"My Journey of Loss": Gaza Twin on Death of Mom, 14 Relatives & Continuing to Flee Israeli Bombs

this news is funded by viewers like you please support our work at democracynow.org Israeli forces began an escalated offensive on areas of central Gaza today with air strikes and ground forces moving into parts of virab balah including the B refugee camp Al jazer reports at least 75 people have been killed in the past 24 hours in central Gaza and the partially function in hospitals in the area are struggling to cope with the Surge and casualties meanwhile Israeli troops are continuing their offensive on Rafa in the South where more than 1 million people have fled over the past few weeks many of them heading back towards Central Gaza air strikes are also continuing in the north as well over the past eight months Palestinians in Gaza have been displaced over and over again as they flee from one area to the next in a desperate search for safety today we look at one young Palestinian story he's 19-year-old heli HIZ he's from Gaza City in Northern Gaza as Israel escalated its attacks on Gaza City he fled South toafa with his parents an identical twin brother a few days after the they left an Israeli air strike hit their family home in Gaza City killing 14 members of their family heli spent three months Sheltering in Rafa until an air strike slammed into the building next to where he was staying burying him his parents and his twin brother under the rubble his mother was killed in that attack hel me then relocated yet again this time to alasi a coastal plot of land east of hunis heli joins us now to tell his story he's joining us from dear abala in central Gaza and there is a very long delay between when we ask the question and he'll be able to answer it but hel me welcome to democracy now if you can start off by telling us your story talk about your journey uh from Gaza the city and what has happened to your family all along the way okay okay thank you Amy for having me well as you can see I'm now Ina hospital and it's super crowded here because several plings have happened in the last two hours uh the hospital is super crowded and many injured people are here uh to start start I'm halis 19 years old uh from Gaza City AR neighborhood near AA Hospital uh me and my family got out of Gaza on November 11th after a shifa hospital and the entire Ral neighborhood got invaded we went into Rafa City uh walking 5 kilomet on foot while the Israeli Army was pointing gun at guns at us uh and sometimes in this long road I mean Al Street Road sometimes we needed to jump over dead bodies just to don't walk on them uh dead bodies that were left intentially to create this horrifying mental effect after one week of our department from Gaza our house in Aral neighborhood got bombed with two rockets exactly in uh November 18th and 14 beloved family members were killed there uh in that day November 18th isra killed over than 1,000 Palestinians uh we spent after that we spent 3 months in Rafa City and in February 12 uh the the building next to us got bombed and we were in the center of RA City uh in two floors building and the building next to us was four floors building and the spaces between the houses in the center of Raa city is sometimes less than 1 meter so when that building was bombed with four Rockets we got buried with the rubble uh and I got I was able to get myself out of the rubble and my twin brother and my father and start taking over my mother uh we took over than one meter of rle and we got our mother breathing and some guys took it to the hospital as fast as possible and we kept digging over our sister we got our sister awake but not aware she was vomiting blood uh we uh went to a near house and we uh we hide there and unfortunately my mother suffered from internal beding and she didn't make it after that we went to alasi area living in a tent uh after two uh months in alasi area uh a near place to where 300 less than uh 200 M near place and less than 200 M where our camp was uh got bombed with two rockets also and which destroyed our entire Camp uh killing over them four people uh and it bured our tent and we needed to buy a new one and move and to move to another area in Al maasi and this is just my continuous journey of displacement from one place to another my continuous journey of lost from one place to another we now live in almaas area in less than 2 km far from where the Israeli Army exists uh we are super wor and all the people in alwas area are super wor that the Israeli Army may come again to kanun city or may invade alasi area uh there's a lot of rumors about that and whenever you walk in Ali we were always looking for uh towards the South where the fire and the Flames are coming out of Rafa City and you can hear uh the sounds of the shelling and the bombing of Rafa City all day long and all night long we really don't know what where we can go it is a very it's very hard to know where the safe place is I mean we're now in a grein area and you can hear the bombing every 10 or 15 minutes in alasi we're in a green area also and you can hear the bombing all day long and you can be targeted in any minute uh we now live in a tent which is super hard for me and my family it's because alasi and Rapa city has kind of a desert climate because we are near to ca desert uh it is super hot and it's uh 11 and a tent is exactly like 11 and 11 sometimes in some hours in the day like 1: p.m. you need to get out of the tent so you can be able to breathe you get out of the tent sitting in the sun just you can a breathe uh cooking on fire and all of these hard life conditions is isn't suitable isn't working for us me and my twin brother are programmers and we will never experience this kind of hard lifestyle uh me I also want to talk about that I started a campaign to help my family can you hear me me I wanted I wanted to ask you uh you were a first of all condolences again for the loss of so many members of your family uh be Before the War uh you were you and your twin brother were students could you talk uh talk to us about what you were studying and what your hopes were for your own future before the war yes yes I'm a computer engineering student and my brother is an AI engineering student uh I learned programming since the age of 10 years old and I have worked for so many project and so many companies I got Pro in the field and I learned so many skills and my brother is a brilliant a engineer he developed so many great inventions uh in Corona virus in Corona virus crisis he developed a system so all the malls and all the public places can identify by camera if this person is wearing a mask or not to allow him to enter the building or not and to limit the disease transportation and it actually helped a lot in Gaza City uh most public places in Gaza City uh took his invention and used uh I was I was talking also about that I started the campaign to help my family uh because my father was working in uh uh in Israel before the war he has permission to work in T aiv and when this war started he lost his job and after 3 months we lost our mother who's a digital marketing agent so we lost our solo source of income and uh we suffered a lot to provide the needed things for our family and so I started a gofund me campaign in hopes to help us uh like hold the living expenses of the war and after that at least to rent an apartment uh and to help me and my brother to uh College tuitions to finish our education after we lost all of our uh sources of income you're talking about your um fundme page donate to help a twin we're showing a photograph right now we've been showing it of you and your identical twin brother Muhammad you're both what AIA AI Tech twins um uh because you're known for working on AI uh but but I also wanted to comment on the noise behind you uh not our radio audience cannot see this but we have seen dead bodies behind you wrapped in shrouds uh because the place you are right now um right nearby these attacks have taken place just in the last 24 hours so there's a lot of chaos behind you but we think it's worth working hard to hear what you have to say given your incredible journey and again our condolences and the loss of so many of your family members including your mother I'm wondering helie if you can tell us more about your mother the picture of your two you and your brother uh in your graduation gowns with your mom um with that lovely smile and what her aspirations were for you and where you plann to go now given that the place you have moved to for I don't know how many times is now the sight of Israeli bombing yes about the picture uh this picture was taken last year in my high school graduation in my last year in high school the person on the left is me hel uh my name in Arabic means my dream uh my mother named me uh the person in the middle is my mother Sam which means smile she always smiled and the person on the left is my identical to brother Muhammad uh we don't really know where we can go right now because there is no safe place in Gaza I mean we went to Rafa City since the day one of the war they told us they threw from the plane they threw papers from the plane saying go to Rafa City go to this specific area and they drove it on the map and we went there since the beginning of the war and eventually they got order us to go out of this area so we really don't know where to go especially in this time of the war people don't know where to go they are afraid from going to J and because the Israeli Army didn't invade their before so they may invade it now they don't know where to go they can't go to alasi I mean it's very close to Rafa city where the Israeli Army exists and they may invade it from this area now we just squeezed in the middle and we I mean you can see the place I'm in right now uh every single second you can see an ambulance coming to here and I'm still under shock because just 2 minutes before this interview starts uh I saw a shattered dead body and it was super horrifying scene I I still can't like process that after all I went through I still can't process seeing it's kind of structive and and hel me what what would you uh if you you could reach out and tell the rest of the world the people outside of Gaza what you would you're hoping uh the world can can do to assist you uh and the other Palestinians in AO right [Music] now uh well they can they can raise their voices to ask for the Stop of this genocide that is happening Gaza and I can't find any other word that describes what is happening other than genocide uh they can donate to help the people of Gaza and Don need to help building Gaza uh all over game where the destruction in in Gaza has removed the entire city it just make it sand over sand uh two days ago I was in canun city and well as far as your eye can see it is only hands the city does not exist anymore hel me hit is we want to thank you so much for can help me by donating to my girlfriend me and my campaign to help my family help me thank you you so much for joining us in this extremely difficult difficult time we can't say enough how much we send our condolences to your entire family heli hitz is a 19-year-old Palestinian originally from Gaza City 14 members of his family killed in Israeli air strike in Gaza City just after he his mom and his dad his twin brother and sister left and went to Rafa where they were then struck uh in an air strike um struck into the rubble his mother killed um we will continue to follow helmy story and bring you more later democracy Now is funded by viewers like you please give today at democracy now.org

Channel: Democracy Now!

Views: 31,710

Keywords: Democracy Now, Amy Goodman, News, Politics, democracynow, Independent Media, Breaking News, World News

Id: WmKIpk5Gtok

Length: 15min 47sec (947 seconds)

Published: Wed Jun 05 2024