Resident of the Gaza Sector: "I am also a victim"

Interview with Evgenia Albats*

Gas. The picture was taken March 14, 2024. Photo: AP

In December 2023, 2024, I was in Israel and traveled to the kibbutses and towns of the south of Israel, where a massacre occurred on October 7, 2023, 1,200 people were killed, and 257 were taken hostage, in the tunnels of the gas sector. In the early morning, 3,000 militants and ordinary residents of Gaza crossed the border with Israel. They raped women and men, burned alive, including children, cut off the heads of the heads of men and breasts to women - I saw shots, which the terrorists themselves filmed on breakthrough chambers.

Thanks to the assistance of the journalist of the Israeli Haaretz , Lisa Rozovskaya, according to the zoom, through the translator, I interviewed one of the inhabitants of Gaza, who asked him not to name his name. I won’t call: for a conversation with journalists (and even with a Jew), Hamas can kill him.

I promised the interlocutor that I would lay out this conversation completely. I waited for the hostages to be released. But even a year after the massacre one hundred, one hostage, and living and dead, remain a cover for the Hamasis somewhere in these terrible gas tunnels. It is unlikely that many will come out alive. Therefore, I decided to publish this conversation: so that the readers of The New Times know the second side.

Evgenia Albats: How can you explain the reason for the events of October 7?

A resident of the GAZ sector: We categorically condemn the murders of civilians and innocent people on both sides. Wherever civilians are - we are against the murders of civilians. By October 7 - to the events of October 7 - led to the existence of an extremist government and that it is repairing on the west coast and in the gas sector.

There was a peace agreement, Oslo's agreement. What did the state of Israel make this agreement? What rights did it give to the Palestinian people? Constant attacks on the western shore, the siege of the gas sector, which has been going on for 17 years, destroying any prospects for achieving progress in a peaceful process - this led us to October 7.

They killed the hope of the Palestinian people, killed the peace process, killed the opportunity to live in safety. This does not mean that we support what happened on October 7, then violence and murders that occurred. But at the same time, there is no justification for how the Israeli government brutally answers - the occupation government - to innocent people in the gas sector.

The Israeli media are trying to expose the entire Palestinian people in the eyes of the world as a people-criminal, a bloodthirsty people ... I say: Palestinians are a people who loves the world and passionately wishes and waits for it.

As we condemn the murders and violence on October 7, so we want you to see what is happening in the gas sector and what happened before October 7. What happened and is happening on the west coast: murders, seizure of land, creation (Jewish. - NT) settlements (on the western coast. - NT) ... The destruction of everything that moves on the territory of the west coast and the gas sector. We want peace, we want justice, we want equality.

Evgenia Albats: I sympathize with people in gas, but I can’t understand why the people who came from the gas sector, sorry killed Beeri and Kfar Aza in the kibbutses, but raped, burned, burned alive, killed children. Where does such barbarism come from?

Resident of the Gaza Sector: I ask you to listen carefully to me. This is what the Israeli media say. I was not present there and I will not deny that terrible things happened there. But I ask you again - what's the reason? Who incited and contributed to the growth of this violence? Isn't Israeli occupation? Why do everything that the Israeli media believe believe, and we - victims - in the end turn out to be liars? Why? Do they really tell only the truth, and we (Palestinians. - NT) - forever lying? This is impossible. I will not protect atrocities, I will not protect violence. But who weakened the Palestinian national autonomy (PNA)? Who killed the peace process? Who killed the hope of the Palestinians? Who has been blocking the gas sector all these years?

Evgenia Albats: I myself went to the kibbuts Beeri and Kfar-Aza and spoke with the people who survived. I spoke with a man whose son died in a kibbutz Beeri, and his daughter was taken hostage. I was in these kibbutses and walked through these burned houses. I do not use the data of Israeli media. I'm only talking about what I know personally.

Resident of the Gaza Sector: I cannot refute what you say. I will ask you not to understand me false, so that it does not work out that I am protecting violence. I told you from the very beginning that I am against the murder of innocent, civilians, all acts of violence. My religion, Islam, prohibits killing innocent, old people, children. Forbids to harm a tree and stone (a lifting on the laws of war established by the first righteous caliph Abu Baku As-Siddik.- Approx. ).

Evgenia Albats: I saw with my own eyes a document, translation, instructions of the leadership of Hamas to kill and shoot to the video how they kill. Do you admit that the leadership of Hamas gave such an instruction to its militants?

Resident of the Gaza sector: I do not protect anyone. Who has grown the Hamas movement? Who supported the Hamas movement? Isn't Israeli occupation? Who weakened the power of PNA in the gas sector? Who fired at the institutions and structures of PNA? Didn't we constantly appeal and did not ask the international community to take the side of the Palestinian people in a peaceful process? Don't you remember who burned the ad-Davabsha family? Have you not heard about the prisoner Israa Jabis, who was arrested after they forced her to burn in the fire and tortured? Have you not heard about the children who were killed on the west coast? Have you not heard about how settlers burning and capturing the lands? Yes, all this is not an excuse for what happened on October 7, but is the Israeli answer to these events - murders, destruction, violent movement and deprivation of people's people (justified. - Approx. Per. ) ... How long will the war be? How long? Why don't we go to peace, equality and security?

You listened to the victims from the Israeli side. But I am a victim! Don't you want to listen to me? My son, a child, was 14 years old, was seriously wounded and was at death. But he is not to blame for anything! I am not a militant, and my son will not pick up a weapon. My house was completely destroyed, the house of my family was completely destroyed. I move from place to place. What is my fault? For what?

Evgenia Albats: I am very empathizing with you.

Resident of the Gaza sector: I also empathize with all the victims. Although I myself am a victim, I sympathize with all the victims and all innocent people. I emphasize again: I am against the murder of innocent, civilians, against violence against anyone.

Evgenia Albats: There is a point of view that in the Middle East it is necessary to demonstrate force that Israel uses power, destroys gas, because otherwise other states around Israel will destroy Israel. What do you think about this?

Resident of the Gaza Sector: What power are you talking about? You are talking about arrogance and arrogance, about injustice and cruelty against civilians. If Israel wanted to show his military force, he would use it regarding military goals, not civilian.

Evgenia Albats: But under the houses of civilians, under residential quarters and hospitals - tunnels, in which Hamas militants are hidden.

A resident of the Gaza sector: these are all no excuses. What does civilians have to do with tunnels? Do breast babies and children in the wombs of mothers have some relation to tunnels? Am I-a peaceful resident-and my family has something to do with the tunnels? Have you heard of the suffering of innocent people from the Israeli side, have you really heard about our suffering? Don't you want to hear about our suffering? Talking about the suffering of Palestinians in the gas sector?

Evgenia Albats: Polls show that 70 percent of the inhabitants of the GAZ sector support Hamas. (The data of their own Palestinian polls show 90% support for Hamas by the Palestinians of Gaza and the West Coast. - NT.)

A resident of the gas sector: this is a lie and slander. All this in order to put the Palestinians as a cruel people who want to kill. I confirm to you that more than 70% (Palestinians in the gas sector. - Approx. Per. ) For peace, against violence, against terrorism, against murders.

I want to ask you - have you really not seen how they arrest people hundreds and make them undress in the cold? Have you really not seen or heard about arrests and executions in your eyes ... How are the boys kill in front of their parents, how are the children are killed in front of their mothers? Why are these excuses? Why are these excuses? Why justify Israeli violence against civilians and innocent people in the gas sector? Why do you want to show us as if we are all - Hamas? Not the entire Palestinian people in the gas sector is a hamas. All this is a lie and slander.

Evgenia Albats: What is you seeing a way out? How can all this end? Gas is destroyed. Israeli society is one in destroying Hamas. What way do you see from this situation?

Resident of the Gaza Sector: I ask you to carefully listen to me and understand me. The stated reason is the eradication of the Hamas movement. But I confirm to you that the reason is different. The goal of Israel is what the occupying state wants is the complete eradication of the Palestinian people. Israel does not want the Palestinian presence on this earth, does not want the creation of the Palestinian state, it evades the fulfillment of requirements within the framework of the peace process. When the organization of the liberation of Palestine went to the 1994 peace agreement, we could together achieve peace, justice and equality.

(This is not true. In 2000, in the residence of the US president in the Camp David, President Bill Clinton played an intermediary between the leader in the organization of Palestine’s liberation by Yasir Arafat and then the prime minister of Israel Ehud Barack. This is how Clinton recalls why the negotiations failed: “The genuine history of Camp David is that for the first time in history in history in history in history in history in history in history in history The American president put on the table a proposal based on the resolutions of the UN Security Council 242 and 338, very close to the requirements of the Palestinians, and the Arafat refused to even accept it as a basis for negotiations, left the room and deliberately turned to terrorism. ”

Why do they justify bombing, killing civilians and innocent people, saying that they destroy Hamas? I want to repeat - who created Hamas? Who supported Hamas? Isn't Israel, which thus sought to weaken the Palestinian autonomy and destroy the Palestinians? Didn't the Palestinians kill before the appearance of Hamas? Why constant evasion? Why come up with excuses so as not to give his rights to the Palestinian people? Is the Palestinians not the same people as other nations? Do they not have the right to have their own state and live in peace and security? Are we not the same people as the Israelis who have a state and rights? Who controls the sky over gas? Who controls the water of the gases? Who controls its boundaries? Isn't it an occupying state? What an excuse do they have to attack the west coast, seize land, kill children and women at checkpoints? Are patients in the gas sector do not have the right to treatment? What is the fault of my child, who was wounded after October 7? What was my house to blame, which I built later and blood and which was destroyed? Why do I live without shelter over my head for more than 85 days of the war? No electricity, no water, no food, no medicine. Why? Why? Despite all this, Israel is justified that Hamas wants to eradicate, but this is a lie. I confirm to you that this is a lie, because it was the Israelis that created Hamas.

As they say, they want to eradicate Hamas and at the same time negotiate with Hamas under Qatari mediation. Didn't the Israelites meet the Hamas in Qatar? (Israeli representatives conducted negotiations in Qatar on the release of hostages captured by Hamas, members of the Islamic State and ordinary residents of Gaza. - NT.) Who entered the money for Hamas through the ERS gearbox? Is this not at the expense of the Palestinian people? Why this lie? Why claim that their goal is to destroy Hamas? After all, the main goal is to eradicate the Palestinian people, to “finish” the Palestinian problem, to kill hope and peaceful process.

Evgenia Albats: I listened to your point of view. I thank you for agreeing to say. I understand that we have different approaches, but you are a suffering side, and therefore I want to express you sympathy. But at the same time I want to say the following. Now my country - Russia - is fighting in Ukraine, and I consider myself responsible for every killed Ukrainian, because my country does it. And it seems to me that when they make a terrible one on our behalf, they commit murders, we still bear responsibility for this.

A resident of the GAZ sector: I also thank you for your sympathy and for the patience with which you listened to my point of view. But I want to confirm you once again that I, as a Palestinian against the murders of civilians, against all inhuman crimes against innocent and civilians. And I ask you to convey my voice to the world. As a Palestinian, I have the right to live in an independent state, which has complete sovereignty and rights. We, as the Palestinian people, have the same right to the same law as the rest of the peoples of the world.

You say that our points of view are diverge. But it seems to me that there are no disagreements between us - if you are from adherents and supporters of the world, then I am also one of them. If you are against the murder of innocent, then I more fiercely reject and publicly condemn the murders of civilians and all inhuman crimes. I urge - on my own behalf, on behalf of my family and oppressed and oppressed Palestinian people - there is enough war! Enough war! Enough war! Enough destruction and murders! Yes - to the world, life in justice and equality, as the rest of the peoples of the Earth live.

Evgenia Albats: How can I call you - by name or complete anonymity?

A resident of the GAZ sector: Safety situation in the gas sector does not allow mentioning my name, and I hope that you will take this into account, because you understand the situation. I hope that you will exactly bring my voice to the world without distorting a single word. And I also hope for you and confirm you that sympathy is not enough. It is necessary to seriously work in order to end this war and give everyone to the right - innocent victims, civilians, Palestinian people. Again, I confirm - we will not have disagreements of opinion if you are calling for peace and security. I'm with you. And again I repeat my position: I am against the murders of innocent and civilians, I condemn all monstrous crimes against innocent people. Thanks for your patience.

Evgenia Albats: Yes, I promise that everything will be published word for word.

A resident of the GAZ sector: Thank you, thank you for understanding my position, because here we have no safety. There is a mess here, and I do not want to endanger myself. Thank you, I hope that you will bring my position to the world and to the occupying state.

Note by the translator: Abu Bakr al-Sidik is the first righteous caliph, the direct successor of the Prophet Mohammed. It was with him that active Islamic conquests began. I just wanted to say that these rules of warfare do not come from the Koran and Sunnah, but from historical legend, from the historical character.

* Evgeny Albats the Ministry of Justice of the Russian Federation considers the “foreign agent”.