Gaza Is Unlike Anything I've Ever Seen, Says NGO Head/Ex-CNN Journalist Arwa Damon

this is democracy Now democracynow.org the Warren peace report I'm Amy Goodman in New York joined by democracy Now co-host Juan Gonzalez in Chicago hi Juan hi Amy and welcome to all of our listeners and viewers across the country and around the world Israeli war planes bombed areas across Northern Gaza today while ground troops conducted raids as the assault on the territory entered its 7 months forensic experts from gaza's Health Ministry are still removing bodies from the yard of shifa Hospital once the largest medical facility in Gaza that was burned down and destroyed by Israeli forces Health officials say the number of dead following Israel's raid on chiet is still not known but is in the hundreds meanwhile in the South Palestinians who tried to return to kanun gaza's second largest city following the withdrawal of Israeli troops Sunday say it is now unlivable an estimated 55% of the buildings in the hunis area around 45,000 buildings have been destroyed or damaged according to two mapping experts at City University of New York and Oregon State University who've been using satellite imagery to track destruction this comes as Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu is escalated his pledge to invade Rafa where more than 1.4 million Palestinians well over half half of gaza's population are Sheltering in a video statement Monday Netanyahu said quote it'll happen there's a date he said without elaborating he spoke as Israeli negotiators were in Cairo discussing International efforts to broker a ceasefire deal with Hamas the official death toll has now topped 33,300 including over 14,000 children that number does not include thousands missing under the rubble and and presumed dead nearly 76,000 people have been wounded Israel has been accused of using starvation as a weapon of war in Gaza where the spread of hunger and malnutrition has been described as unprecedented with famine setting in for more we're joined by ARA Damon she just returned yesterday from a humanitarian trip toaza she's an award-winning journalist and the founder of anara the international Network for Aid relief and assistance a nonprofit currently providing medical and mental health care to children in Gaza ARA Damon is also a non-resident senior fellow at the Atlantic Council she previously spent 18 years at CNN including as a senior International correspondent ARA Damon joins us now from Istanbul Turkey welcome to democracy Now ARA can you start off by talking about what you saw in Gaza and what you think needs to be done you know on the one hand that would seem like a simple question And yet on the other hand it's so extraordinarily difficult to actually put what what I witnessed into into words in fact gsin themselves can't actually grasp the fact that this has become their reality in Rafa in this Central southern area of Gaza where you have a crush of about 1.5 million people it feels as if you're moving through a sea of misery there is no EMP space left tents are spilling out of both un shelters and other makeshift shelters that have emerged they're spilling out on to the sidewalks there's stalls that have been set up the movement of people clogs the streets you have people having to move around on Donkey carts because there's not enough fuel or diesel to power vehicles and then you just have the sheer need of this entire mass of humanity that is to a certain degree feels as if it's absolutely suffocating because they need everything they are reliant on others for just about everything from food to water to medicine to baby formula to to diapers we stepped out in this one area called Moi which is sort of a beachy area it was gaza's beachfront and there it's just tent after tent after tent in the sand there's no sewage systems and so sewage sort of running along these makeshift canals there's no proper toilets there's no nothing and all of the mothers there are just shoving these emaciated babies at you you know begging for proper formula begging for proper care they're begging for medicine for children who are epilep epileptic you walk into a tent and with each step your foot takes a cloud of of mosquitoes and flies just just swarms up I mean it's it's inexplicable and and oura Israel has in in recent days uh uh said that it's opening up new uh new entry points into Gaza for Aid could you talk about the aid that you saw coming in which still has not reached the level the number of trucks per day uh before the war even started right and there's a number of things that I think you know everyone would be best served to to understand about you know Aid and and distribution so yes if more Aid is able to get in absolutely that is going to help however when it comes to getting Aid to those who need it it is beyond just opening up additional Crossings the aid trucks that come into Gaza all get searched by Israel and that is a process that can take around two to three weeks to begin with you do see Aid being distributed the problem is that the quantity of the aid is insufficient additionally it's important to note that once the aid gets inside Gaza getting it distributed within this you know tiny little space yet at the same time extraordinarily difficult to navigate Area poses great and additional challenges there's a process that's called deconfliction this exists in all war zones whereby which Aid organizations wanting to reach a certain area will notify Waring parties uh about their intent and will secure permissions to be able to safely move to that area this is a process that has not and does does not work inside Gaza and the tragic horrific strike that we saw on the world Central Kitchen Convoy is clear evidence of that and that really sent huge shock waves within the humanitarian Community because the world Central Kitchen has some of the best deconfliction mechanisms has some of the best lines of communication to the Israeli side and so you have these additional layers upon layers of challenges add to all of it the lack of Aid has created a very understandable level of panic among the population what that means is that whenever Aid arrives to a certain area there is chaos and there is panic and this is why you keep hearing people speaking about the need to flood the Zone The Zone needs to be flood not only with Aid so that people can stop panicking and have a certain measure of confidence that they will be getting a stable supply of food water and other basic necessities but also The Zone needs to be flood with humanitarian workers people who know how to address this level of a humanitarian crisis and could you talk as well about the impact of this uh War the mental health impact especially on the children of Gaza uh that you have spoken so eloquently about uh in recent days I'll give you one example uh a mother came up to me and and she was uh she'd heard about the fact that you know we we do work with mental health specifically with children it's also important to note that you know when an area population is still in crisis is still in an emergency all you can really provide is basic mental health especially for children and what does that actually look like it really just looks like a distraction so creating activities and and ways for them to express themselves um that that can sort of help help them distract themselves from all of the horror and the nightmare that they're going through but this mother comes up to me and she says don't know what to do with my seven-year-old right now because every single night he screams at the top of his lungs and he goes into what looked like convulsion and seizures and he started doing this uh after he saw his his sister's head blown off um during a strike that hid their home that also wounded other siblings you know you you walk around Gaza and I'm I'm talking specifically about the children right now but you see this also um very deeply in the adults and and you know that that sparkle that's normally supposed to exist in a child's eye it's not there anymore um that's not to say it can't come back and it can't be brought back with these activities you know there are these beautiful heartwarming moments where you are able to create a scenario for a child to be able to you know laugh and smile albeit briefly but you really feel as if you are walking through a population that is they're ghosts and they describe themselves as ghosts they're ghosts of their past they're the ghosts of who they used to be and they're constantly haunted by the ghosts of everything that they have lost and the trauma doesn't end it comes at them from multiple different directions every single day the the mental health impact of this is is unlike anything that I personally have ever seen 20 years working working in war zones just the immediacy um of the need the the speed with which this all happened and even people in Gaza when you talk to them right now you know despite having lived through this for six seven months they still tell you that that they feel as if you know this this can't be real right like this this can't have happened this has to be a nightmare from which one day they're going to wake up ARA you've said um you've pointed out that uh what's happening in Gaza right now is absolutely egregious that the Western World the ones providing the weapons cannot pressure Israel um into allowing more uh Aid and medical staff can you talk more about that I mean this isn't a you know a natural disaster where you know an earthquake happened and people can't get to the people explain exactly Israel's role in preventing this aid from getting to those in need so nothing goes in and out of Gaza without Israel's approval nothing um that includes Aid and that includes people a whole process for that and this is a process that actually existed before October 7th it is since October 7th extraordinarily and excruciatingly long in addition to that since 2008 there has been a list of items that are banned entry to Gaza this list also exists um to the West Bank now since October 7th there have been additional items that are not part of this list that have been rejected there is no formality to this rejection we in the humanitarian space end up finding out about items being repeatedly rejected and as such there's no point of trying to send them in because of repeat rejections these items range from things like you know solar panels to wheelchairs to certain kinds of medicine um to sleeping bags in some cases anything that the Israelis say can be deemed to be dual use but the problem is that it feels very illogical and again there's no formality to it so you don't know if an item is going to get rejected until you actually try to send it in some organizations have even had children's toys uh be rejected you know you try to put together these hygiene kits for for families and the nail clippers in them get get rejected and as such the entire truck gets completely uh turned around and so it's it's extraordinarily uh difficult to try to navigate that kind of a situation and obviously this creates an even a greater and more desperate need inside Gaza itself now what is very difficult to comprehend as you were saying there is the fact that Israel is an ally to the United States and other very powerful Western Nations is this the first time that we've seen an area under siege absolutely not look I covered Syria very extensively the regime of Bash I said a dictatorship along with their Russian allies did yes put entire neighborhoods and areas in Syria Under Siege but there we were talking about a dictatorship with Russia as its Ally we saw Isis besiege entire areas in both Syria and Iraq but we're talking about Isis we're not talking about a democratically elected nation state that is an ally of the United States and that is what makes it so difficult for anyone inside Gaza to comprehend how it is that the United States is allowing Israel to continue to besiege the strip in such a way and remember it was on day one that Israel cut off electricity water and basically vow to cut off you know any form of of assistance they cannot comprehend this they they cannot comprehend how it is that this is being allowed to happen to them on top of that happening to them and the United States is still continuing to fund the war effort AR Damon I want to ask you about um the journalists killed estimates between 90 and 130 140 journalists killed by Israel in Gaza alone uh you an award-winning journalist for CNN um for 18 years uh covered the US attack on Iraq uh I wish we saw you reporting more you mainly did it for CNN International which would show the picture of the Statue of Saddam Hussein coming down in a split screen with the casualties of War where CNN domestic would just show the statue of Saddam Hussein coming down hundreds of times but your reporting was extremely important I want to talk about seeing the images of casualties on the ground in Gaza uh right now Israel doesn't allow International journalists in and domestic journalists in Gaza so many of them have been killed can you talk about the significance of this because that leads to people around the world caring to put more pressure you know this is the first time I would argue that gin have control over the way that their story is being told and that has made to a certain degree the understanding that Western world has about what's actually happening in Gaza and the toll of all of it shifts slightly because the Western media does not control Gaza story anymore gazans do I have to say I mean I have so much respect and admiration for all of gaza's journalists because you know when we go into a a war zone wherever it is as as journalists there comes a point when we get to rotate out right you you can tap out you can say like I need a break you know send in the next crew they have not been able to tap out for six months and they're not reporting on something that is happening you know to a different population they're reporting on their own people what's happening to their own families and to their own loved ones this ongoing effort however it would most certainly seem to try to silence uh gaza's journalists is extraordinar disturbing but it is sadly part of this whole overarching desire to control the narrative and right now though it's not working because gaza's journalists and gazin they're not going to stop and they deserve to be commended for that and for the awareness that they're actually raising about what is happening to them and it's very very disturbing but to a certain degree makes sense from a p perspective that Israel is not allowing Western journalists in because if the scenes that gazin are witnessing every single day were part of you know the regular broadcasts that are happening there would be a much bigger and stronger outcry than what than anything that that we're seeing right now I mean you know I I went into the the European Hospital which is basically Southern gaza's currently largest and and only really remaining you know significantly functioning Hospital you walk into you know the hospital Courtyard the outdoor Pathways and it's streams of tents and there's sewage lines running next to the tents and this is inside a hospital and people have crammed themselves into the hospital corridors themselves you have bed after bed of of injured and the the injured children with amputations with horrific Burns I walked into the ICU um and there there was you know a 10-year-old boy and and the ICU nurse said he he's a gunshot victim he took a gunshot bullet straight to the head I want to ask you we we we only have about a minute for this segment but I wanted to ask you you uh We've mentioned that you were a CNN reporter for 18 years covered many conflict zones uh how do you look at the coverage of CNN since October 7th and the degree to which not only CNN but most western media Outlets are always deferring to uh Israel to make sure that Israel gets a chance to comment on every single story that they write or that they produce you know October 7th happened and then the coverage began and I immediately was catapulted back to the post 911 era and I I was in New York when 911 happened and I just I my hair stood on end because it was the same level of you know dehumanization that we saw back then it was the same sort of you know panicked kind of one-sided to a certain degree uh reporting that we saw back then and it was extremely upsetting because one would hope that you know we the journalism world the Western journalism space would have learned the lessons of of post 911 and and that we wouldn't sort of default into this whole dehumanization of of the other and I I I think it's it's really important that all journalists are cognizant and should know you know we we go all over the world you know there there's a basic fact that that we should all know and that is that you know people we're the same we love the same we laugh the same we live the same we feel pain in the same way and yet there was this default back into this dehumanizing rhetoric this this sort of us against them issue and it was absolutely devastating and and gutting and and heartbreaking to to witness and and see that you know we we we defaulted back into sort of that that same rhetoric and that same you know dehumanization of of a population that perhaps you know for very superficial reasons we don't perceive as as being like us and this desire to sort of inflict um Collective punishment on on an entire people arw Damon I want to thank you for being with us uh just returned from a humanitarian trip to Gaza awardwinning journalist with CNN but now founder of inara a nonprofit currently providing medical and mental health care to Children also non-resident senior fellow at Atlantic Council spent six 18 years at CNN as a senior International correspondent

Channel: Democracy Now!

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Id: VhQHYJcY7AA

Length: 21min 13sec (1273 seconds)

Published: Tue Apr 09 2024