The Daily - Nine Days in Gaza

Episode Date: May 19, 2021

“You never get used to the sound of bombings,” Rahf Hallaq tells us on today’s episode.Ms. Hallaq, an English language and literature student, lives in the northwestern area of Gaza City, where she shares a home with her parents and five siblings. She turns 22 next month.We talk with Ms. Hallaq about her life, her dreams and what the last nine days have been like in Gaza.Guest: Rahf Hallaq, a 21 year-old English student and resident of Gaza City.Sign up here to get The Daily in your inbox each morning. And for an exclusive look at how the biggest stories on our show come together, subscribe to our newsletter. Background reading: In Gaza, an ordinary street, and extraordinary horror, as missiles thunder in.As fighting enters its second week, it is being defined by civilian casualties, undiminished rocket fire and airstrikes, and by historical tensions erupting into unrest. Here’s what to know about the conflict. For more information on today’s episode, visit nytimes.com/thedaily. Transcripts of each episode will be made available by the next workday.

From New York Times, I'm Michael Barbaro. This is The Daily. In the war between Hamas and Israel, civilians in Gaza have suffered disproportionately. So far, rockets launched by Hamas, which initiated the airstrikes, have killed 12 people in Israel, sowing fear across the country. But Israel's counterattacks have killed more than 200 people, dozens of them children, as it seeks to destroy Hamas' leaders, rocket sites, and tunnels in Gaza. Today, a conversation with a resident of Gaza about what it's been like there for the past nine days.

It's Wednesday, May 19th. Hey, Rahaf, I think you are muted. Hi. Can you hear me now? Yes. Hi, Rahaf. It's Michael Barbaro. Hi, Michael. How are you? Good, good. It's nice to meet you. Nice to meet you, too. Rahaf, I wanted to start by asking you to pronounce your full name for me.

My first name is Rahaf. My second name is Elhalaq. Gotcha. Where am I reaching you right now? Where are you? Well, I'm at my own house right now in the northwestern area of Gaza City. I have my family with me, my mom, my dad, and my five siblings. And are you the eldest of those five siblings? That's a big family. Yes, I'm the eldest. And just describe the ages and the family. How old are you? How old are they? day? Well, I'm turning 22 next month. I have a 19-year-old sister, a 15-year-old sister,

an 11-year-old brother, a nine-year-old sister, and the youngest is four years old. And you're all together now in this house? Yes, we're all together. So for those trying to understand what a moment like this is like, I wonder if you can just describe what you're seeing and hearing on a day like this in the middle of Gaza from inside your house. There are constant bombings and you can hear them. Sometimes they're distant. Sometimes they're very near. But, you know, I've lived in Gaza for a long time. This isn't the first attack I'm living.

I've lived three attacks before and there are always bombings, even when there isn't an attack on Gaza, but you never really get used to the sound of bombings. They always terrify you, you know, and make your heart stop for a second. When was the last time you experienced that? You heard or felt a bombing? Well, it's just a couple of hours ago. Like the entire house shook. You have everyone in the house running to the center of the house, to the living room, making sure we're all there and we're all dead silent and anticipating something more. You know, usually when there's one bombing, another comes after it.

So like we have to live through this constant fear all day. Can you explain that? Why do you all run to the living room? Why do you all huddle together? Well, in our house, the living room is kind of the safest area to stay in. And if the house is bombed, we're all in one place. You know, people in Gaza have this thing they always say, like, if we die, we want to die together. I don't know if you've read the viral tweet for one of my friends, actually. Her name is Imam Bashir. What she said was that, today I put my children to sleep in my bedroom so that if we die, we all die together and no one lives to mourn the death of another one. Like, every Palestinian family in Gaza does this.

like every Palestinian family in Gaza does this. You're saying that you're most afraid of being a survivor, of surviving an attack that kills your parents or your siblings. Yes. I'm afraid of losing my family. You know, of course we're afraid of death. We have a life. We have dreams, too. And not getting the chance to fulfill them is actually terrible. But in times like these, your fear for your family and for everyone around you is the primary issue. Rafa, I want to talk a bit about you and those dreams that you just mentioned.

We are talking to you on a Tuesday night, the ninth day of what really has started to feel like a war between Israel and Hamas. Yeah. And before we talk about those past nine days and what that has been like, I'd like to understand who you are. You said that you are 21 years old, about to be 22. Are you in school? Are you working? Yeah, I'm a senior student at university. I'm majoring in English language and literature. This semester was supposed to be my last one. I really don't know what's going to happen if we do survive this, if I do survive this. But yeah, I'm about to graduate.

Tell me about why literature? Well, my dad is an English literature professor. He was the one who actually made the love of books grow inside me. He would usually borrow books from libraries, take me to bookshops and libraries, and then he would tell me to read and then just talk to him about what I read, what I thought about it. It kind of made me believe in the power of words and how words can actually describe us, tell our stories. Words are just fascinating. As a kid, what was your favorite book? I'm just trying to understand how you think about reading and about literature.

Well, as a kid, I was that kind of kid who liked mystery books, mystery stories. I also liked, you know, children books, Winnie the Pooh, Harry Potter, you know, those books. I started reading English from a very early age. So I read all those books as a kid. Those are good ones. I mean, indisputably. Yeah. Yeah, yeah. Are you reading a book right now? Yes, I'm reading 1984 right now by George Orwell. Why that book? Well, I started reading it because I'm studying it for a course, and then I love the book. It kind of reflects a reality I'm living.

Tell me what you mean. I mean that, you know, like when you're living under oppression, when you read those books, you feel like you're not the only one who's going through this. You feel like these words are actually speaking about you and to you. They give you the power to talk about your own ideas after that. I'm curious, why is that kind of connection through literature important to you, especially given that you have grown up in Gaza? I'm wondering if there's anything about growing up in a place like Gaza that makes that especially true for you? for you? Well, books actually teach you how important it is to speak. Like here in Gaza, we have so many untold stories that we have to tell by ourselves. Otherwise, they're not going to go out to the world. So you have to learn how to write. And literature gives you the vocabulary.

And literature gives you the vocabulary. It gives you the techniques. It makes you notice things that other people don't notice. And almost 10 days for you, given the late hour that this has all been happening. You said that your family knows to race to the center of the living room and to be together in these moments. And so I'm going to presume that that's what happened when this started. Is that what happened? Yeah. I'm going to presume that that's what happened when this started. Is that what happened? Yeah.

If there's any near strike around the area, the first thing you do is you run. And so what did you all say to each other when you huddled together at the start of this? Yeah, we'll usually be trying to comfort each other. Like, you know, it's kind of useless, actually. But we try as much as possible not to scream, not to cry because of the kids, because it only increases terror. Well, what did you tell the younger children? What exactly did you say to your younger siblings? Well, when you're in Gaza, you grow up knowing that there's an occupation. You grow up knowing that there's bombing. So you grew up early in Gaza. So my 11-year-old brother, my nine-year-old

sister, they kind of understand what's going on. The only one who doesn't understand is my 4-year-old sister. She's terrified by the sound, and she really doesn't know what's going on. She doesn't know why this is happening. She clings to me. When I was a kid, my dad usually used to tell us that the sound of bombs was fireworks. He would lie to you to spare you. Yeah, to spare us the idea.

So we tried to do the same thing with my sister. We told her this is the sound of fireworks. And she was like, no, this is the sound of people shooting. To be honest, it broke my heart because like she doesn't know the word bombing shows so she used the word in arabic which means shooting it kind of describes the sound of something blowing up if you know what i mean to her so it i really don't know how she understood that or where she came came up with that word but i know that something inside me felt really bad because this four-year-old child understands that this is an act of violence so what did you say to your sister when she saw through that explanation and said, no,

Rehafis is shooting. This isn't fireworks. What was your response? I just went silent. I just tugged her. I didn't know what to answer her. her. I didn't know what to answer her. And like right now, we don't talk about it in front of her. We just, when there are sounds, we hug her, we try to comfort her, and that's it. Because we can't explain to a four-year-old what all of this means. Right. I'm wondering what your days have been like this past week and a half. Can you describe a typical day for me? I know that's a strange word to use in this moment because it's so atypical, but is there any sense of routine that you're trying to hold on to as a family, as an individual? No, there's no routine, actually.

It's just that when we wake up in the morning, we usually just watch the news, scroll down our Twitter and Facebook accounts. We're reading the news, following up constantly. And we stay like that all day, for the night because nights in gaza are the toughest time they are utter terror to say the least why are nights utter terror well usually after 12 a.m until the break of dawn there are very heavy bombings in every area of gaza strip you can hear them everywhere they're very close but you don't know where

they're bombing like you have this entire half an hour of constant bombings one after another one after another they keep falling non-stop and it happens every day at night and if you scroll down our twitter accounts when night starts to fall you're going to find a lot of tweets saying the nightmare has begun or it's coming or you know hope, I pray we all come out of this alive. When we say goodnight to each other, it means that I might not wake up tomorrow. We'll be right back. you mentioned spending a lot of time scrolling through your twitter account i'm i'm always on twitter you're always on twitter I wonder what role Twitter has. It's the fastest way to know news. And when we're under all of those bombings at night, when all of those bombs fall at once, we usually don't even have the time to check by messages or anything. We scroll down our Twitter accounts. If my friends are tweeting, then they're still alive. Well, say more about Twitter in this moment, beyond being able to tell that your friends

are okay. What role has Twitter played for you in the past nine days? It was a platform to know what's going on, first of all. And it was a way of expressing my ideas, too. I usually post what I'm going through on Twitter, what our family is going through. It's our way of sharing our stories in the moment. Before we called you, I was able to look at some of your tweets and you describe two moments that really stood out to me. So I wanted to ask you to tell me about them.

Yeah. There was one that involved the home of a friend of yours. Can you tell us the story behind that? Yeah. of a friend of yours. Can you tell us the story behind that? Yeah, what happened was that we were just talking to each other on WhatsApp. Our friends, you know, classmates, making sure we're all okay. And then suddenly one of my friends was like,

guys, pray for Zainab. They're saying that they're all under the rubble of their house. Their house was suddenly bombarded without warning in the middle of the night. And the building contained not only her family, it contained her uncle's families, her aunt, her grandparents. Like it wasn't just her house. It was a big building. It had several floors. And this is a friend of yours from school.

Yes, she's a friend of mine. I was actually speaking to her the evening before that happened. And it was just so shocking. If you notice in the tweet tweet I keep updating every several hours because during all of that time we were waiting who of her family was pulled out from under the debris of their house who's

alive who's at the hospital who's dead and she lost 22 members of her family four of them were very close her two brothers and her sister and her mother. The only survivors are herself. She was injured. She had to undergo surgery. And her third brother and her father.

So this is quite literally the nightmare scenario that you described earlier of being the survivor of an attack on your family. Yes. It's a complete nightmare. I really can't imagine what she must be going through right now. It's unimaginable. Yes. now. It's unimaginable. Yes. There was another tweet, Rahaf, that stood out to me as well, and it was about a local bookstore. Yes. And it stood out to me because of how essential now having met you, I know that books and writing and reading are to you growing up in Gaza. Can you tell me about that tweet and about that bookstore? Yes. It's called Samir Mansour Bookstore.

It's one of the oldest bookstores in Gaza, one of the biggest bookstores. Like when you enter the place, you have several shelves of books holding Arabic books on the first floor by authors from all over the world. Some of them are English books and world literature and, you know, books written in other languages that are translated to Arabic. And on the second floor, you have the English section for the English readers in the strip. Like it's right outside the university. So after we finish lectures or during the breaks, me and my friends would go to that bookstore, pick certain books, you know, buy them, read them together afterwards.

You know, they're just small memories, but they're the kind that mean a lot to you because they signify good times, peaceful, beautiful times with friends surrounded by beautiful things. And I only learned about this this morning. We wake up to scroll down our feed and I found it posted on my news feed that it was bombarded. They threw a missile on the building which the bookstore is under

and the entire bookstore was destroyed. And not only me, all of my friends were devastated by this because this bookstore holds so many memories and we just don't understand why anyone would bomb a place like that. You know, that bookstore holds so many memories for all of us. And now they're all gone. All of those books are gone. Right. I mean, you and the people around you have lost so much in Gaza. Yes, it's only been nine days and we've already lost all of those people. We've lost all of those places. Like, it's... I can't find enough words to describe it, actually.

You are almost 22 years old. Yes. And I know you have likely developed clear political views on what it means to be a Palestinian. Mm-hmm. Has the past nine days changed those views for you at all? Hardened them? Softened them? Altered them? tell the world more about what kind of oppression we're going through. It made me want to talk more about my history,

read more about history, and tell the world more about history. That's just what it does to you. You know, when you see everything around you collapse, when you see your friends dying, your friends losing their families, when you're under the danger of losing your own family, it only makes you angrier, if you know what I mean. I wonder what you think it will be like when this is over. I know that that moment may be a while. Both Israel and Hamas have said that they do not plan to end these attacks and counterattacks, but

when it's over, have you imagined what life will be like in Gaza? I really can't imagine. It's kind of like after every attack, you go out, you face all of that destruction. It breaks your heart and you just have to deal with it until it ends, until everything is built up again.

But, you know, it leaves wounds, it leaves injuries and it leaves trauma that you can never heal. Life has always been hard, and I don't know how this is going to end. I don't know how long it's going to be. But right now, I have one concern. I want to survive it. Rahaf, I want to thank you for your time. I'm glad to have met you. Thank you, Michael.

Nice to meet you, too. Thank you for having me. I look forward to someday reading whatever book it is that you write. Yes, I hope I get the chance to write a book and achieve my dreams. Thank you, Michael. The Times reports that the battle between Hamas and Israel has now created a humanitarian crisis in Gaza, damaging 17 hospitals and clinics there, wrecking Gaza's only coronavirus test lab,

destroying sewage systems, and breaking water pipes that serve at least 800,000 people. Meanwhile, in an emergency meeting on Tuesday, the majority of the European Union's foreign ministers called for an immediate ceasefire between Hamas and Israel. In a statement, the ministers said that Israel had the right to defend itself, but cautioned that it must be done, quote, in a proportionate manner.

It must be done, quote, in a proportionate manner. Tomorrow on The Daily, we'll look at President Biden's approach to the conflict. We'll be right back. the January 6th attack on the Capitol because it would not examine unrelated political violence associated with the left. McCarthy's statement suggested that the House vote on whether to create the independent commission expected this week would likely become a partisan process. And it was the latest evidence that as a political strategy, House Republicans are determined to defend former President Trump in order to curry favor with his supporters. Today's episode was produced by Aastha Chaturvedi and Annie Brown, with help from Rochelle Banja.

It was edited by M.J. Davis-Lynn and Lisa Chow, and engineered by Chris Wood. That's it for The Daily. I'm Michael Bavaro. See you tomorrow.