Born in Gaza (2014) - full transcript

THIS DOCUMENTARY WAS FILMED

DURING THE OFFENSIVE OF ISRAEL

AGAINST GAZA IN 2014.

SUCH OFFENSIVE

ENDED UP WITH 506 DEAD CHILDREN

AND 3,598 WOUNDED.

THIS FILM IS DEDICATED TO THEM.

BORN IN GAZA

The situation is really complicated.

We have a war every two years

and we cannot stand it.

People close to us die pretty often.

The sea is closed.

Tunnels are shut and we can't bring

neither food nor money.

We can't do anything.

I quit school to help my family.

I collect plastics in the dumps,

as well as debris,

and I eventually sell them.

I help my family with the money I get.

It is too hot and I find it difficult

to bear it, since I am young.

I pick up plastics and debris.

I am given 5 Shekel

at the end of the day for them.

Sometimes,

we find bombs among the debris.

We take them out with care

in case they explode and hurt us.

Hopefully, we will be able to work

in a better environment after the war.

One day, I found a megaphone.

It was weird but also a good thing.

I found it in the bottom of the garbage.

I sold it for 50 Shekel which is

what I usually earn for 10 days of work.

I took the money to my family.

I was very lucky.

80% OF GAZAN POPULATION

DEPENDS ON HUMANITARIAN AID

IN ORDER TO SURVIVE.

UNEMPLOYMENT

HAS INCREASED FOURFOLD

IN THE PAST TWO DECADES

TO REACH A 45%.

SHEJAYIA NEIGHBORHOOD

My dad used to have

a soft drinks factory.

We were once in the factory

and people started to shout at us

to run away.

We got out and the factory

was bombed immediately.

I got scared and felt sorry.

It was also our home.

I went back to recover some stuff,

but I could not find anything.

Let's see if we can recover

something valuable.

Something useful.

Careful with that wall, OK?

Do not fall over.

My brother Mohamed loved me very much

and took me with him all the time.

He was 22.

I saw how he died in a bombing.

He was delivering beverages

when he was hit

and I saw it myself.

The largest piece of him left

was this size.

I have lots of bad dreams.

I cannot sleep.

I see my brother and my uncle.

My dad's name is Yafar Khdeir

and he is a farmer.

He grows cucumbers,

tomatoes, peppers and spinach.

Our farm is not even

one mile from the border with Israel.

When they come,

they kill and destroy.

This time it was the camel and the lambs.

They destroy everything

that they find in their way.

Our farm has 75 acres.

The diggers have destroyed our farm

11 times between 2001 and 2014.

They devastated our land

with their diggers for no reason.

We are pacific farmers.

We have nowhere to live anymore.

We do not even have drinking water

and we have no money

to work the land again.

We have been lucky this time,

because no one in our family

nor in the neighborhood was killed.

However, the previous time,

one of our neighbors

and a lot of people were murdered.

We grow vegetables.

We do not grow bombs, so they don't have

any reason to come bomb us.

24,000 FAMILIES MAKING A LIVING

FROM THEIR FARMS

HAVE BEEN FORCED TO LEAVE

THEIR LAND AND PROPERTIES.

ABOUT 42,000 ACRES OF FARMLAND

WERE AFFECTED

DURING THE CONFLICT.

AL SHIFA HOSPITAL

GAZA CITY

They said last Friday

there was a ceasefire but again,

missiles started to fall.

We decided

we needed to run away from home.

When we were by the Omar Ibn Al-A'as

mosque, a missile fell.

We were reached by grapeshot.

I was reached in my belly

and my guts came out.

Stop!

Stop it!

Stop it!

I passed out

before I arrived to the hospital.

I don't remember anything.

I woke up at the ICU and I was told

I had been there for two days.

After surgery, the doctor told me

my heart had stopped beating twice.

I have been here for 17 days,

since beginning of August.

I have to be grateful

because some children have died

and others are way worse than me.

I am a child.

They should not do this to us.

I do not have any missiles

and I do not drive a tank

or anything like that.

I am not a militiawoman.

Why are they doing this to us?

RAFAH CITY

My dad was a good man.

He saved lives.

I do not know why he was murdered.

We were always worrying about him

because we didn't get to see him

very often.

He drove an ambulance.

We could never think

he could be bombed in the ambulance.

My dad worked more in this war

than in previous ones.

Many casualties are happening.

That is why

he was being called every time.

Explosions were heard everywhere around

and he kept being called

to pick up wounded people.

My dad died on August 1, 2014.

Up, up, up... Come on...

Oh, my God! Oh, my God!

Oh, my mum. Oh, my mum!

God is the greatest.

Get to the ground...

He went to pick up a victim.

On his way there,

another family had been bombed.

They were seven members

and my dad also picked them up.

They were all in the ambulance.

The explosion was so rough,

that the pieces of bodies got mixed up.

The twelve of them died.

The remainders of the ambulance

were not even visible. It all got burnt.

RAFAH CEMETERY

RAJAF'S DAD TRIBUTE

We could not see my dad

because there were barely

any distinguishable piece.

Only three relatives

attended his funeral.

They were scared,

so it was done very quickly.

I think my dad is a hero.

A hero among heroes.

He saved lives

and avoided more deaths.

6 AMBULANCE DRIVERS

AND 13 PARAMEDICS DIED

WHILE PICKING UP WOUNDED PEOPLE

DURING THE OFFENSIVE.

OTHER 49 DOCTORS,

NURSES AND AMBULANCE DRIVERS

AND 33 AID WORKERS WERE WOUNDED

DURING THE ATTACKS.

YABALIA GIRLS' SCHOOL

UNITED NATIONS

We were bombed in the school.

This place isn't even safe anymore.

Suddenly, we heard the first missile.

It hit the restrooms.

Then, another one.

The second missile killed

half of the people.

We cried and were scared to death.

We ran away.

We then heard the last missile,

which hit my cousin and my brother.

It fell between both of them.

Both died on the spot.

We are here

because we thought it would be safer,

since it has the UN flag.

We thanked God

for finding us a safe place.

We were surprised

a UN school was bombed.

We do not trust

the UN anymore after that.

You skipped from 10 to 16.

-I have called 16 to become hoarse.

-I have the 10.

Mahmud.

Mahmud Barhouma.

22 people have died in this school

because of the bombing so far

and 80 more are wounded.

GAZA CITY

We were eight kids at the beach.

We came to play soccer.

A missile was shot.

We saw the smoke and ran off.

They are just little kids.

They are just little kids.

Oh, my God.

My hands and legs

were all covered in blood.

I was grabbing my brother,

my nephew and my cousin,

holding their hands.

I told them, "Run! Run!

Leave me here!

I can carry on by myself."

Then... another missile fell

and killed the three of them

as I kept running together with Hamada.

Oh, there are four children? Five?

Four guys, there's also one injured.

My God, where is the rest?

Come! Help us!

Motasem and I were wounded,

but I could still run.

Some people were calling us.

They shouted, "Come! Come over here!"

And I went.

When I got there,

some hotel worker carried me.

First thing they did

was try to stop the hemorrhage.

They put me in the ambulance

and I was taken to the hospital.

All four dead kids

belonged to the same family.

They were all cousins of mine.

Their names were Mohamed, Ismail,

Zakariya and Ahed.

I was in the hospital for 7 days.

A lot of grapeshot

could be retrieved from my body

but this one, in the chest,

is pretty complicated.

I may need to go abroad for surgery.

I have some broken tendons

in my hand and I cannot move it right.

I have some grapeshot

in my back, hand and legs.

Four of us got killed

for playing soccer

and the other four of us got wounded.

What will they do to us

when we grow up?

I was with Shaimá and Mohammad.

We were sitting at home.

I was playing

when the Israelis bombed our house.

Shaima and I cried for help.

A nurse named Alá

came and took us to the hospital.

I asked him for some cold water.

He then took us

to the Al Shifa hospital.

You turned it on again!

My name is Haia Mohammad.

I am 6.

Bisan is my aunt

but we are the same age.

They were home.

She was playing

when they were bombed.

My aunt Bisan cried,

"I want some water!

I want some cold water!"

An ambulance came and rescued them.

They took my aunt Bisan first.

Then, my uncle Adham

and my grandparents

and then, Shaimá and Dana.

Bisan is sad

because her mom and dad are dead.

We now live together, like sisters.

We play all the time.

I would like to be a doctor

when I grow up.

Bisan would like to be

an English teacher.

She doesn't talk to us

about what happened.

If anyone asks, she gets mad.

Who is this?

Mom.

How about this?

My brother.

How about this?

Dad.

After they ruined the land,

we have to smooth it and fix it.

We need to dig another well,

build up the restrooms,

make the greenhouses,

start growing again

and set up the hoses.

We are afraid of walking around our land

because there are missiles

that did not explode.

We are afraid of stepping

on one of the missile that can explode.

I would like to be an agronomist.

I would like to be able

to go to school with no fear,

like a regular person.

Without bombs.

Without having my home destroyed.

I would like to be calm

and live like other children

in the world.

I often think about our situation

and I never see an end.

My dad was an ambulance driver.

He had been driving

an ambulance for 17 years.

He used to collaborate

with the Red Cross.

He picked up the bodies by the tanks.

That was his duty.

I cannot find

a reason why he was attacked.

Are you asking me

why they bombed an ambulance?

Have you ever heard of any war

where ambulances are attacked?

This has seriously determined

our future for wrong.

My older brother was a very good student,

with high grades

but he will probably have to quit school.

I have a sister

who used to study Science

and she was thinking about moving

to Literature because it is easier.

However, she doesn't think

she can keep going.

My little brother seems to see a spirit.

It scares him to death

and also scares all of us around.

We are worried

this issue

can keep affecting him in the future.

He wakes up at night

and stands in front of my dad's picture.

We find him standing there crying.

If we ask what's wrong, he says,

"I am sick and tired

of looking at the picture.

I want my dad out of there."

We all think his future has been ruined.

I am proud he was my dad.

He was very sweet to me

and made all our dreams come true.

We had a very special relationship.

We were very close.

It was indescribable.

No one could imagine

he would be gone like this.

He has been taken in a terrible way.

I cannot sleep. I often have bad dreams

with my brother,

my nephew and my dead friends.

I have weird feelings.

I tell my mom every day I want to die.

A few days ago, I tried to jump

from the balcony but my sister held me.

My dad is a fisherman

but the sea has been blocked.

We are only allowed to fish

five miles away from the shore

and there is barely any fish there.

We live...

a shitty life.

Sea, land...

All is blocked. Everything.

I am like any other child.

This is not life for us.

We do not even have food. I have to sell

coffee and tea to make a living

in order to bring some money home.

I have no friends left.

I stay home. I don't even want to play.

I would like to join the resistance

and make justice for my cousins.

I would like to be a fisherman

when I grow up, just like my dad.

I would like to be like

any other kid in the world with no fear.

I do not want see

those war ships over there.

PALESTINIAN FISHING BOATS

CAN ONLY GO SIX MILES FROM SHORE.

3,600 FISHERMEN'S FAMILIES

HAVE BEEN AFFECTED

BY THE CONFLICT.

YABALIA GIRLS' SCHOOL

UNITED NATIONS

Lady, please, go in.

Back off!

I said back off!

We did not move.

Go do your job!

You have nothing to do here!

Come on! Hurry up!

We have been here for 35 days.

We do not have breakfast.

Just one meal a day

and the food sucks.

We basically sleep on top of each other.

We have no TV or fans.

We have no privacy.

We are not free to do anything.

Here are lots of kids and noise.

I would like to be a doctor.

I have suffered a lot.

I have to travel to Israel

because I am sick, really sick.

I have cancer.

I would like to help sick children

like I have been helped.

I can't go to the hospital

until there is a ceasefire.

I can barely sleep.

I always have the bombing on my mind.

I am worried about the people out there,

my relatives, my siblings.

AL SHATI

REFUGEE CAMP GAZA CITY

My grandfather came

as a refugee from Yafa.

He had to stay here in Gaza.

My dad was born here and so were we.

We might need to be refugees again,

like those at Al Shifa hospital,

or in schools.

I quit school two years ago

to help my family.

My dad can't work anymore.

I am working instead.

Mohamed, would you, please,

hand me another bag of tea?

My mom is sick. She has a liver problem,

a thyroid problem and diabetes.

I have two mentally handicapped sisters.

I am the only one working

and bringing some money home.

You get really tired

and then you can't wake up in the morning.

Stay home when it gets dark.

Do not go out then.

Get some rest, baby.

Do not go out.

Get a right job

instead of what you are doing now.

Get a better job. Learn a profession.

This job affects me too much.

I have no money

for gloves or right clothing.

I had an accident once

when I was on my way to Yabalia.

I accidentally end up hanging

from the horse reins by the neck

until a man saw me and saved me.

I spent four days at the ICU.

I like fishing but it also scares me.

Every time there is a Palestinian boat,

Israeli war ships shoot them.

Many sailors have died.

They stop our boats

and take our nets away.

They kidnap and take us as hostages.

Even so,

the sea is a good place to work in.

I would like to be a fisherman.

I was born in the sea.

I love the sea and the sea loves me.

I would love to fish

and always be by the sea.

I would like to have my own boat

when I grow up

so I could take my family

fishing with me.

1,475 PALESTINIANS DIED BETWEEN

JULY 7 AND AUGUST 26, 2014.

70% OF THE DEAD CHILDREN

WERE YOUNGER THAN 12 YEARS OLD.

3 MONTHS LATER

Already three months

have passed since the accident.

No one is helping us.

They write down our names,

personal details,

phone numbers

and they promise and promise

but they leave and forget about us.

Ramallah's government,

Fatah's, Hamas's and many others

tell us that they are going to help us

but they lie.

We received many invitations

to go and celebrate the victory.

Once we got there, they reminded us

the accident and they gave us this.

Ahed and Zakariya's picture.

Zakariya used to sleep here.

Ismail and Ahed there

and Motasem and I there.

I used to play hide and seek and soccer

here with my cousins

every day.

What the four of us who survived need

is help.

We need some sort

of psychological treatment.

We need to be taken abroad for help

and forget what happened.

We keep remembering everything

on and on.

Motasem is the most affected of us all.

He is way worse than us.

Sometimes,

he starts screaming all of a sudden.

He sees his brother's spirit.

He gets very tense and starts crying.

No local psychologist

has been able to help him.

Please, take him away

so he can be helped.

Please, help him!

Help him forget what happened!

He is the most affected of us.

He sees stuff every day.

He sees dead kids.

Neither my dad

nor my uncles or cousins

have gone fishing again

since the day of the accident

due to the psychological situation

we have.

They are not capable

of going out on the sea.

That is where

the missile that killed Ismail fell.

We all ran towards the beach.

Two more missiles reached us. The other

three died over there and we were wounded.

Tie it up.

Tie it up. Do not leave it loose.

It is tight already.

OK, then. Come over here.

Please, help me with those ropes.

Grab them.

Put them there,

where the other one is.

Lift them and put them below.

That's it. There.

We will go today

to see if our boats are working

and we can go fishing again.

Slowly, slowly.

I will take it off.

Little by little.

OK. It is out already.

Remove the rest yourself.

Bisan is one of the victims

brought to me

at the beginning of the war.

She had a wound.

While sleeping,

her eyelid remains open and exposed

to possible ulcers in the cornea

provoked by the wind.

She needs surgery to fix the eyelid,

remove the swelling

and graft some eyebrow hair.

No one makes eyebrow implants here,

so she needs to go to

a plastic surgery center abroad.

Could you hold this, please?

I will hold it.

Is that OK?

There you go. See you!

Don't you say goodbye?

Say goodbye.

Alright.

-Goodbye!

-Bye.

-Thank you.

-Goodbye!

BISAN FINDS MORE DIFFICULTIES IN

COMUNICATING EVERY DAY

DUE TO THE POST-TRAUMATIC

STRESS DISORDER SHE SUFFERS.

OVER 400,000 CHILDREN

ARE IN PSYCHOLOGICAL NEED.

-Sit down here.

-I don't want to.

-Sit down here.

-I don't want to!

We went back home

when the war was over.

It was on August 25.

We were not happy

when we got back home

because we had lost my brother

and my cousin.

We were happy to be back but not

happy on the other hand.

It is very hard to lose my older brother

just like that. He lived with me.

I have got so many memories of him.

Some things are forgotten but some

others come back in my dreams.

Are you done?

Almost.

Please, put it here afterwards.

The onion is done already.

I will fill this

and you put that in the water.

I missed some of my medical

treatment because of the war.

I could not go to the hospital

because of the bombs.

No one could go out.

I have now gone to the hospital

for physical treatment

but not the psychological one.

We are all traumatized from the war.

Suffering has driven people crazy.

We get scared

just by hearing a slamming door.

Grab your pencil and draw

whatever comes to your mind.

Whatever you feel like.

We have one leisure hour

in our school program

in order to help us to forget

the effects of the war.

We like this hour

because we laugh, play

and try and forget the war

and bad memories.

I wish there were

no more wars after this one

but I have got the feeling there

will be more.

It is the same old story

every one or two years.

It has been three months

since our house was bombed

and nothing has happened.

We cannot rebuild our home because

we have no money

and the Israelis don't allow

to bring building material.

I am really afraid

of coming here in case

there are explosives

or the house falls down on us.

This is where

my brother and I used to sleep.

The living room

and the kitchen were over there.

This is where my brother

and I played every morning.

We used to have a swing.

We played here every day.

We are back in the school now,

but we do not have

any water or power supply at home.

We can't study like this.

We don't know what to do.

Winter is coming

and we are still in the street.

My dad is seeking any kind of work

in order to support us.

We have lost three houses

and the factory

from where we made a living.

We could rebuild our house,

but we will always be afraid

of another war to

come and destroy it again.

I was happy for the war to end.

I was sleeping when I was told so.

When I heard the shots in the air

and the fireworks, I was very happy.

I went out to celebrate with my friends

and shared candy.

We thought the border crossing points

would be opened after the conflict

and there would be work.

We would be better.

It turns out

we are now worse than back then.

GAZA HARBOR

Let the auction begin!

-40!

-50!

-50!

-51!

How much?

-51!

-53!

-53!

-54!

-55!

-55!

Sold! 6 boxes for 55.

I now work for a man at the harbor,

carrying boxes and gas bottles,

some boxes with fish too.

I get along with this.

I earn 30 Shekel a week.

We go to the harbor

every morning by 5:00 or 5:30 a.m.

When the auctioneer arrives,

we stand behind him.

Boxes!

When an auction is done,

we move on to the next one.

We grab the empty boxes

and take them away.

We write down the name of the buyer

and the amount of boxes.

Bring the boxes here.

I work no matter how hard it is,

because I need to support my family

and save them from starvation.

I do not care

whether it is hard or not.

I need to make a living this way.

I love the sea.

I was born by the sea.

I would love to be in the sea all my life,

swimming and living in it.

Leave all problems behind

and keep living my life in the sea.

BORN IN GAZA

THANK YOU TO ALL THE CHILDREN

AND THEIR FAMILIES

FOR OPENING UP

AND SHOWING US THEIR LIVES.