The Israel-Hamas War hits a grim six month milestone | The Excerpt
On a special episode (first released on April 7, 2024) of The Excerpt podcast: After six months of intense human suffering, both sides of the Israel and Gaza conflict have experienced a collective trauma that will affect generations for years to come. It all started with a Hamas attack on Israel, which killed about 1,200 people along with the taking of 240 hostages. It was the single deadliest assault against Jews since the Holocaust. The Israeli response has been brutal, killing over 30,000 Gazans, according to the Hamas-run health ministry, mostly innocent women and children. The situation in the Gaza Strip is now dire, with millions not having enough food, housing, or medical care to meet the needs of a desperate population. Despite this, cease-fire negotiations continue to falter, and both sides remain far apart. After traveling to The Holy Land, USA TODAY World Affairs Correspondent Kim Hjelmgaard provides a special report for The Excerpt on the human stories that define this tragic conflict.
Hit play on the player below to hear the podcast and follow along with the transcript beneath it. This transcript was automatically generated, and then edited for clarity in its current form. There may be some differences between the audio and the text.
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Kim Hjelmgaard:
Today marks a grim milestone. It's been exactly six months since Hamas attacked Israel, killing about 1200 people, taking another 240 hostage. It was the deadliest single assault against Jews since the Holocaust. Israel's military response was swift and punishing, executing a bombing campaign that has killed over 30,000 Gazans, according to the Hamas-run health ministry. The vast majority of them are innocent women and children. The situation in the Strip is now dire, with not enough food, housing, or medical care to meet the needs of a desperate population. Meanwhile, ceasefire negotiations continue to falter and both sides remain far apart.
Hello, I'm Kim Hjelmgaard, USA Today World Affairs correspondent, and this is the Excerpt. Today is Sunday, April 7th, 2024. I recently traveled with senior video producer Megan Smith to the Holy Land in order to share some of the human stories that define this tragic conflict. In an entrenched war that could potentially last for many more months or even years, what both sides have in common is an immense human suffering from a collective trauma that they may never recover from.
Shlomi Berger:
For me, it's not what happened in Israel, it's what happened in the world. It's like the world forgot that there is a war here. We have 134 people over there who don't know their situation.
Kim Hjelmgaard:
Shlomi Berger is the father of one of them, 19-year-old hostage, Agam. Agam was last seen on a Hamas telegram video being led on October 7th to a car while still in her pajamas. Images show her bloodied face with her hands handcuffed behind her back. It was Agam's first day at Nahal Oz Army base, a border surveillance unit less than a mile from Gaza. She had transferred there less than 24 hours earlier.
Shlomi Berger:
For me, every day is the 7th of October.
It was a very difficult time. We had a big hope when, after 50 days, women and children start to get out. We were very happy. Suddenly I got a phone call. On the other side there was a young girl, and she said, "Hello, Shlomi. My name is also Agam. Agam Goldstein. I was with your daughter in the tunnels and she's sending you happy birthday." That was a crazy call. It was, for me, my best birthday, and I thought, "Oh my God, I have a sign of life." And the days go by and we hope that she will come. But after a few days, Hamas broke the deal and we get back to war.
Kim Hjelmgaard:
A key sticking point in repeated failed attempts to craft a lasting Gaza ceasefire is the return of the remaining Israeli hostages.
Shlomi Berger:
Every day, it's not ending. I get to sleep about 1:00, 2:00, 3:00 PM. When I'm tired, I fall down. All the house, me and my wife, the kids, we don't have hours, and we get up usually early in the morning and all day is about appointments, meetings with everyone we can, from the Prime Minister to the last Minister on the World Cabinet in the government, everyone that hold his hand and said, "Okay, I agree to the deal." That's what I'm doing all day.
Kim Hjelmgaard:
Shlomi says that Agam is a typical teenager. She enjoys playing the violin, getting her nails done and putting on makeup. He says the most difficult part of the whole ordeal for him is knowing how powerless he is to bring her home.
Shlomi Berger:
Very difficult time. I try not to listen to the media because there are much of the things we don't know if they're true or false, and it's ups and downs all day. I try not to think what is happening to her, because when I think about it all day, I just get crazy. A father that can do nothing for his daughter. Nothing.
Kim Hjelmgaard:
Shlomi and his family are trying their best to resume a kind of normal life so that when Agam does come back, they can be there for her.
Shlomi Berger:
What happened to my wife, three weeks, she sat on the sofa, on the corner. She'd throw the phone. I can't speak to her. If we sit on the corner, it's not good, because we believe that everyone will come back and we must be here strong for her to raise her up, that she could get back to her life. She's a young girl, all the life is ahead of her, in front of her.
Kim Hjelmgaard:
Meanwhile, in Gaza, normal life ground to a halt six months ago. Now, most Gazans have become internal refugees facing a severe shortage of both medical care and food. 80% of the Strip's residents are now internally displaced, an unprecedented scale of tragedy.
Amal Nassar:
There was so a feeling, a lot of psychological problem because the condition is so dangerous here in Gaza. And I was thinking just about bombing us or targeted us while I was going to the hospital, or even targeted us while I am at the hospital, because in Gaza now, no place is safe for the Palestinians.
Kim Hjelmgaard:
For Amal Nassar, an English teacher about to give birth, the situation was especially dire. She worried about her seven-year-old son Akhmad and her six-year-old daughter, Yarra, waiting for her at home. Since journalists aren't allowed into Gaza, we spoke with Amal by phone.
Amal Nassar:
When I have to leave my home to go to the hospital, my two kids was crying because they know that I might go to the hospital without coming back to them. And I was also crying because I thought that I may go to the hospital and do not find my babies and my kids when I come back to my home.
Kim Hjelmgaard:
Six months into the military offensive, Israel is waging against Hamas in Gaza. The human toll in the seaside enclave is enormous, devastating, and expanding by the day. Humanitarian groups say more than 2 million people are threatened with famine. Satellite imagery shows that more than 30% of Gaza's buildings, entire neighborhoods once teeming with schools, mosques, coffee shops, sports fields, have been reduced to rubble. If Israel presses ahead with its apparent determination to launch a ground offensive to root out Hamas in Rafah, Gaza's southernmost city, the humanitarian catastrophe could escalate.
Stories of new and expectant mothers seeking to care for and feed their children amid acute shortages of food, medicines, safe shelter and hospital care are especially tragic. The UN estimates that about 50,000 pregnant women are living in Gaza, with more than 180 births taking place every day. Amal was one of the lucky ones.
Amal Nassar:
I went there to the labor room, I could hear the sound of the tanks who coming. I thought that it was coming towards us, so I was so afraid, and I could hear the explosions around. And wherever I could hear the sound of the planes above us, I was thinking that at any moment we may be targeted.
Kim Hjelmgaard:
Amal was given no anesthesia or pain meds for either the birth itself or the surgical stitches she received afterwards. Even the bed was a luxury. 30 minutes after her daughter Mira was born, Amal was asked to leave to make room for another patient. Back at home, an 850 square foot structure which Amal now shares with more than a dozen others, there was no electricity and no water. Rain poured through a hole in the roof. The windows and doors had long ago been blown out from the force of nearby blasts. The building next door was recently reduced to a pile of rubble. None of it was how Amal hoped to be raising her new baby.
Amal Nassar:
She was suffering from a flu and cold during just her first week because of the very cold house that I lived in, and January is very cold here in Palestine. My husband, he was working at a supermarket, and now there is nothing at the supermarket too, so now he is jobless. I was working as an English language teacher on a daily contract, and my contract is now stopped.
Kim Hjelmgaard:
Amal's baby, Mira, will be three months old in a week. Since her birth, Amal has questioned her decision to even have a third child.
Amal Nassar:
You can hear the rockets around us. You can hear the tanks, the heavy tanks on the streets around us inside at camp. I was so afraid. And I was looking at my baby, I said, "Did I make the right decision to have babies in such war, in this war?"
Kim Hjelmgaard:
One Israeli family wracked with pain, hoping their 19-year-old daughter survives at the hands of Hamas. One Gazan family nursing a new baby girl, hoping for one day a chance at a normal life. Both sides suffering from wounds that will take generations to heal, if they do at all.
Thanks to our senior producers, Shannon Rae Green and Bradley Glanzrock for their production assistance. Our executive producer is Laura Beatty. Let us know what you think of this episode by sending a note to podcasts@usatoday.com. Thanks for listening. I'm Kim Hjelmgaard. Taylor Wilson will be back tomorrow morning with another episode of The Excerpt.
This article originally appeared on USA TODAY: The Israel-Hamas War hits a grim six month milestone | The Excerpt
