Rebuilding in the Rubble: Between ruin & renewal, Gaza’s ceasefire through the eyes of Bahaa Zaqout

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00:00uh doug thank you very much for that douglas herbert there we can now go across to gaza and

00:04speak to daryl bala resident baha zakut baha thank you uh for joining us again on the program how

00:11are things uh where you are today now that this war has stopped

00:18thank you delano for for having me again so uh to be honest things are started to change for the

00:25better and and gaza strip the quiet here that the cease the ceasefire the cessation of all military

00:33actions here in gaza have have become a source of relief for most most people in gaza people started

00:41to to look after their their uh their their houses or to try to to go back to to north gaza especially

00:50and parts of hanunis start to to to re-establish us something for themselves to stay at in in

00:59confrontation for the coming winter the situation uh it's safe to say that the situation is much

01:06better compared to to one week ago people started to breathe again people started to look to to to

01:14to a more sustainable way of living especially that the there is no almost almost no houses left

01:23undestroyed in in gaza city or north gaza in general and in hanunis so the situation is much better but

01:31we wait for the new uh interventions from the uh to to start the reconstruction process especially

01:40starting by removing the rubbles from the the areas that the uh israelis has have withdrawn from

01:49because i wanted to ask about gaza city bah because i know that your parents were staying with you in

01:54dar al bala because they had to flee gaza city uh where are they now have they been able to go back to

02:00their home is their building still even standing now that their house have been destroyed but they have

02:08rented another house in in central gaza city but after they were displaced to daryl bala the house

02:15was also destroyed so they are still here in daryl bala which is the case for so many people cannot go to

02:23gaza city because most of that especially in the past uh months the this the level of destruction in gaza

02:30city was unprecedented most of the houses have been destroyed there so most of the people are staying

02:37those who left north gaza to south gaza in the past months have stayed in south gaza because they do

02:43not have any place to go to and they are all waiting for aid organization to start delivering tents for

02:50them to build it or to install it near their destroyed houses yeah it's douglas herbert in the studio

02:59um in recent days the israeli prime minister benjamin netanyahu has said and this was before yesterday but

03:06has said the military campaign is not over we have alongside that seen reports uh in the past 24

03:12hours of hamas reasserting itself in neighborhoods from which israeli troops have withdrawn are you

03:21concerned uh that fighting that the military offensive could resume again that this is merely a pause in the

03:29war uh to be completely honest all cousins are concerned that hamas is starting to ascertain power

03:37again and especially in the areas that the israelis withdrawn from uh but we were a little bit relieved

03:44after the announcement from trump that this is agreed between trump and hamas to to try to take a little

03:52bit control over the situation in gaza but still the concern is there there is shooting every day and

04:01every moment to be honest hamas is trying to take over or take control on gaza strip not only in the

04:11areas that the israelis withdrawn from just yesterday they were able to enter to khan yunes which is still

04:18under the control of of the israeli but they have they were able to do so and we i think you have

04:25heard of the different incidents throughout the gaza strip especially in gaza city and khan yunes um bahar

04:33you said things were improving uh for you i just want to know in terms of food have uh are you is food more

04:40available uh on the market in the market now and also have the prices gone down yes uh that food is

04:49in quantities and prices has improved significantly in the past couple of days and for the first time

04:56after after the the announcement of the ceasefire aid organization are now able to enter aids to gaza to

05:04enter the tracks to gaza without being looted and this is a very good sign aid organization and merchant

05:12tracks are entering to gaza at a good rate and we hope that this will this rate will continue

05:19uh and uh just finally bahar i wanted to ask you about your kids because now you're i remember you

05:24you and i've had conversations over the course of the past few months and you told me that they

05:29i know it's just been a few days uh that we've had this ceasefire now and um i just i just want to

05:35know how how are they doing i know that you said you enrolled your your son in school but um what's it

05:42like for them now are they able to to go out onto the streets because you're telling me that hamas is

05:47also trying to reassert itself uh and control of the gaza strip so how how do they have that sense of freedom

05:53till now the only place that they can he can go to is his kindergarten but we cannot wander in this

06:01state unfortunately but this is yeah i'm satisfied with this beginning so i know that they they need

06:08to go out they need to see other people other than the the people they see every day in the house or

06:13to play with other children but we have to to to be a little bit patient so yeah and we've been through

06:1924 months of this dreadful war uh it doesn't hurt to wait for additional two to uh one or two weeks

06:27uh indeed yeah um good luck and um thank you for taking the time uh to speak to us and explain what

06:34exactly is going on uh on the ground in gaza really appreciate it thank you baha thank you

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