Palestinian journalists forced to flee to southern Gaza, can't report on events in north
Although Israel agreed to a daily "four hour pause" in fighting in northern Gaza, it doesn't mean the constant bombardment in Gaza has stopped during the other 20 hours of a day. On the same day as the agreement was announced, at least four hospitals and one school were targets of deadly airstrikes by the Israel Defense Force (IDF) Thursday night into Friday morning in Gaza. Al-Shifa, Gaza's largest hospital, housing thousands of displaced Palestinians, and the Indonesian Hospital, are both in northern Gaza.
Bloody and disturbing video report shows the airstrikes hit the Al-Shifa hospital yard. Journalists there said the shelling was close to the tent where reporters were located.
Some English-speaking Palestinian journalists stationed at or near the hospitals were among the thousands of civilians forced to flee south. These voices are what many people around the world have used to witness live footage on social media from inside Gaza.
This is because very few international journalists have reported from the Gaza Strip. Access is needed to enter the region, according to the Palestinian Journalists' Syndicate. Israel's army allowed a CBS News correspondent to travel with them through certain parts of northern Gaza.
The International Federation of Journalists also said that most of the reports directly from the areas with the heaviest bombardments are from the journalists born in Gaza.
"It was a very hard decision, but almost all journalists and doctors took the same decision…to run away from being killed," Palestinian journalist Hind Khoudary posted to social media on Nov.9.
Bisan Owda, another journalist who was displaced from Al-Shifa, shared that people were carrying the injured over their shoulders only to find little to no medical staff left.
"There is no aid, people are bleeding and dying in the streets," she wrote on Instagram.
Sick, young, elderly, and disabled Palestinians are not able to walk for hours to the south.
The Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ) said 40 journalists and media workers were confirmed dead as of Nov. 10.
CPJ also reported multiple assaults, threats, cyberattacks, censorship, and killings of family members. It was the deadliest month for journalists since CPJ started in 1992.
Many journalists and media organizations, such as the Society of Professional Journalists, have called for protection for journalists working in Gaza.
"It is imperative that journalists are able to document what's happening on the ground so the public can remain informed," SPJ president said in a statement.
The Gaza Health Ministry released a graphic seven-minute-long video of the conditions inside Al-Shifa hospital on Friday.
"They are on the ground taking their last breaths due to the collapse of the health system, due to the lack of medicines due to the occupation besieging the hospitals," an unnamed doctor says. "There are no treatments."
Some 20 of Gaza's 36 hospitals are no longer functioning, according to the World Health Organization.
The IDF claimed that Hamas uses hospitals like Al-Shifa for military operations. Hamas and hospital staff denied this claim, according to the Associated Press. The U.N. has said that even if this were true, that would not give Israel the allowance to strike at civilian buildings, citing international humanitarian law.
CBS 2 spoke with Ghada Shurrab from the Chicago-area nonprofit Reach Education Fund, who has family in Gaza whom she has had trouble reaching.
"This is not something new. We've been experiencing this as Palestinians for generations," she said.
This latest displacement comes 35 days after Israel declared war following Hamas' surprise attack on Oct. 7. Israel said around 1,200 people, including Israelis, military members, and foreigners, were killed in a coordinated and multi-front attack by Hamas.
Israel said over 200 people have also been taken hostage by Hamas. Five have since been released. Israel's Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has said he would not consider a ceasefire until all hostages are released. This would be considered the fifth war in Gaza in the past 15 years.
"My grandparents experienced the Nakba, 'the catastrophe' in 1948, where they were displaced from their houses, and many of their people and neighbors were killed, and they were lucky to survive. And then my parents also experienced this in 1967, where more Palestinians were killed," Shurrab said she lived in Gaza for 20 years.
She believes that, "Any ceasefire now is in the right direction," but that, "having the four hours ceasefire only imposed in the northern part of Gaza, this would help no one but the Israeli army to continue evacuating the north."
Several U.S. politicians have shared that they believe Israel has a "right to self-defense." Rashida Tlaib, the only Palestinian United States Representative, was censured over her condemnation of Israel's actions. The W.H.O., the U.N., and many human rights groups have since condemned the magnitude of Israel's response to the Hamas attack.
The U.S. has provided economic and military aid to Israel since 1951. House Republicans passed a $14.5 billion Israel aid bill at the beginning of November.
