The following is a rushed transcript and may contain errors. It will be updated.

Speaker 1:

Papa!

Speaker 2:

[foreign language 00:00:14].

Eyad Amawi:

As the father for four children, really every night my children asked me, my little daughter ask me, “Papa, we will survive until tomorrow morning, or no?” This is the big questions, but my answer depends on my belief here. “Don’t worry, we will still alive, but you must sleep.”

Marc Steiner:

I’m Marc Steiner. Today we’re joined by Eyad Amawi. He lives in Gaza, he’s a Palestinian, a father and a husband. He’s the coordinator for the Gaza Relief Committee, trying to bring humanitarian aid to the people of Gaza. It’s hard for many of us to fathom the depth of destruction taking place in Gaza. The land, homes, hospitals, schools have been laid to waste. Starvation is rampant. And as we begin this conversation, over 75,000 people have been killed, including more than 25,000 children. And Eyad, welcome. It’s good to have you with us.

Eyad Amawi:

First of all, thank you. I have been following you for some times. My [inaudible 00:01:32] and really appreciated your attendance and your [inaudible 00:01:37] and your coverage talking about us and our suffering really deeply. I am grateful for you and for all the answers, and my thanks for your patience with us and where you stand with us.

Marc Steiner:

Thank you for that. Let me just begin, because people read the news, see the news every day. But I don’t think people are really aware of how deeply the suffering goes in Gaza. From what I read this morning, just before we joined each other, over 75,000 Gazans have been killed, and it’s still happening.

Eyad Amawi:

Despite all the positive statements that may seem hopeful at first glance, anyone who looks closely and deeply at the reality on the ground will understand that we are facing an ongoing humanitarian catastrophe. As you mentioned, Gaza is still suffering, and we civilians still under [inaudible 00:02:46] and intense rage that drives people of the most basic necessities of life.

Yesterday, we lost more than 11 civilians here in Gaza, and from the small rockets. We are still living in a selective ceasefire. It’s not complete ceasefire. So when we’re speaking from a place of responsibility and from the harsh daily experience, we are living… I saw this clearly. No one can truly imagine what it means to witness children dying slowly. Preventing them from medical evacuations, dying from malnutrition, dying from the loss of hope, dying from the disappearance of any future. This is a third year without school, or any future for those children.

What we are going through here is unbearable, and can’t be treated as just passing news or mere numbers. What we are going through here is more than general wars. We are under genocide for more than 800 days. Yes, a ceasefire was announced. It’s great. But in truth, it was only a ceasefire for the large bombs, a huge bombardment. But the small bombs are still falling. The daily violence continues, violence that often receives little attention from the international public media or attention.

Just a survey, as we mentioned, 11 people were killed in Gaza. And the Thursday before that, 18 people were killed or martyred. And these violations are still being justified by the label of the security incidents. From my observations, I don’t know where is the exact security incidents in killing people when they is sleeping in their homes, with their children, with their women. We don’t know what kind of security incident can possibly justify the occupation violating this is fair. Bombing rooms over the heads of civilians like happened yesterday. Killing women, children, and then simply claiming there was a breach of the ceasefire.

What’s happening now is that what we are still being settled silently, we are still being killed slowly away from the world’s cameras. That’s the real meaning of the ceasefire. That is why we call for immediate emergency, and this intervention for the UN [inaudible 00:05:22]. And all those who truly wish to help us, not merely to improve conditions but to ensure survival. They need to decrease the international intention and following and to calming the streets and stands in all of the countries. And they continue in implement the hidden plan that they need to expel us from our land. So as today is sinking into darkness, rather sinking into cold, has us dying slowly.

Marc Steiner:

What you’re describing is the reality that there really is no ceasefire, that it continues.

Eyad Amawi:

Yes, yes.

Marc Steiner:

The bombardments have not ended.

Eyad Amawi:

Yes, not ended completely. Not ended completely. As what happened yesterday and the week before, they announced security incidents and they continue killing us under the pretext and the clarification of the security measures. What we need urgently now to stop the bombs, and to have complete commitment and complete agreement. Not selective point from the agreement that they meet the Israeli needs, security needs. What about life needs here in Gaza?

Marc Steiner:

Everything we’ve been reading here, that right now, as of the moment we started talking together, over 75,000 Palestinians in Gaza have been killed, and a huge number of people killed are children. Just on a personal note-

Eyad Amawi:

Yes.

Marc Steiner:

… how are you surviving? How is your family surviving? What are your conditions that you’re living under?

Eyad Amawi:

Yes. Really, we’re still under fire for more than 15 times. Me and my families, my relatives, all of us here are facing the harsh conditions and same circumstances. When we talk about individual survivor here, very bad conditions under the bombardment. When we’re forced to be displaced under the repeated order of evacuation for more than 15 times as my people here, it’s really unbearable conditions.

We are forced to fight under the rain, under bad conditions without any things to protect ourself. We are here as civilian, not a fighter in Gaza. As I mentioned, my children and all of our children are facing a huge bombardment. Every F60 rocket have more than 1,000 pound high explosive materials. You can imagine when you stay in your home and these huge bombs falling all of your head. No one can imagine what’s the circumstances, and the bad conditions, and the severe injuries, amputated babies and burned babies and women’s. No one can describe what’s still happening here more than us.

As a father for four children, really every night, my children ask me, my little daughter ask me, “Papa, we will survive until tomorrow morning, or no?” These are the big questions, but my answer depends on my belief here. Don’t worry, we will still alive, but you must sleep.

In my observation, really I put my hand over my children’s heart really repeated rapidly and I see the fears on their eyes. So when we talk about the survival, it’s a matter of a chance here in Gaza. No one have a guarantee to stay alive until tomorrow, or until the next week. There is no guarantee. The rockets, the quad copters, the Apache, the pretext to clarification for the yellow line, and they shrink us in the western part of the Gaza Strip.

More than two million and a half people with no infrastructure, with no excellent environment, with bad nutrition condition, with no health services, with no services for municipalities. You can imagine this is a prescription for slowly death that will cause all of us to lose hope if they continue implementing this hidden plan over us. Without real interventions, I don’t think we will survive for a long time with the infectious environment and with the spheres, with darkness.

So today I’m talking about all of this observation, and also the security situation in Gaza Strip as in comparison with the period before war. We have local authority, we have local NGOs and international NGOs. All of the things here, my observation has completely changed. They destroyed Gaza, completely destruction.

When we talk about pollution and breaking all of the layers of air and invaded the underground water with the poisoning materials, with the sewage water, with the remaining of the explosive materials, no one can imagine what’s the meaning of using explosive robots. And when I’m talking to you now, I hearing the high explosive that’s still happening in the east part of the Gaza City. Under the clarification, they complete their military actions here over the ground. That’s the reality, the complete destruction. They committed to destroying infrastructure to convert our life, unbearable, unlivable, and forced us to be displaced here from Gaza.

Marc Steiner:

And what you’re describing is an intentional destruction of water supplies, of everything people need to survive by Israel attacking Gazan civilians and destroying everything that allows life to live daily. That’s what you’re describing.

Eyad Amawi:

Yes. Yes, completely. I agree with you. When we talk about the thousands of people, especially children and the elderly people still waiting for medical evacuation. And after they forced them under the malnutrition and starvation, and using starvation as a weapon here in Gaza. And that’s just a pretext. They’re reopening Gaza, first point. It’s a main struggle here. It’s not just reopening Rafah. Removing the Israeli restriction over all of the material that we need to rebuild Gaza, and resending hope for our locals.

Marc Steiner:

There’s one thing you said I want people to hear. What you’re saying is that Israel in its policies and its war on Gaza is deliberately targeting food and everything else to deliberately starve the people of Gaza. That’s what you’re saying.

Eyad Amawi:

Yeah. Look, this is the very well calculated policy, Marc. They use starvation as a weapon for a long time, from the beginning of the genocide with a very well calculated policy. They calculate the calories for every person in Gaza, and they put struggles and restrictions over the amount of flour entering Gaza. The reality here, and the hidden reason for preventing foods is just starving people, forcing them to accept any alternative solutions. They create an evil place that GHF pays for distribution foods in Rafah, if you remember that.

Marc Steiner:

Yes.

Eyad Amawi:

We lost more than 2,000 people, and hundreds of casualties there when they forced them to walk more than 15 kilometers to obtain some food parcels. And they need people to return again and again to that death trap, and to let them know the new situation, you will not receive your food with a dignity, with a safety as international humanitarian law maintained in their codes. So this is very main goal to force people to accept and to normalize these situations. And in the near future, you as a Palestinian in Gaza, you must accept with no dignity, with a crowded road, and you must still be waiting for a long time to obtain some flour to feed your children.

I remember it very well, me and a lot of fathers and mothers, they reduced their portion of foods to let their children eat the food and to save their lives. From my testimonies, we witnessed a lot of children, they are really still facing bad health conditions after the starvation until this moment. So when we talk about the ceasefire, in my observation, if they didn’t let complete humanitarian interventions without any restrictions, really we will die slowly. We’re still under the catastrophe for more than 800 days.

Look, when we talk about the other side, when we talk about announcing peace council and a new government here in Gaza, from my observation, they need a lot of time to accept that we caravans. We floated here for more than eight times, from the cold, from the rainy, from the weather conditions. And from when I talk to you now, we expect tomorrow or after tomorrow, a new storm. Who can achieve this?

Who can summarize the catastrophe more than those peoples here in Gaza? So the security clarification is not acceptable, but just using the pretext to kill us, to starve us, to let us cause internal conflict also. The truth remains, the situation was not created by Palestinians, nor by the people of Gaza. And it was never a natural part of the society. Whether it was produced by the occupation, genocidal actions here and starvation. And they’re presented as it were as local reality. We will help Gaza, we will try.

The solution is very simple. Leave open 14 cross point around Gaza, and let all of the international community and people who need to help Gaza to come into Gaza and to help us. Nothing else will.

Marc Steiner:

And that point is very critical. The fact that Israel is now banning the most important groups, health, medical, food groups from bringing aid into Gaza, not being allowed in. And I think most people don’t understand what that really means, and the depth of pain that causes. And given that you are there, you can’t leave. You have children, you have a family. And I can only imagine as a father, what you’re going through to watch your children suffer as they are. And I wonder how you see politically and humanly that this ends, and what the world has to know about that.

Eyad Amawi:

Yes. Look, when we talk about the reality is completely different from the political statements, as NGO’s coordinator and a aid worker for a long time. And when the occupation authorities witness the people ability to endure and adapt to harsh realities, they move to a more dangerous phase, infiltrating the social fabric from within.

This is what I mean. So when we talk about from a political perspective, we need real implementations, not selective implementation for the ceasefire. And we talk about the Israeli force is still controlling more than 65%-ish of Gaza Strip. And they just push us and to shrink us in the Western part, and they force us to deal with us with this manner under the international community observation. So they began dismantling education, striking social commission, weakening community security and destroying economic security.

When we talk about the pressure over the society, we have a lot of little reasons. They need to create a suffering by completely destruct… Not infrastructure just and buildings, they need to destruct the society links between each other, and cause more sophisticated catastrophe. So when we talk about recovering, we need more than mobile homes, and tents and foods. It’s just for survival, basic survival needs. We need real support from all of the UN agencies.

When I talk about the suffering, we talk about UNRWA, agency. So when we talk about the import restrictions over the UNRWA for a long time, and no one can imagine what’s the meaning of import restrictions over functioning. Again, they need to just… Cleansing our refugee rights here in Gaza. And this is the reality here. They need to cause harm for our next generations. Really, Marc, we lose our next generation here under this bad condition of starvation. And there’s no schools, there is no hope. There’s loss of everything here.

And also when we talk about the orphans, we talk about more than 47,000 orphans here in Gaza. And you can imagine who can deal with those, who can saving them. And also we have severe injuries between those orphans, and a lot of them have lost everything. Their homes, parents, their siblings and all of… I have no expectations how all of the international community can help with Gaza without huge and massive interventions in all of the social sectors. And the meaning of rebuilding, it’s not a matter for us now. The meaning of saving life is the basic needs now.

But after that, after that, we talk about the losing of our next generations for a long time. We talk as civilians here when we mentioned to the Israelis people in the Israeli occupation authorities deal with our children as [inaudible 00:21:13]. Don’t use our suffering just to punish us. It’s a collective punishment here, what’s still happening in Gaza. No one can accept the clarification to still starving people.

Look, when they use a shadow economy to increase the suffering, more than half a million people lost their jobs here. So you can imagine when you buy one kilogram for frozen meat for more than $10 or $15 with people lack of every financial resources, and there is no ability for them to buy milk, and baby formula and the basic needs for their families. And after a long time from starvation and see it, they need to clarify for all of the international community, we let trucks entering Gaza.

It’s just a blah, blah, blah for the media. It’s not real. When we talk about reality, how can I, as a father, and all of our people buy the basic needs daily without work, without jobs, without income, real income here. So we talk about dignity. We talk about enabling families to manage their life without starvation, without walking for a long distance to obtain food passes.

What I’m still talking about here, with our people, when they lose their tents, they lose the final line of hope to stay alive. So in my expectation, if the storms continue hitting Gaza without real interventions, the Israeli need to implement the hidden plan again and again to force people to leave Gaza under these harsh conditions. This is the situations when we think about peace plan divided into 20 phases, each requires 90 days. This means we need 2,000 days, five years of waiting for the tents, under the burning sun and the freezing winter until the plan is implemented.

So it’s not logic. This is not a peace, this is a quiet continuation of the genocide without the noise of missiles, or air strikes or huge bombardment. Slow killing through hunger, disease and suffocation. The word is turning its attention away from Gaza, not because the suffering has ended but because the palms are quieter. Yet hunger continues, disease continues, and it continues with the silence.

What does it mean to drop entire communities in tents? To leave thousands of bodies decomposing under the rubble because no machinery is allowed to retrieve them? The world rushed to bring sophisticated comment to recover the bodies of occupation soldiers or civilians. You got decomposed bodies. Our children, women and elders are left untouched, causing diseases no one speaks about. Also, fishing is dead. Agriculture is completely destroyed. Industry is gone. Waste builds up without fuel. Process it, poisoning what remains of livable environment. Gaza is not only [inaudible 00:24:49] it’s systematically destroyed, Marc.

Given all of this, the path forward is unmistakable. The national pressure must continue, media campaign must expand. Awarenesses must stay sharp, and this ongoing tragedy must end. Humanitarian aid is not a secondary issue, Marc, it’s a lifeline and it must be opened immediately and unconditionally. There’s no meaning to global claims of human dignity while Gaza children freeze, starve, fall ill, are denied medical evacuation and they cry beneath rubble and the rain.

Marc Steiner:

Eyad Amawi, I really appreciate everything you’ve been saying, and people need to hear what you’re saying. And you’re taking your time, and we will do our best to stay in touch. Your voice is important, the clarity you bring to the situation for people who have no idea how deep it is. So I want to thank you. Please stay safe, and we’ll do our best to stay in touch.

Eyad Amawi:

Thank you very much, Marc, for your time and for your intention and for your interest about talking Gaza for a long time. I’m hearing you, following you. Keep going, we need you. We need your help. Please increase the awareness. Still talking about Gaza, about suffering here, we need you. Thank you so much.

Marc Steiner:

Thank you so much. Be safe as you can.

Eyad Amawi:

Yeah, thank you.

Marc Steiner:

All right. Cam, are we connected or disconnected? I have to go write something. Ooh, man.

I want to thank Ayada Amawi for joining us today. We’ll do our best to stay in touch with him, and to bring more stories and voices from Gaza. To tell their stories in their own words, to help keep the world’s attention on the devastation and slaughter that they face and to help end the madness of this war. I want to thank Cameron Grandino for engineering and running the program today, Steven Frank for brilliantly editing our work, producer Rosette Sowali for making it all work behind the scenes, and everyone here at The Real News for making this show possible.

Please, let me know what you thought about what you heard today. Just write to me at mss@therealnews.com, and I’ll get right back to you. Once again, thank you to Eyad Amawi for joining us today. So for the crew here at The Real News, I’m Marc Steiner. Stay involved, keep listening and take care.