750 teachers, 120 scholars and thinkers executed, 11,600 students martyred

Al-Daqran: The occupation killed about a thousand medical staff and destroyed 24 hospitals out of 38

Constants: Targeting 15 vital sectors and losses amounted to 35 billion dollars

Survivor: My husband was martyred, my three sons were arrested, and I don’t know anything about them

Journalist: We paid a heavy price, but we continue to convey the suffering of our people

“My husband was martyred and my three sons were arrested, and to this day I don’t know anything about them,” said Umm Yousef Al-Dahdouh, as she began to tell her story, which still gnaws at her heart with pain and oppression a full year after the Israeli aggression on the Gaza Strip.

The tragedy of Umm Yousef began when she was displaced from her home in the Zeitoun neighborhood, southeast of Gaza City, to several places, under a barrage of Israeli missiles and shells. She told "Y" and "Y" dot com: "My family and I were displaced many times. The first time was to Al-Shifa Hospital, where I slept for more than a month in my son's car. Then we were displaced to shelter schools and strangers' homes." She describes the displacement journeys as "difficult, bitter and harsh."

Loss and arrest of children

But what was not expected was that the Israeli army would surprise and storm the place where her husband and children had fled without her, under heavy cover of artillery and helicopter shelling, not to mention the random and non-stop shooting. She says: “The Israeli soldiers stormed the place at two o’clock in the morning, and forced my sons Mahmoud and Diaa to take off their clothes and remain completely naked, then they took them to an unknown location, according to what their friends told us.”

What about the moment they brought you the news? You respond, crying: “I wish they had been martyred rather than taken to be tortured.”

At that moment, Umm Youssef's husband refused to surrender and submit to these soldiers, so he fled from them, but an Israeli reconnaissance plane caught up with him and dropped a missile on him until he was martyred.

Umm Youssef continued: “For nine days, my son Alaa searched for his father until he found his body in one of the streets.”

The pain did not end there, but the deep wound in her heart was renewed when she was displaced one time to a house in the vicinity of Al-Shifa Medical Hospital, and there the Israeli army stormed the area simultaneously with belts of fire and violent shelling.

She added: "It was Ramadan when they besieged us for five consecutive days, without food or drink. After that, they blew up the door of the room and fired heavily at the ground to scare us. They ordered us to go out and arrested my son Alaa and his friend."

The occupation did not stop there, but confiscated their mobile phones and laptops, not to mention bombing their home and destroying all their belongings.

Under fire, Israeli soldiers forced Umm Yousef and her family to flee south. She added: “We walked by sea for more than five hours. I fainted three times from the hunger and thirst that was squeezing our stomachs.”

Working under fire..

Al Arabiya correspondent in the Gaza Strip, Abdullah Muqdad, experienced a major struggle throughout his media coverage of the war on the Strip for a year. He told “Y” and “Y” dot com: “I started my career in 2005 and covered all the wars, but this war that we are going through is not ordinary compared to previous experiences,” adding: “We were not just news transmitters, but we are the news itself.”

Journalist Muqdad describes his experience, saying: “It was very difficult, and the suffering was doubled between conveying people’s pain and securing my family’s needs.”

What about the most difficult situation in your memory? He recalls: “When I was on air, reporting news about places that were targeted, and I did not know that my family’s house was among them, and that medical teams were pulling them out from under the rubble.”

Journalist Muqdad could not comprehend the many horrific scenes while covering the war. He continues: “When I was standing on a tower in Gaza City, I saw before my eyes the towers, buildings and streets being bombed, burned and set on fire,” adding: “And I am the one who remembers Gaza and I have beautiful memories in every place in it.”

The occupation deliberately targeted journalists in a clear threat to silence the voice of truth. Journalist Muqdad faced great risks. He says: “When I was in Nasser Medical Complex covering the military operation on Khan Yunis, which lasted four months, I saw a quadcopter plane shooting at people, and artillery shelling residential neighborhoods. For the first time, I felt that danger was next to me and death was very close to me.”

The responsibility of conveying the pain of the people, those displaced from their homes, and the suffering of the prisoners, which journalist Abdullah carries, pushed him to complete his media coverage and continue on the same path.

The occupation deliberately destroyed the health system

For his part, the spokesman for the Ministry of Health in the Gaza Strip, Khalil Al-Daqran, told “Y” and “Y” Dot Com: “The occupation destroyed 24 hospitals and put them out of service out of 38, and also took out 82 health centers out of 90, while destroying 133 ambulances.”

He stressed that the occupation killed about a thousand health workers and cadres, and injured about three thousand of them, while 310 others are still under arrest.

Al-Daqran explained that the occupation's continued closure of the crossings deprives 30,000 patients and injured people of their right to travel for treatment abroad, including about 10,000 cancer patients.

He said: "The hospitals in the Gaza Strip received about 1.8 million patients, including those suffering from skin diseases, hepatitis, polio, and others, due to the occupation's destruction of the infrastructure and the spread of diseases and epidemics among citizens."

Al-Daqran warned that all hospitals in the Gaza Strip would be out of service due to the occupation's continued prevention of the arrival of generators, fuel, and necessary equipment.

Targeting 15 vital sectors and losses amounting to 35 billion dollars

In turn, the head of the government media office in the Gaza Strip, Ismail Al-Thawabta, told “Y” and “Y” dot com: “More than 42 thousand martyrs have arrived at the hospitals in the Strip since the beginning of the aggression, while 10 thousand martyrs and missing people are still under the rubble,” noting that there are more than 96 thousand wounded and injured people in hospitals.

Al-Thawabta stressed that the Israeli occupation targeted 15 vital sectors in the Gaza Strip, the most important of which was the education sector, where 123 schools and universities were completely destroyed, while 324 were partially destroyed.

He added: "The occupation executed 750 school principals (teachers and teaching staff), and 120 scholars and thinkers, while killing more than 11,600 male and female students from the educational stages."

As for the press crews, Al-Thawabtah said: “The occupation assassinated 175 journalists and media professionals in order to intimidate them and dissuade them from continuing their work, and directly injured more than 396 of them, while arresting 36 others whose names were known.”

He stressed that the heavy losses incurred by all vital sectors amounted to 35 billion dollars, noting that the occupation deliberately caused the damage to cause famine.

He added: "Famine threatens more than 2 million and 400 thousand people, including 3,500 children under the age of five who are dead due to malnutrition," noting that the occupation prevents the entry of milk for children into the Strip.

The head of the government media office in Gaza called on all Arab countries and governments to pressure the occupation and the American administration to stop the war, open the crossings, and withdraw completely from the Strip.