‘Extremely Brave’: Elderly Palestinian Praised For Telling Al Jazeera In Arabic That Hamas Steals the Aid Coming Into Gaza
An unidentified elderly Palestinian woman in Gaza received widespread praise on Thursday after a translated clip of her telling an Al Jazeera reporter that Hamas was stealing international aid went viral online.
The clip was from a live Wednesday broadcast on Al Jazeera’s main Arabic station, which has long been a point of contention in the Middle East and has resulted in countries like Egypt, Iraq, and Saudi Arabia imposing different kinds of bans on the network. Al Jazeera is owned by the Qatari government, which hosts several Hamas leaders in Doha.
The clip was translated by the Middle East Media Research Institute and begins with the interviewer saying, “You know that all the people here cannot find anything to eat or drink?”
“Yes, everybody is suffering,” says the woman outside Nasser Hospital in Gaza’s Khan Yunis.
“The situation is difficult. No aid is coming in,” adds the interviewer.
“All the aid goes to [the tunnels] underground. It does not reach all the people,” replies the woman, adding, “I am not afraid [of Hamas], I am talking to them as well.”
The interviewer cuts her off saying, “A lot of aid is coming. It is being distributed. This is what they say.”
The woman wags her finger to correct the interviewer and adds, “Hamas takes everything to their homes. They can take me, shoot me, or do whatever they want to me.”
The interviewer then takes the microphone away and reports, “It seems that the situation is unclear.”
An article on the clip was shared by Sen. John Fetterman (D-PA) who called the woman a “Hero.”
The Atlantic’s Yair Rosenberg also commented on the clip, writing, “What’s surprising here is not what this woman says, which is known, but that the Al Jazeera reporter let her say it without cutting her off, as has happened repeatedly on the channel when interviewees start criticizing Hamas or its patrons in Qatar and Turkey.”
https://twitter.com/Yair_Rosenberg/status/1732825936528019595
“Needless to say, this woman is extremely brave and yet another reminder that the people of Gaza ≠ Hamas,” Rosenberg added.
