Gaza City resident says there's 'nowhere' to find hope amid Israeli bombardment
Israel says bombardment is retaliation against Hamas, the militant group that attacked the country last week
As his family hides in their underground bunker in Gaza City, surrounded by the sounds of airstrikes, Isam Hammad says he has no hope left.
"It's fearful, horrific, unbelievable," said the engineer and regional manager of a medical equipment company.
"You hear the rockets coming from the F-16 [fighter jets] with a whistle sound and then a bomb that explodes," he told The Current's Matt Galloway.
Hammad is one of hundreds of Gazans who are trying to stay out of the line of fire, as Israel pounds the area with airstrikes while blockading residents from electricity, fuel and water.
Israel says the the bombardment is retaliation against Hamas, the militant group that runs Gaza. On Oct. 7, Hamas launched a surprise attack on several Israeli sites, taking an estimated 150 hostages in the process. Israeli military said more than 1,300 people, including 222 soldiers, have been killed in Israel.
Gaza's Health Ministry says more than 1,500 Palestinians have been killed and thousands more have been injured since the start of escalation. The UN agency on the ground there is warning of a "humanitarian catastrophe" if safe corridors aren't opened amid the airstrikes and blockade.
Israel has ordered evacuations of civilians ahead of its strikes, but residents say they're just running from one place to another.
Hammad spoke to Galloway about his lost hope and why he won't be leaving the region. Here's part of their conversation.
Tell me what life is like in Gaza City right now.
Very difficult. Very tough. No electricity, no water…. Hospitals are getting out of service, and people are going to be in an unbelievable situation very soon.
There have been supplies cut off, of water and food, aid in general. Are there still supplies that are available? Can you get food, for example?
If you can walk outside and try to choose a good time to [go] and you come back safe, you still can get something.
Prices, of course, have gone up and the places which are open are very few, and the road to reach there is not safe. When you walk to reach the place, you see the devastation everywhere.
What happens with work?
From Saturday, we're off. We are trying to cope with work from online because we work in the medical supplies.
But unfortunately now, my engineers are moving [to] emergency. If there is a problem in one of the hospitals, they move. Salespersons are not working now and service is not working, and the company in Gaza is closed and we are trying to to keep up.
But I think today afternoon, the main power station went off. There is no electricity. So we have 120 megawatts coming from Israel. They were cut from Monday, I think, or Sunday. And now we are we have the 60 or 80 megawatts coming from the local power station — [it's] off because there is no petrol, there's no diesel for the generators.
Now we are talking about a problem with the generators in the hospitals. So how long do they have supply? Hours. So after a few hours — let's say one day, two days — after that, the whole hospital will be out of service. All the hospitals in Gaza Strip will be out of service.
What happens then?
I think we will see lots of casualties — and we are not talking about [just] casualties who are dying because of the bomb shelling. No, we are talking about the casualties of war and operation rooms or intensive care or on ventilation. Everybody is going to die.
Not only that, you will see people dying in their homes because they are on aid machines. So when you have power lost, you will see people dying.
The goal of these attacks, according to the Israeli prime minister, is to eradicate Hamas. How much support do you think Hamas has within Gaza right now?
Look, we can see better than you because we are in the area. Yesterday, when I went to the Rimal area, they wiped houses, buildings. Who's Hamas there? When they are talking about a building ... and they put it to ground. Who's Hamas? This is absolutely rubbish story.
People are under occupation. This is a problem. People are not being able to live. They want to live.
I was going to say, when you and I spoke in 2021, this was after the fighting there. There was a ceasefire that came in the wake of that fighting. We talked about how young people … needed to find hope. Where will you find hope now?
Nowhere. Honest to God, nowhere.
My statement in 2023 will be different than in 2021 because the problem of the Israeli government, they don't want to learn.
They had a big chance in the West Bank. What is the situation they created in the West Bank? Is it a prosperous area to live in? It's not. What are they doing in East Jerusalem? It's the same thing.
What is their plan? What do they want to do? They want us to leave? We will not. We are not going to leave. It's our land.
What happens when this is over?
Disaster. This time it's disaster. This time is totally different than others.
They are bombing from the sky by F-16, wiping areas all together, square kilometres, wiping it to ground. So there is something in their mind. It's not just an attack..
Will you stay?
Where should I go? This is my land. You want me to kill my dream, my house, my memory? Am I supposed to do this? No.
If I have to die, I will die. I am 58 years [old]. How many years more I have to live? Better to die in dignity than to die humiliated. It's tough, Matt.
Q&A has been edited for length and clarity. Produced by Joana Draghici and Willow Smith. With files from Associated Press and Reuters.
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