Al Jazeera Gaza: Live Report on Annihilation Risk

AMY GOODMAN: We turn now to Gaza, where the Israeli military’s assault continues, now entering its 23rd month. We’re joined by Hani Mahmoud, Al Jazeera correspondent based in Gaza City. Hani, welcome to Democracy Now!

HANI MAHMOUD: Thank you for having me, Amy.

AMY GOODMAN: Can you describe what the situation is like on the ground right now?

HANI MAHMOUD: It’s… it’s beyond description, honestly. The level of destruction is unprecedented. We’re seeing constant bombardment, not just in the traditional sense of targeting military infrastructure, but deliberately targeting civilian areas. Hospitals, schools, residential buildings – nothing is spared. The deliberate destruction of hospitals, of schools, of residential clusters, the mass killing, mass wholesale killing of children is what we are witnessing. It’s what makes it very difficult. And this is, quite honestly, what keeps us doing what we’re doing, as we believe the world deserves to learn the truth, to learn about what’s going on on a daily basis.

We will have a whole generation of amputees, of new crippled young generation, because of the large number of children who were amputated inside hospitals because of the kind of bombs used by the Israeli military.

Telling these stories is important. The world needs to understand that a singular event – that lasted for how long? Three,couple of,three hours – was followed by 23 months of brutality that have destroyed everything across the Gaza Strip. And this is not a call that what happened was OK. We’re not saying this. But we’re saying what we’re looking at for 23 months, this aggression, continues to unfold in the most barbaric way. I’ve seen bombs falling nonstop on tent sites in al-Mawasi, an area that’s supposed to be safe for people. I’ve seen it targeting schools while people were sheltering inside. I’ve seen it targeting marketplace while at rush hour, where they are overcrowded with people trying to buy food. So, we’ve seen death in all forms and all shapes here across the Strip.

And standing here at this moment,is it safe? No,it’s not safe at all. There is no guarantee that – anything could happen here. Any bad thing could happen, whether you are here in the street, in an office, inside your home, because, again, this is very consistent with what the Israeli officials made it clear from the opening weeks of this genocide. They said there is no one safe here. Dehumanization, the demonization of palestinians.

And it looks like they put journalists at the top of the list, and they track them one by one. And if not – if not them, it’s their families. We’ve seen journalists’ families, whole entire families, being wiped off the civil registry, simply because they were telling the truth. They were documenting what was going on on the ground. This is Israel’s tactics to suppress any voice of the criticism on the ground, to maintain that vision worldwide that they are fighting barbarians, they’re fighting terror, they’re fighting uncivilized population.

But guess what: This has changed. And I hope it will continue to change, as what we’re seeing on a daily basis – what you see on the screen is only a tiny bit of what we’re able to show you. On the ground, it’s even worse. I have nights that I never slept at all, just visualizing everything that we cover throughout these days, the scenes of children soaked in blood inside hospitals, or the collapsing fathers, the crying mothers over the bodies of her whole entire family, the malnourished, the emaciated bodies of children inside the hospital. All these are haunting us throughout the night. And it’s not the only thing that keeps us awake. The drones in the background, that keeps buzzing and grinding down on the mental and the psychological well-being of everyone here, keeps us awake throughout the night, alert, because we are hypervigilant right now, because we don’t know when the next attack is going to happen.

AMY GOODMAN: Hani, as we wrap up, what gives you the courage to keep reporting, to staying there in Gaza, with so many of your colleagues killed, hundreds of them? And also, your thoughts on Netanyahu, the Israeli prime minister, not allowing in international journalists, as hundreds of your colleagues, Palestinian colleagues in Gaza, are killed?

HANI MAHMOUD: And I don’t see him allowing any international journalists coming to Gaza.I know, about a month ago, in a press conference, he gathered some 20 journalists, who waited for him to finish. No one had the courage to ask any of the serious questions, to question the credibility of the details, to question the policies, the acts on the ground here. They basically – he basically dominated the scene and pushed for the narrative that we have been hearing for the past 23 months over what’s going on.

What we’re seeing is a genocide, by all means. I mean, anyone with tiny knowledge of what’s going on would understand that what’s going on here on the ground is a genocide. When you systematically destroy the whole entire society, you either look at one thing, emptying the land, or by ways of population thinning or population transfer.That includes, of course, the mass killing of everyone.

But the moment we see international journalists coming in here, things will change. I just hope,at this point now,wherever they are,they would raise their voices,they will demand. It’s their right to be in this area. I mean, forget about the fact that the Israeli military is worried about their safety.What about the safety of everyone here,the safety of the civilian population here?

The other day,I was listening to an Israeli reservist who was making some math about the number of people killed here. And to my surprise, it was more than what the Health Ministry here estimated. We’re talking about close to 60,000 Palestinians have been killed. And this is how his math played out. He said, for every Hamas member, there were two civilians. And he added, he continued to say, like 30,000 Hamas members were killed, plus the – I mean, if you double that, that’s 60,000 Palestinians killed. And that’s by their own math. It’s more than what we have been able to count here and document,apart from those who are under the rubble,who are counted by the thousands,literally by the thousands. At the opening weeks of the war, the Israeli military carpet-bombed the entire northern part of the Strip. I remember this area vividly with its high-rise buildings, many of the residential buildings and towers in that area fully wiped out. During the January ceasefire,we covered extensively from the northern part of the Strip,and I walked for hours just looking for one standing building,and I could not find a single one,all flattened completely. And we were told by surviving family members, many were still buried under the rubble.

So, until we see more of this on the screen, I think things will continue to get worse. And it doesn’t matter how many meetings are running at the Security Council or the United Nations or elsewhere. Without any meaningful,practical steps on the ground,we are on our way to annihilation,basically,if not from the bombs,it’s from the lack of food,the lack of basic supplies,the lack of water. It’s a harsh reality, but it is what it is.

AMY GOODMAN: Hani Mahmoud, Al Jazeera correspondent based in Gaza, speaking to us just outside Gaza City. Thank you so much, and be safe.

Coming up, investigative reporter Ken Klippenstein on Trump’s war on the left following the assassination of conservative activist Charlie Kirk and this week’s deadly shooting at an immigration jail in dallas that killed one migrant, leaving two critically injured. Stay with us.

[break]

AMY GOODMAN: “Hi-Fly” by the late, legendary pianist and composer Randy Weston.