(12 Feb 2025)
RESTRICTION SUMMARY:
ASSOCIATED PRESS
Al-Arish city, Egypt – 11 February 2025
1. Palestinian mother Neveen Fadl al-Tafesh with her injured son inside hospital
2. Child’s bandaged feet
3. SOUNDBITE (Arabic) Neveen Fadl al-Tafesh, Gaza resident: ++STARTS ON SHOT 1; PARTLY OVERLAID WITH SHOT 4++
"We are clinging to our country and to every piece of sand in our country. We are truly clinging to our country. It is impossible for us to give it up. We are a people who lost our children. We really lost our children, our spouses and our homes. And after all this, are we going to leave the soil of our country and leave (Gaza)? This is very much impossible."
4. Various of women seated next to children on bed
5. SOUNDBITE (Arabic) Samir el-Gharabli, Gaza resident:
"This (referring to U.S. President Donald Trump’s idea to resettle the Palestinians from war-torn Gaza) will not happen, God willing. Even the people and trees will remain on this land. This is our land, where will we go? Let them say what they say. We will remain on our land. Even if we all die, we will still remain (on the land)."
6. Corridor inside al-Arish general hospital
STORYLINE:
Palestinians injured in the Israel-Hamas war in Gaza received treatment in the Egyptian city of al-Arish following their evacuation from the war-ton enclave.
Earlier this month, U.S. President Donald Trump suggested that displaced Palestinians in Gaza be permanently resettled outside the war-torn territory and proposed the U.S. take "ownership" in redeveloping the area into "the Riviera of the Middle East."
Palestinians have rejected the idea, saying they will not be driven out of the territory.
"This is our land, where will we go? Let them say what they say. We will remain on our land. Even if we all die, we will still remain (on the land)," said Gaza resident Samir el-Gharabli.
Gaza’s Rafah crossing opened on Feb. 1 for the first time since Israel captured it nearly nine months ago to allow a group of sick and wounded Palestinian children to enter Egypt.
The reopening of the Rafah crossing came after the fragile ceasefire deal Israel and Hamas reached last month.
Rafah is Gaza’s only crossing that does not enter into Israel.
The children were the first in what are meant to be regular evacuations of Palestinians through the crossing for treatment abroad.
Over the past 15 months, Israel’s campaign against Hamas in retaliation for the militants’ Oct. 7, 2023, attack on southern Israel has decimated Gaza’s health sector, leaving most of its hospitals out of operation even as more than 110,000 Palestinians were wounded by Israel’s bombardment and ground offensives, according to health officials.
Remaining facilities are unable to perform many crucial treatments or specialised surgeries for wounds or diseases.
Gaza resident Neveen Fadl al-Tafesh sat next to her injured son inside al-Arish general hospital.
She too has no intention of leaving the Gaza Strip, she said.
"We are clinging to our country and to every piece of sand in our country. We are truly clinging to our country. It is impossible for us to give it up," al-Tafesh said.
Last week, the top World Health Organization official for Gaza said between 12,000 and 14,000 patients still need medical evacuation from the territory — including 5,000 children.
At the current rate, Dr. Rik Peeperkorn said medical evacuations will take five to 10 years and critically ill patients will die.
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