gaza shortly after an Israeli airstrike had just killed the family of your colleague, Al Jazeera’s Gaza bureau chief Wael Dahdouh. He learned of the deaths of his wife, son, daughter and grandson while reporting live on the air. The Israeli strike on the Nuseirat refugee camp killed at least 25 people in total. And Wael Dahdouh had fled to the refugee camp with his family after Israel ordered residents of northern Gaza to vacate their homes. This, Youmna, is what you said then.
YOUMNA ELSAYED: When we say there is no safe place in Gaza, we’re not lying. We’re not being biased. We’re not exaggerating. The north, Gaza City, and the south, they’re all just the same in terms of bombardment, in terms of targeting, and in all the life conditions.
AMY GOODMAN: So, that was last October. Before this, we spoke to you, Youmna, in 2021 when you were reporting in Gaza and Israel bombed and leveled a 12-story building that housed the offices of media organizations that you worked for, including the Associated Press and Al Jazeera. Israel claimed, without evidence, the building was being used by Hamas operatives.
AMY GOODMAN: What do you think the message is that was delivered to the media by this attack on the main media offices, Al Jazeera and AP, where you work, other media organizations, now Tony Blinken, the U.S. secretary of state, saying he was not told of any direct evidence of Hamas working in this building?
YOUMNA ELSAYED: Yes, and I’m sure that there isn’t going to be any. I mean, the Israeli army, when it has the proof for anything to back its story, it provides it, one, at once, instantly. I mean, it wants to back its stories. It has to. OK? But it’s not a coincidence that three towers hosting media offices would be completely destructed. This is no coincidence. I mean, this is just a deliberate targeting to the media voice in the Gaza Strip.
AMY GOODMAN: So, that’s Youmna Elsayed in 2021. You notice there we’re not seeing her face, because the media building that we would talk to her in was blown up, that housed Al Jazeera, that housed AP. And then speaking again after — well, at this point, we’re talking about something like 174 journalists and media workers killed in Gaza. If you can talk about the significance of this and, in your reporting on this documentary, the killing of journalists in addition to doctors and nurses, paramedics and ambulance drivers, Youmna?
YOUMNA ELSAYED: Well, Amy, I’ve always said this, and I continue saying it, that every single time there is a war or a conflict in the Gaza Strip, military escalation, something that was so much easier than what we have been going through for the past year, this ongoing genocide, there was always an attack on the journalists and their offices in the Gaza Strip. In 2021, the largest three towers, media buildings, housing all media offices in Gaza, were completely destroyed. Al-Johara had over 50 media offices; al-Sharouk tower, the same; and Al Jazeera and the AP, as well, in that tower alone. This is Israel’s first approach towards journalists and their offices in Gaza at the beginning of any war. It’s always to try to make their job as difficult and as impossible as ever.
And it’s not just in wars and military escalations. I mean, at the protests of the Great March of Return, when we used to cover these protests, and these protests were taking place in the borders — on the borders and from the Palestinian side, where there’s a buffer zone of 300 meters away from that security fence, that was infiltrated on the 7th of October. When someone approached those 300 meters away from the security fence, they were shot. And we were labeled as journalists. And even away from that area, we would be targeted with gas grenades, that drones came and dropped them over our head. So, it was not a coincidence at any of those times.
This time — we have always spoken for many years about the suppression and oppression and violations and aggression of the Israeli army towards Palestinian journalists. But this year or last year, this suppression and oppression and fight against the freedom of press has not only been against the Palestinian journalists. If you’ve seen, it has reached and affected all international journalists, as well, because Israel has banned them from entering the Gaza Strip. And no matter how much letters they have issued, no matter what kind of pressure they have tried to put on the Israeli government to allow them to enter the Gaza Strip to do their legitimate responsibility and work, they were banned. They were declined. So, that oppression, that we have been speaking about for years, has also affected the international journalists today.
But on the other hand, the violation, the aggression against the Palestinian journalists, because we are Palestinian and we are inside the Gaza Strip, has been unprecedented, the killing. One hundred seventy-five Palestinian journalists, until today, have been killed. How many others, dozens others have been injured, and our families threatened and killed and injured? Unimaginable numbers.
AMY GOODMAN: I want to thank you both for being with us, Youmna ElSayed, Al Jazeera correspondent based in the Gaza Strip, though speaking to us from London, and Richard Sanders, director of Al Jazeera I-Unit’s new feature-length documentary, Investigating War Crimes in Gaza.
Next up, we’ll be joined by the acclaimed Palestinian photographer Motaz Azaiza, who repeatedly risked his life to document Israel’s war on Gaza. Stay with us.
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Motaz Azaiza, Acclaimed Journalist from Gaza, on Photographing War & Making “Art from the Pain”
by Amy Goodman
DemocracyNow!
October 09, 2024
“I never expected the world will know my name [because of] a genocide of my people,” says Palestinian photojournalist Motaz Azaiza, who gained international acclaim for his work during the first 108 days of Israel’s brutal assault on Gaza. Since evacuating in January, Azaiza has brought his advocacy for Palestinian rights around the world. Democracy Now! speaks to him from Washington, D.C., where he has just wrapped up a nationwide speaking tour titled “Gaza Through My Lens” in support of UNRWA USA. “Israel is targeting our children. Israel is targeting our babies, targeting our mothers, targeting our families. I just want to show the whole world so maybe I can bring help to my people through my photography,” Azaiza says.
Transcript
This is a rush transcript. Copy may not be in its final form.
AMY GOODMAN: Mona Miari and Zafer Tawil, performing this past weekend in Brooklyn at an event honoring our next guest. This is Democracy Now!, democracynow.org. I’m Amy Goodman, with Nermeen Shaikh.
NERMEEN SHAIKH: We’re joined now by the acclaimed Palestinian photographer Motaz Azaiza, who at the age of 25 has become world-known for documenting Gaza. For the first 108 days of Israel’s brutal assault on Gaza, Azaiza risked his life to show the world what was happening. In doing so, he gained over 17 million Instagram followers and emerged as one of the most prominent photojournalists in the world. Since evacuating, Azaiza has become a global advocate for Gaza. GQ Middle East magazine named Azaiza its “Man of the Year.” Time put him on its list of 100 most influential people of 2024. And he’s been nominated for the 2024 Nobel Peace Prize.
AMY GOODMAN: Motaz Azaiza is in the United States as part of a nationwide speaking tour titled “Gaza Through My Lens,” with UNRWA USA, the nonprofit that supports the United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees. In moment, he’ll join us from Washington, D.C. But this is the video produced by UNRWA USA describing Motaz’s work with the agency. The clip begins with UNRWA USA’s Mara Kronenfeld, but first Laila Mokhiber.
LAILA MOKHIBER: Gaza is one of the most beautiful places in the world, and that beauty was documented by a young photographer named Motaz Azaiza for years, eager to show the world his culture, his people, its rainbows, its sunsets, its sea.
MARA KRONENFELD: Even with this blockade, there was so much life in Gaza. And we thought, “We need somebody on the ground who can show us that life and also, of course, can show us the importance of education and health and shelter assistance that UNRWA is providing to those in Gaza.”
LAILA MOKHIBER: When I eventually was looking for a photographer on the ground to capture stories, to help show the people of the United States the real stories of Palestine refugees, I convened some of Gaza’s greatest around a table at Al Deira Hotel, a place I’ll forever cherish and miss. Among us were the late Dr. Refaat Alareer and others.
MARA KRONENFELD: Laila collected many applications. One was a lovely woman named Amjad, and one was Motaz. That day that those two were selected changed us in so many ways as an organization, and, frankly, changed us each personally, as well. Seeing Motaz suffer, along with all Palestinians in Gaza, and see him — and I’ll never forget this — seeing him holding a bloodied child, a girl, and taking her, speeding, to the hospital, and he had never learned to drive before that moment.
NAHED ELRAYES: Nobody in Gaza, in all of Palestine, chooses to be a hero. This includes Motaz. Once, I asked him over ice cream, “What is the number one thing you wish the world knew about Gaza?” And this nerdy photographer, whose favorite thing was capturing people’s faces and pretty sunsets, he just had this sad look in his eye, and he said, “That we’re human.” He never wanted to be a hero. He just wanted to survive.
AMY GOODMAN: A video by UNRWA USA about our next guest, the acclaimed Palestinian photographer Motaz Azaiza. He’s joining us now from Washington, D.C.
Motaz, it’s great to have you with us on Democracy Now! I wanted to go to the picture of — that introduces you on this tour that you took across the United States. You’re sitting in the rubble. So, of course, this is not a photograph that you took, but a picture that a photographer took of you, the photographer Fouad, who was killed. Can you tell us about Fouad and then talk about your work for that 108 days in Gaza since October 7th?
MOTAZ AZAIZA: Thank you for having me, Amy.
His name is Fouad Abu Khamash, and he was a volunteer with the Palestinian Red Crescent Society. He was doing his volunteer work documenting the work of the PRCS on the ground saving lives and transferring the injured people to the hospital. He was a dreamer. And that day, it was like a massacre, when he took this picture for me in my town. I was documenting this massacre, and he just shouted to me, “Motaz, just I’ll take a picture of you.”
It was then two months Fouad was killed beside, like, four of his colleagues in the PRCS. They didn’t know that the Israeli tanks will be on Salah al-Din main road in Deir al-Balah city, didn’t expect it. And they just found the Israeli tank in front of them. And he was inside the ambulance. Unfortunately, we couldn’t find a body for Fouad and other colleagues. Yeah, they opened fired on the ambulance. They killed everyone inside.
NERMEEN SHAIKH: So, Motaz, I want to go now to another photo of yours. This one is of a young girl stuck under rubble after her eight-story building was bombed by Israeli warplanes. Time magazine named it one of its top 10 photos of 2023. The woman lost seven of her family members. She was evacuated to Tunisia. She’s now facing the amputation of her leg. So, tell us about this woman and how you’ve come to advocate for her.
MOTAZ AZAIZA: Actually, she’s a young girl. She’s now 18 years old. And there was, like — the Israeli occupation bombed the eight-story building in Nuseirat refugee camp. So, I was there with other colleagues documenting what’s happening, and Civil Defense beside civilians are trying to help to save people from under the rubble. More than 180 people got killed that day. In this moment, we were, like, hearing her shouting, but nobody was seeing her. So I used the low shutter speed on my camera and a small hole so we can find her, and we found her. Everyone is trying to get her out. But, unfortunately, she’s now really facing amputation for her leg.
Let’s say, I feel at least she’s lucky that the world now sees her picture. Everyone, like, saw her picture from the world. But there are others, thousands of children, thousands of young girls, thousands of women, thousands of elderly, that nobody is looking to them, and they really need help. So, I’m trying my best, through the pictures, through the images of the people, to help them themselves, because, yeah, this picture has been selected by the Time as one of the top 10 pictures around the world for 2023, but the person in the picture needs the help. Not just like I want to be recognized for the picture. We need to help the human themselves. I want to save the lives through the pictures.
NERMEEN SHAIKH: So, Motaz, I want to ask you about your journey, how you became a photographer. You never wanted to become a war photographer. That is what you’ve ended up becoming. But talk to us about how you became interested in photography and how you documented life in Gaza through photography.
MOTAZ AZAIZA: Photography was my passion since 2014. I started to practice photography. I had my first camera in 2015. My cousin sent it to me. He was living in the U.S., Miami. And I hope he’s now safe from the hurricanes that’s happening there. [Inaudible], be safe.
I started to take pictures for the life, the simple life in Gaza. I started to take portraits. I started to be a dreamer who wanted to travel the world, take pictures, and everyone knows his name. But I never expected the world will know my name beside a genocide of my people. So, I was always trying to make art from the pain, and the beautiful pictures in a place that, like, every month there is aggression, every time there is a bombing, every time there is people losing their lives by the Israeli airstrikes, by the Israeli snipers.
I was, like, a volunteer since, like, 2016 with the PRCS. I was having my camera. In 2018, I got shot in my left femur by taking just pictures, because I was near to the borders with the PRCS, trying to save lives, because this a thing I — like, I’m loving. I’m trying to use myself to save my people and, the same thing, to take pictures.
So, I kept practicing photography, but every time the war grabbed me to it. I’ve been always trying to avoid taking pictures of war, but this is my life. This is our lives. So, you can’t run from the war that’s happening in your home. And this is what I did. I used, in this time and every time — this is not my first time to document a war. I documented massacres since, like, 2017 with my camera, and 2018, 2019, 2021 and 2022, 2023 in May, in 2023 on October. So, I’ve been always trying to take — to capture the beauty, but it’s impossible to run from the war in my country.
AMY GOODMAN: And, Motaz, I mean, the images before October and after are so striking. I want to now show a photo of a toddler gravely injured in a strike. If you can tell us what happened to this 2-year-old child named Jood? The Palestine Children’s Relief Fund has evacuated him to Chicago. You know, on your trip, you met a child in Dallas for the 5K run who had been evacuated. I saw you in Brooklyn when you met a little boy who had been evacuated, who was gravely injured. Tell us about Jood.
MOTAZ AZAIZA: I remember that day when I took the picture for Jood. I used my imagination. Like every young boy, his dream, like, to be like Spider-Man. But this boy was deeply injured, and his hands and his legs were like — he can’t move. And, like, I don’t know, in this moment, I remember that this boy, he will be a lot like Superman and Spider-Man. But, like, I saw, like, his image, the the moves of, like, Spider-Man, but at the same time he’s injured, he can’t move. He lost his mom. He lost his family. And his father, he didn’t come to the hospital yet. He was, like, low on the ground. There is no free space or a space for him to find a bed in the hospital.
So, I took this picture. I shared the story. And thank God, this picture, it was like a reason to save his life. So, he’s now getting treatment. He’s now in the U.S. with his father. And I’m happy for him. But in the same time, I’m really sorry for the thousands of children that I wish to take a picture for everyone to show the world that Israel is targeting our children. Israel is targeting our babies, targeting our mothers, targeting our families. I just want to show the whole world so maybe I can bring help to my people through my photography.
NERMEEN SHAIKH: And, Motaz, can you talk about what it was like for you, yourself, to have to flee Gaza? Do you still have family there? Describe your journey out.
MOTAZ AZAIZA: Yeah, my whole family is there. My whole relatives is there. I’m originally from Deir al-Balah city. I’m originally from Gaza Strip. So, my whole family is still there.
It wasn’t an option for me to leave; it wasn’t an option for me to stay. In the last days before I leave, I’ve been suffering to find food, to find tents for, like, in order if something happened. Israeli tanks, it’s like at the end of my street. And I was, like, suffering, and I stopped doing my work, like, just to find water, to find food, to find diesel for the car. So everything was really complicated and the risks so high.
After I lost two of my colleagues, Hamza al-Dahdouh, the son of Wael al-Dahdouh, and Mustafa Thuraya, the drone — friend who was taking the drone shots for me, it was really hard for me to stay, and there was no protection for me as a journalist. And I don’t want to lose, like, a part of my body to just show the world and to lose my life, to lose my parents, and I already lost 25 of my family, my relatives, 18 of my friends. I lost my whole life. So, I don’t think — I didn’t think that day, like, I need to lose more. For me, OK, maybe I will sacrifice my life if it will do a change. But I’m seeing more than 175 journalists got killed in front of the whole world, and nothing changed.
And I got refused by Israel to leave twice. It wasn’t easy. And I thought maybe when I will go out, I will make more changes. I will do something more on the ground to be between the people. And here I am. It’s been a year I’m trying to do something to stop this, or at least to protect the civilians.
AMY GOODMAN: And, Motaz, as we talked about this weekend, that moment that was so moving of you taking off your press flak jacket, with your colleagues around you, taking off the jacket with you as a kind of communal effort, when you left, with your parents and siblings, ultimately, Gaza.
MOTAZ AZAIZA: I wish I took the jacket with me. It wasn’t allowed, because it’s like — at the border, they believe that it’s a kind of armor, so you can’t take it. But it was a thing that I have from day one with me. It wasn’t going to protect me if Israel decided to target me with, like, drones or with snipers.
AMY GOODMAN: You had gotten calls on your phone, Motaz?
MOTAZ AZAIZA: Yeah.
AMY GOODMAN: Explain that.
MOTAZ AZAIZA: Yeah, it was calls from no caller ID, but it’s known, for Gazans, no caller ID, that means the IDF, so — or the IOF. So, yeah, they were, like, asking me to not go there, ordered me, like, to not go there, to not — OK, show something else. Don’t go into this area. And you will be killed if you go in there. Stick to the sea. You are not doing the right work. You should do something else.
And I believe the millions of the people who follow me, this made some protection for Motaz, that the whole world is watching him. And if something happens, it’s in front of the millions of the people. So, I felt that maybe the millions that made them speak to me in a way that it’s not just, “OK, we will kill you or do something to you.”
NERMEEN SHAIKH: And, Motaz, finally, you went earlier this year, in April, to the pro-Palestinian student encampment at Columbia University. Your response to the protests and what you’d like to see happen here?
MOTAZ AZAIZA: I would like to see everyone standing for us, standing for the humanity, standing for the right of Palestinians in their land. I want to see the white people, the Black people, everyone here in the U.S. standing for the right — on the right side of history. I want to see everyone just standing for humanity. Stop watching us being killed. Stop paying your taxes and sending it for Israel as weapons to kill the Palestinians, who even don’t have an army. And, like, just support us to get our rights in our land, to get our free Palestine. It’s not hard. It can be done, but we need a real stand with Palestinians.
AMY GOODMAN: Motaz Azaiza, we want to thank you so much for being with us, acclaimed Palestinian photographer, who documented the first 108 days of Israel’s assault on Gaza. Thank you so much, joining us from Washington, D.C.