Narrator: Mohammad Hawajreh is a Palestinian nurse working with Doctors Without Borders out of the Al-Shifa Hospital in Gaza City. That’s where we reached him — and I will warn you that you will hear the bombardment going on throughout this conversation. Mohammad, just tell us where you are right now and what’s happening there.

Mohammad HAWAJREH: I’m now at the MSF office, just 150 meters away from Al-Shifa Hospital. I am evacuated from the north to Gaza City with my family, and our colleagues are evacuated from the north, and the number of the people who are in our facilities is close to 300.

INTERVIEWER: I know you’re not at the hospital right now, as you said, but can you describe what it’s like there?

Mohammad HAWAJREH: The situation is unbelievable. So, bombing, military tanks, bombing, as you hear now. Can you hear the voice?

INTERVIEWER: Those are explosions of the bombing.

Mohammad HAWAJREH:

INTERVIEWER: Yeah, the explosions. How close are they to you, Mohammed? … Mohammed, are you all right?

Mohammad HAWAJREH: Yeah.

INTERVIEWER: Okay. What was that sound?

Mohammad HAWAJREH: That’s a bomb.

INTERVIEWER: Are you — is it close to you? Are you safe? As safe as possible?

Mohammad HAWAJREH: I’m in the safe [area] in our office, but the bombing is too close, too close to our office. Actually our area, it’s like a battlefield zone, you know — bullets, attacks, bombs, Air Force attacks.

INTERVIEWER: We know people were forced to leave the Al-Shifa Hospital. Where have they gone? How many people were there and had to leave?

Mohammad HAWAJREH: Actually, yesterday, when I was at Al-Shifa Hospital, the number of the people who are flocked or evacuated from the beginning of the war in Shifa Hospital was the same. But today, when I saw the people who are moving — yeah, it was a thousand people. Thousands of people. I even saw a patient in the bed; they are moving, you know, the families with the kids, moving and walking on the street, raising white flags.

INTERVIEWER: It seems to be getting closer, Mohammed. Where are you staying in the building to be safe?

Mohammad HAWAJREH: I’m at the balcony.

INTERVIEWER: You’re on the balcony?

Mohammad HAWAJREH: Yes. It’s the only place — the only place where I can have a good connection.

INTERVIEWER: Well, I think you need to go to safety, Mohammed.

Mohammad HAWAJREH: No, it’s safe, it’s safe. There’s no safe place at all in Gaza. When I was [doing] an interview a few hours ago, the [bullets] penetrated my own window.

INTERVIEWER: Of the place you’re in now?

Mohammad HAWAJREH: Yeah, a few hours ago.

INTERVIEWER: Yeah. Every moment is dangerous, clearly. We know that Gaza Medic Voices estimates that close to 200 healthcare workers have been killed in Gaza. So what is it like for you and your colleagues? Have you lost colleagues?

Mohammad HAWAJREH: No, actually we didn’t lose colleagues, but our colleagues lost one or two, or even more, of their family members. …But [it’s] too close. Give me a minute.
For me, as Mohammad — the first day of the war, they attacked the last floor of the building that I live in, so I moved with my kids and my family to Shifa. But our work also is a humanitarian job, so I created a team with 12 nurses and two emergency doctors from the people who are evacuated to the MSF facility. So we went to Shifa and started giving our hand to the team there, because I heard that there’s a shortage of medical staff and a shortage of supplies. So we got confirmation to send these items in our stock to the Ministry of Health for Al-Shifa Hospital.

INTERVIEWER: Mohammed, I have to ask you — how can you stay that calm when those explosions are so close to you?

Mohammad HAWAJREH: We feel like we are really exhausted, really, really exhausted. We don’t care to stay alive. We saw children and innocent people killed, killed. A whole family destroyed. A massacre. Some of my friends — some of my friends, they lost their whole family. So it’s our destiny as Palestinians to be in these circumstances, or this situation. But we keep going, because we are strong enough. We are still strong.

INTERVIEWER: How old are your children, Mohammad?

Mohammad HAWAJREH: So I have two daughters and two sons. The oldest one is 10, and the next one, my son, is eight. The second daughter, she’s five, and the last one is two.

INTERVIEWER: What are they saying — the ones who know what’s going on?

Mohammad HAWAJREH: They are the same, the same feeling. They are exhausted too. They ask about the bombing, and I was explaining to them that it’s fireworks, and then I say that it’s music — sometimes music tunes. I was trying all the ideas, to explain to them that it’s not a war.

INTERVIEWER: We heard yesterday about these four-hour humanitarian pauses that were going to come through. Have you seen any impact of those, or have you seen them happen?

Mohammad HAWAJREH: No, there’s no pauses, there’s no pauses at all. They attack the people when they are moving to the safe place. There’s no safe place. They’re attacking kids, they’re attacking families, they’re attacking innocent people. So my message is to stop killing those innocent people, to stop that crazy war right now.

INTERVIEWER: Mohammad, thank you. We’re going to let you be with your family now. Thank you.

Mohammad HAWAJREH: You’re welcome. Thank you very much.

INTERVIEWER: Please take care. Keep in touch.