A diary from
inside Gaza
Yousef Hammash is the Norwegian Refugee Council's spokesperson in Gaza. For three years, he has been working as our Advocacy Officer in his homeland. In this role, he documents life from within what is known by many as “the world’s largest open-air prison”.
GAZA, 2021. Yousef with his wife Manal and their two children.
On 7 October 2023, Palestinian armed groups fired a barrage of rockets toward Israeli communities from Gaza, killing civilians and taking scores of hostages. In response, Israel has imposed a total siege on Gaza and launched the bloodiest offensive against Gaza for years, destroying buildings, public facilities and displacing half the population.
Yousef has been documenting life in Gaza since 7 October almost daily, despite significant personal challenges and connectivity issues. You can follow his daily reporting below.
Warning: the below contains content that some readers may find distressing.
GAZA, 2021. Yousef with his wife Manal and their two children.
GAZA, 2021. Yousef with his wife Manal and their two children.
14 January / Day 100
Sunday
10 January
Wednesday
5 January
Friday
4 January
Thursday
31 December
Sunday
18 December
Monday
13 December
Wednesday
9 December
Saturday
8 December
Friday
3 December
Sunday
1 December
Friday
27 November
Monday
26 November
Sunday
24 November
Friday
23 November
Thursday
14 November
Tuesday
13 November
Monday
12 November
Sunday
10 November
Friday
“I want to return to my home, even if I sleep on the rubble of my house, I don’t mind that.”
Source: @YousefHammash on X
9 November
Thursday
7 November
Tuesday
6 November
Monday
5 November
Sunday
“My dear friend, journalist Muhammad Al-Alul, lost his four children while he was working, after they were bombed by the Israeli army in Al-Maghazi camp, south of Gaza.
“Muhammad, I do not have enough words to console you.”
Source: @YousefHammash on X
4 November
Saturday
3 November
Friday
Jabalia is the largest of eight refugee camps in Gaza and is home to 116,000 registered refugees. Since 31 October, it has been the target of repeated Israeli bombardment.
2 November
Thursday
1 November
Wednesday
31 October
Tuesday
30 October
Monday
Source: Channel 4 News, via X
“They've turned the streets into rubble, suddenly. They've turned them into ash. I've been living in these streets for more than 30 years now, but I don't recognise them.”
29 October
Sunday
After almost 36 hours of silence, we managed to regain contact with Yousef and our other colleagues on the ground in Gaza.
28 October
Saturday
Today, all communications went down across Gaza, and we lost contact with Yousef and our 53 other staff.
27 October
Friday
26 October
Thursday
“Every night, we believe that this is the heaviest, the longest, the most intense violence night. Again, they surprise us. There is more. There is always more. There is always more bombardment...
“You don't have enough to think about the previous day – what happened, who died, who's injured.
“It's an impossible situation here.”
25 October
Wednesday
“I don't know how, even when this chaos is finished, how we will recover. We are two million people who are traumatised. I don't think there is enough psychosocial support on this planet that could help us.”
24 October
Tuesday
23 October
Monday
22 October
Sunday
“We do not have enough time to grieve for those we have lost. Not an hour goes by without losing someone.”
21 October
Saturday
20 October
Friday
“Yesterday, my son Ahmed, two years old, had a fever and unfortunately we couldn't find a doctor. And we cannot move to go to the hospital. Even the hospital doesn't have the capacity to receive anyone. So we had to rely on our personal experience, dealing with the fever and whatever available medicine we have. It was a really chaotic night.
“Last night they attacked the Porphyrius Church and honestly, I didn't feel the pain when they destroyed my house like I felt yesterday when they attacked the church. It wasn't just a church. It was a home for everyone. It was on my list always whenever I have guests from outside Gaza. It's one of the first places that I want everyone to see. It really hurt. I think if I survive, I can rebuild my house. But how can we rebuild the Porphyrius Church?”
19 October
Thursday
18 October
Wednesday
17 October
Tuesday
Source: Channel 4 News, via X
“Every day I have to think about the daily needs of the house.
“I have my sister with me, she's about to deliver her first baby. My mother, who is sick, crying every night. I'm very aware that she gets more sick in the nights, so I have to take her to the hospital. Every day I'm living in this cycle of providing the needs for the family.
“I don't think about the future at all. We are living day by day now, unfortunately.”
16 October
Monday
Source: Metro
“We don’t have access to news…so literally we don’t know what’s happening all over Gaza. We are just sitting in our places, whoever can provide a place, in the schools, in a house, someone is hosting them, but literally without anything and a bit isolated inside our houses.
“People are trying to find anything to eat, anything to [keep themselves] alive.
“I think the world needs to know it’s a disaster here. We need a truce, even for one day, people need to breathe.”
15 October
Sunday
14 October
Saturday
No diary entry.
13 October
Friday
Source: MSNBC
“I am in Beit Lahia, the northern part of the Gaza Strip, and [if you want me to describe the situation,] it's horror here. It's part of hell here. Our bombing didn't stop for 6 days in a row. Wherever you go in Gaza you will see rubble everywhere. To cross a distance from a place to another place, it's like a maze going from street to another street because all the streets are blocked by rubble and destruction everywhere.
“No food, no electricity, no water, no internet connection. I have to stand in the street just to get signal. I'm really surprised that this phone call is functioning because usually it drops off quickly.
“It was 2008, 2009, 2012, 2014, 2021 and between that there was also a lot of small ground fights. This cannot be compared to what we witnessed previously. This is a massive bombardment that they are using. There is no single safe place in Gaza. You cannot compare it to any war or escalation before, it's madness.”
12 October
Thursday
Source: Democracy Now!, via X
“I don't have enough space in my head to think about the political situation and what they are doing. All we think about is trying to provide safety and shelter for our children.”
Source: Channel 4 News, via X
“No-one is where they should be. Many members of one family [are cramped into] one apartment. They thought it would be safer like this. A man begs me to keep filming, as he carries his young cousin, Mohammed. 'I want the world to see,' he cries.
“It feels as if the walls are closing in and you cannot catch your breath, because it never stops.”
11 October
Wednesday
10 October
Tuesday
Source: Channel 4 News, via X
“You can't hear yourself think. It's not just the noise of the sirens and the strikes. The sound of the chaos in between is just relentless. Pure panic everywhere you look.
“We've been told to get out. But where do we go? And how do we get there? Gaza is under a complete seige. There's no escape. We are not strangers to war. But how it feels this time... it's hard to find the words.
“It feels like world is collapsing.”
9 October
Monday
8 October
Sunday
7 October
Saturday
We want to thank our colleague Yousef Hammash for bravely documenting his experiences during this time.
Our thoughts are with our colleagues and everyone who has lost loved ones and their homes in Israel and Palestine during this recent escalation of violence.
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