This is Gaza: Witnessing the Israel Hamas War

Channel 4 News (2025)

Film Review

In this film Yousef Hammash, a UK Channel 4 foreign news producer, reflects on his extremely difficult to leave his homeland 179 days into the Israel-Hamas war.

Hammash was born in the Gaza refugee Jabiliah. With his foreign TV job, he had a good income and his family owned their own apartment in Gaza City near the sea.

He first learned of Israel’s October 8th 2023 attack on Gaza when the IDF (Israel Defense Force) burst into his building, dragged out two residents and beat them up. When Israel subsequently ordered the evacuation of all Gaza City residents, he loaded his family and followed the specific route designated by Israeli authorities, to his grandparents home in Jabiliah refugee camp. The footage he captured of bumper to bumper cars and refugees on foot is extremely moving, especially when Israel selectively bombed several cars. The Gaza building where they owned an apartment was leveled the next day.

He continued to provide Channel 4 News continuous footage of life in Jabiliah, where the population suddenly increased from 250,000 to one million. Much of it consisted of friends and neighbors recovering and mourning the bodies of relatives (including many children) killed in repeated Israeli bombings of Jabiliah. Owing to his high profile coverage, Israeli civilians called him Hammash “every ten minutes” with death threats against himself and his children.

Hammash compares it to suddenly living in the Stone Age. After Israel cut deliveries of food, electricity,water and fuel, his family and friends were forced to cook outside over open air fires. Owing to the scarcity of food and water, he queued several hours daily for bread and for water. When he could get rice and lentils, a single meal cost $400.

He provided very moving footage of children dying of starvation in Jabiliah’s hospital (later demolish by Israeli bombing*) and the tent they built on the hospital ground to store bodies. He also filmed Muslims rescuing Christians after Israel bombed Jabilih’s Christian church (where they sought refuge).

After a few months, Israel notified all refugees to evacuate Jabiliah and relocate to Rafah, a much smaller area. Hammash’s family left Jabiliah (which Israel subsequently leveled as they did Gaza City) to a section of Rafah close the Egyptian border. They were now living in a tent. At one point his children went without food for three days. At another the IDF fired on refugees lined up for food relief delivered via Egypt.

After a few weeks, despite powerful emotional ties to Gaza and Palestine, he and his wife felt the risk of losing their children were too high, and they very sorrowfully departed for London.

At the time this film was produced, 46,000 Gazans (44% children) had been killed in 15 months. The civilian death toll on the Israeli side was 1600 Israelis, 1200 on October 7 – when Hamas captured 251 hostages.

*(Ed note – I suspect this is why Israel eventually bombed all the hospitals – to prevent Palestinians from keeping an accurate record of starvation death.