Israel, Palestine, Transcribed, war

The Last Standing House In The Neighborhood (Hamza M. Salha in North Gaza)

"TFSR 3-26-25 | The Last Standing House In The Neighborhood (Hamza M. Salha in North Gaza)" featuring a photo of Hamza smiling at the camera
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We’re sharing audio from audio recorded by Franklin Lopez of Amplifier Films with Palestinian journalist Hamza M Salha who lives in North Gaza describing the conditions with the resumption of the escalated genocide being conducted by the Israeli settler-colonial military. Hamza speaks about the means that people are informed of incoming bombing raids, speaks of the sleepless night in the midst falling bombs in the rubble and tents, clearly exhausted himself. He speaks about the availability of food, his thoughts on the strangling and murderous siege of Israel, the failure of the world to stop the genocide and occupation.

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You can find stories and photos from Hamza on his  instagram account. If you want to support him and 40 members of his extended family and attempting to get out of Gaza to get medical attention, you can check out his Go Fund Me.

You can watch the video without any accounts, only a web browser and internet connection by visiting the Amplifier Films mastodon account. To echo Hamza, thanks to Franklin Lopez of Amplifier Films (Facebook, Instagram) for sharing this audio and creating videos to share Hamza’s world with us on the outside, and our deep gratitude to Adrienne for the support and Hamza for expressing his experience for the audience. We wish you solidarity and health.

You can read some of Hamza’s writings below (same as last episode):

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Featured Track:

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Transcription

Hamza: Honestly, I’m trying to be okay as much as I can. I’m struggling to be okay, struggling to act normally, and a bit scared about what is to come and what is awaiting for me, along with my family. It’s dark, it’s unknown, and we don’t know what’s to come, but according to what we all hear and learn, it’s all hell.

Currently, I feel paralyzed. I have a lot of things to do, to writing, to maybe studying, to practicing some languages, but I feel paralyzed. I can’t do anything, honestly.

Gradually, since the return of this war, as the time passes, it gets more intense. And the last night was the most intense. A lot of bombing. It was really so scary. It was so close, and it was unfamiliar. Huge and massive and very demolishing weapons were used yesterday at night. I could barely have moments to sleep and rest. And if you look under my eyes now, this black color has always been there since that night.

Also, last night was full of evacuation orders to the people of Beit Lahia, Beit Hanoun, Jabalia as well. A massive area of neighborhoods of Jabalia was threatened, was ordered, to evacuate last night. Honestly, it was really so scary. People were so tired. Honestly, the evacuation orders are one of the scariest things that terrify them because they always ask one single and one simple question that, until now, they have no answer for, which is, where are we to go? When they ask people to go to, for example, Al-Mawasi or to go south or to western Gaza, maybe someone would expect that there will be refugee camps or hotels or somewhere to receive them.

Yesterday, I was there in western Gaza. People are setting up their tents in the middle of their streets. Al-Jundi Al-Majhoul Street is the spine street of Gaza, Western Gaza City, and now it’s full of tents. Imagine that it was one day one of the most tourist landmarks, but now it’s turned into a displacement camp. No need to mention what are the horrific and harsh situations that people who are being displaced there are facing right now. They can neither find access to water. They can neither find access to normal life. It’s much less than the level of the usual, normal human life. Maybe if they want to have a shower, they can’t. If they want to go to the bathroom, they can’t. If they want to have water, they can’t wash their hands. It’s hard to do anything, charge your phone, use the internet, to stay in contact.

Another thing now is having the food. Today is day number 24 since the closure and the full-on blockade on Gaza. Nothing entered: fuel, water, food supplies. The power is already cut. Nothing is allowed here. The blockade of had made transportation difficult and fuel unavailable. So these people who left their houses from the very north of Gaza Strip, Beit Lahia, Beit Hanoun, in some places of Jabalia, found themselves forced to walk to reach their destination in Western Gaza City because it’s very expensive to find a transportation method. And they actually came on foot and had nothing, no tents. The tents that they spent so much time in, they suffered to reestablish them in their neighborhoods. Now, they could not take them to where they were going. So they honestly went without anything. They had already suffered to get it when they were home. We no longer say home or homeless. We say tent or tentless.

Bombing tents continues. Today, just nearby here, the place where I am, tents were bombed, a collection of tents. A big or deep crater was left. Now, this is still [the case], and people lost everything. They found no food supplies because it was already bombed along with their tents. They found themselves in the street. And here we are. So this is the least we could suffer.

There is a page on Facebook for an Israeli site called, in English, The Cooperator. That’s how it is. People usually follow this page to learn news or something they want to tell us. So, on that page, they post an evacuation order. They post a map that clarifies the red zone included in the evacuation orders. They post a caption, “You have to flee this area before we attack. And this is the last warning. Just flee. Flee to the known places that you that you usually go,” assuming that there are places that we should go to. In fact, there is not. This is so provocative. Go to the known places of, for example, Western Gaza, assuming that there are places that are not usually being targeted. This is not true. All places are being targeted, including these places that they are pointing at.

The other way of evacuation, which is more serious and means that there will be a massive demolishing ground operation afterward, is by throwing leaflets at us from the sky from the drones. Usually, these leaflets contain the same content that is posted on social media, and it’s so scary. People go to pick them up, to read, to know what is going to happen. Actually, after this warning, people don’t usually have much time to flee, and they don’t have the time to take their stuff. They don’t have the time to know the way, the place to go, or the destination. Just go. If there will be hell, just go. In the end, here we are, showing the world that we are warning you. Every time.

The source of food in Gaza right now is still not 100% empty yet. It’s not about now. Yes, now we can live on the least amount of food we can. But if this continues for two weeks, starvation will be literally here. Now there is starvation, but as time passes, it will become more horrific and more serious. Right now, we rely on the food we stored at home when aid was still allowed in. We have a harsh experience with the lack of food and starvation. In the first six months of the war, northern Gaza was besieged, and no food was allowed in.

I remember the time of the flour massacres. The people crowded in Al-Nabulsi Street roundabout, waiting for maybe one truck for thousands of people in the north at that time. People were being killed as they tried to get closer to the truck in order to get the flour. They found themselves having to run for the truck. The IDF ordered truck drivers to dump the flour on the ground before it reaches the people, so people had to run, to get closer to the army, and the army was not making any effort to not target them. They shot them by tanks, rockets, drones, by everything. Massacres and massacres. People were being targeted. People suffocated in the crowds simply because they were starving. They were craving a loaf of bread. Honestly, I remember that.

I remained in the north. I craved to find a loaf of bread. I didn’t find any. We were thinking of what are we to feed the children. Spending nights sitting with my family: “What are we going to feed our children?” What to do…? So IF this will continue for two or three more week or maybe days. This is going to happen again. And if they open an escape route to a third country, of course, we will flee just to have a chance to find food. This will be compulsory migration. They will show that, “Wow, they are leaving voluntarily.” No, it will not be voluntary when they cut everything—supplies, water. I will be dying slowly. Why should I do this to myself?

This is not my desire, honestly. But they will be clever. I don’t know what’s happening, but that’s another story. Now, I am risking my life staying in my home, which is on the verge of collapse after they spent months destroying they place where I live, my neighborhood, during the last ground operation, four months before the ceasefire took place. They spent three or four consecutive months just demolishing this neighborhood with bulldozers and machines, leaving not a single intact home. People consider us lucky to still have a standing home, but in what condition? The supports are gone, destroyed. 6 out of 20 or 24 pillars were demolished. You can imagine how risky it is to stay here. The stairs themselves were demolished, and we had to replace them with wooden ones instead of concrete stairs. It cost a lot to do so, in order to reach the second and third floors. So now, I am residing now in this risky home. We are struggling still to do anything.

One of the ways I think that I am lucky is that I am still single until now because I don’t have children, to be afraid thinking of their future, how or what to feed them, how they feel, or how scared they are. Of course, I am so concerned for my nieces and nephews, but at least they are not my children, my sons and daughters. It’s not that different. Still, I am so scared for the future of the children, my nephews and nieces.

This is the only home still standing in the neighborhood. That’s why I told I am so lucky. Do you see tents? You see, there is the very north of Gaza and the border on the horizon, not a single standing home. You see there is a tent, and there is a massive crater from a bombing among the tents. We fled our house because nearby bombings are so scary. Others are scared away for right now.

I don’t think that the world can do anything for us, because if I want to talk to the civilians, the civilians are helpless. The problem is now the regimes themselves. Honestly, I just want one thing: I want to be greedy. I don’t know. I just want to get out of all of that. I don’t know. I’m sorry. I just want the world to help me just to stay safe. I have tried so many times to remain here, and I paid for this at the expense of my health, my life, and my future. I was even injured because I remained. But I think now the right choice is to look to securing my safety in order to be safe always.

I ask the world, if they can, just let me be safe. I have a lot to do outside. I can complete my life, my studies. I was abroad before. Because that’s what the world could do for us. If I ask the world to stop the war, they won’t be able to because the strongest country ever, which is America, is a part of that, and they want to do that. And no one can say no to them. I feel helpless. I want to get out of all of this. I don’t know…

I want to just now look to my safety. That’s all I can say, among all the things… I have a life here. Or let me say I had a life here. I had a home and an apartment. My parents were preparing for my marriage. They built me this apartment, where I am right now. But now, everything is deteriorated.

I wish I could remain here, that the war would be over, and everything would be over, and that reconstruction takes place, that hostages could be released, that everything could return. But that is impossible. I don’t want to be stupid and ask the world for things that they can’t do. I want now what little I can save, what little the world could help.

Honestly, I’m serious about that. I am searching around to find a way to get out of Gaza, at least me myself, then my family, then others, especially the children, to leave to the place where I was. I was in Spain before, and I can reestablish my life there.

That’s all. Thank you, my friend. Thank you for your call, and thank you for making films about me, and thank you for everything. Thank you, Franklin. Inshallah. Bye.