B (6:39)

And Iyad, I wanted to ask you just to be clear, the bare minimum amount of trucks, and this is the amount of trucks that were coming into Gaza before October 7, 2023 was 600 a day. And that, that, that is the bear. I'm not sure if Ayad can, can hear us, but I'll just continue talking. And Ryan, can you type in, just maybe tell him to reconnect and I'll, I'll continue discussing this. But basically as an overview, what Ryan mentioned in the beginning is that almost two weeks into the ceasefire, not a day has gone by without Israel violating the agreement. It has killed Palestinians every day in shootings, shellings, airstrikes. Just last week, in one of the deadliest attacks, Israel killed 11 members of one family when it fired a tank shell on a car carrying the Abu Sha Ben family in the Zaytun neighborhood of Gaza City as they were trying to return home to check on their home. Seven children and three women were killed in that attack. That attack barely made international headlines. It didn't make headlines. It was a small story buried in much of the press. Two days later, on Sunday, Israel unleashed a wave of airstrikes, the kind of scorched earth terror bombings that have been a defining tactic of the genocide. And this is what IED was referring to when he said there was 70 strikes in his neighborhood alone on Sunday. And this came after two Israeli soldiers were killed in Rafah in what they claimed was an attack by Palestinian fighters, although it seems that their vehicle drove over an unexploded ied. In any case, Israel's response to two of its soldiers being killed was to bomb cafes, tents, schools, homes, killing dozens of Palestinians. And so nearly 100 Palestinians have been killed in direct attacks by Israel since the ceasefire went into effect on October 10th. And more than 300 have been wounded. Now, the official death toll has gone up much more than that because for two reasons. One is about 450 bodies have been recovered from under the rubble. And as the world focuses all this attention on the bodies of dead Israeli captives being returned, not nearly as much attention or focus is put on the estimated 10,000 Palestinians who are missing and buried under the rubble across Gaza. The entire enclave is a massive graveyard of the unknown. Our colleague Abdelkader Sabbah recently did a heart wrenching story about this, about Palestinians trying to dig out their loved ones from under the rubble with little more than hammers. Israel is not allowing in the equipment, the excavators, a lot of equipment and teams of different resources need to get in to be able to even begin this process. One woman he spoke to, Vivian Elhar, her entire family was killed in an airstrike just two weeks before the ceasefire when Israel was conducting this massive ethnic cleansing campaign on Gaza City. They managed to pull out the dead bodies of her husband, her four daughters, her son, her brother in law. But one of her sons, they couldn't get the body out and he just remains there and she has called civil defense, they don't have the equipment to dig him out. Abdelkader spoke to her and to add insult to injury, Abdul Qadr spoke to her in a cemetery where she buried her family. At the cemetery opposite the Madani Hospital, the Alahli Baptist Hospital, it's completely, it was completely bulldozed and ruined by the Israeli military, so, so she came to that cemetery to mourn her family and she couldn't find their graves. She couldn't find their graves because the whole place had been bulldozed and she was wandering around looking for the graves of her other family members while one of her sons is buried under the rubble. He spoke to another woman, Amina Selim Abu Musa, who has no idea where her son is. Her 16 year old son, he disappeared in May when he went to a so called aid distribution site run by the Gaza Humanitarian foundation and he never came back. This is the one that they had near the Netsdeem Court or just south of Wadi, Gaza. And she said, you know, in the interview, she said, I don't know if he died, if he was martyred, imprisoned, arrested, if he got shot or. And the dogs ate him. And every day since the ceasefire, when the GHF sites were dismantled, she has gone to that site and she just wanders around. She says, I come here just to smell his scent. She has no idea where he is. And this idea of not knowing if he's dead or imprisoned or where he is, I think is the case for, for thousands of Palestinians, actually. But I think we have Iyad back and if we can talk about. Yes, we were discussing the aid. So the minimum amount of trucks even before October 7th to Gaza was 600 a day. That is part of the ceasefire agreement. In the text, the amount is supposed to be allowed in. There's only two crossings that are open at the moment. Rafah remains closed and so do several others. Even with 600 a day, that's hardly enough. Correct me if I'm wrong, to counter or reverse the effects of the famine. Famine is very hard to turn back once it begins. So can you talk about that, that the famine is still ongoing? I mean, for example, you talked about fruits and vegetables. Your children have for the past two years, have they been able to eat fruits and vegetables or have they just been surviving on canned food?

C (12:33)

Yeah. Thank you. Look, we pass with a different situation. We add some amount of vegetables, but with the long term periods, not continuity in the supply. And also, you know, as civilians, we faced a lot of dangers to obtain a little fresh food from the markets when they, in that period, they hit the markets randomly. We completely refused to go to the market and to obtain our foods. Also even thought the market contain some fresh vegetables. But in my thoughts I will talk about very important issues. Sharif and Rayan, the number of trucks is not a matter. The matter of reopening Rafah Cruz point. And grant full permission for that. Huge machinery, bulldozers, Ukraine's, all of these machines. That's very important for us when we talk about remains and bodies for the Israeli. And also we must remember very well our bodies and our people, bodies under the rebels. You know, the Israelis need to mobilize this case. Okay. But when we compare the number of remaining for the Israelites, very little compared to thousands of our people under the rabbi. So when we talk about they use Rafah as collective punishment for our people. They need to use it. They Prevent until this moment to have a commitment to implement and reopen Rafah Cross Point because they know if they open Rafah Cross Point the medical evacuation capacity will increase and thousands of thousands of injuries and wounded people will and patients will leave Gaza soon. And also the huge machinery will enter without Israeli restrictions. So this is when we talk about reopening Rafah. We can talk about maybe a full commitment about the implementation of ceasefire agreement. Up to this time they just opening Karam Abu Salim and sometimes Kisuvim. It's alternative. It's not main gate for the Gaza and for the tribunal trucks in the ordinary time, but they reopen it within the military operations and incursions as alternative for the Karma Abusarim. So we will talk about Karma Busarim and Kisuvim is just one gate, it's not two gates. So when we talk about the number of trucks, it's okay. It's a big and main issues. But we must talk about the huge machinery and the needs of municipalities here. A lot of my removing rubbles and they try opening roads within the last few days they mentioned to me a lot of horrible stories, a lot of remaining bones under the rubbles. They didn't know how they can recognize the bodies, their identity and we can save the remains in the nylon package and how we can both them and protect the society from the remaining. And you know, we have infectious environment after the sewage network is completely destroyed. It's not, it's not normal life here and we really have fears about our children and our peoples within the next few weeks when the winter is entering. So yes, we know, we know, we know the Israeli need to use Rafah as a collective punishment and to delay the implementations and reopening it. Yeah.

A (16:28)

Can you talk a little bit about the. The weather and how people are faring in the weather. Like how at this point what. What percentage of the population would you say has, you know, is living in actual apartments or homes with walls and ceilings? What percentage are living in tents and what percentage don't even have tents at this point. And of those who are in the tents, do they have sufficient blankets or bedding for. For the, for the cold weather that's coming and when do you expect it to the temperatures to significantly drop?

C (17:02)

Yeah, we depend ryan, over the UN statistics and our municipalities here, they mentioned more than 80 percentage of our buildings is completely destroyed or partially damaged. And this is very important when we watch videos within my rounds yesterday and day before in Gaza town, I didn't know where the people will Stay in our statistics here, more than 80% of our people stay and live in tents and they build some partial homes from the damaged homes. They fix some walls and put nylons and shelters over this wall and make a small room to protect the families from the weather conditions. But most of our families live intense and in unacceptable living conditions here. When we talk about coverings, it's a repeated catastrophe compared to the previous weather and this weather. I mean, we will face more difficulties because after they break the last ceasefire, they increased the demolishing and cleansing homes from the east part of Gaza and also the north part of Gaza town, and they increase the displacement people in the south within this time. I know thousands of our people still live here in the south and in middle governance because they try to return from the displacement, but when they arrive there, they discover nothing remains, so return again. So when we talk about exhaustion and the loss of their basic needs and they leave their apartments and they left their towns without basic needs, like covers, like foods, like waters. So when they achieve this moment, they are still waiting to give them a life, a life with the whole meaning, the covers and the protections, the safety and safety in food and feeding their children without facing struggles to obtain and seek foods like a temporary ceasefire. When we talk about permanent ceasefire, we must talk about give those people a new life and give them a hope.

B (19:50)

I also wanted to ask about, you know, Gaza's agriculture itself. Gaza used to provide a significant amount of its daily needs through farmers who farmed very fertile soil, which is all kind of on the eastern side of the Strip. That side is where Israeli forces still control and occupy. So they withdrew. They control about half of the enclave now. They withdrew to an area called the Yellow Line. Behind the Yellow Line is where all the agriculture of Gaza is or was, because they systematically destroyed all the farmland, nearly all of it. I mean, according to the United nations, only 1.5% of agricultural farmland is still there or accessible. So this is another way that they have decimated Palestinian society, Palestinian economy.

C (20:52)

And.

B (20:52)

Also, very importantly, the olive season. The olive harvest just began a couple of weeks ago and for the third year in a row, because it came around October 7th, that's when the olive harvest is. So for the third year in a row, Palestinian farmers have been unable really to harvest their olives. We did a piece about this, and one agricultural expert said he estimates about a million olive trees of Gaza's 1.1 million trees have been destroyed. And the very few that are left are drying out because there's not enough water. The farmers can't get to them to irrigate and fertilize them. Israel systematically destroyed the olive presses and olives. And olive oil is of course very important to Palestinian culture, Palestinian society, but also the economy and the way of feeding people. So can you talk about this decimation of Palestinian farmers and their livelihoods?

C (21:55)

Yes, I can add my notes. Sharif, about this point.

B (22:02)

Yes, please, please.

C (22:04)

Yeah. When we talk about farmers and agriculture, really there is another very important matter. When we talk about polluting underground waters and a lot of samples, when we check with the cooperation with others society here and municipality, we discover it's not appropriate for agriculture and farmers work here. So it's another issue. When we talk about the systemically and very well calculated policy to destroy the.

A (22:38)

Agriculture, is that from the ordinance? Is that from the bombs? Yeah, like the toxicity from the bombs?

C (22:45)

Yeah, we expect that from the bombs, the huge bombs. When we calculate the bombs, we talk about every person here, our maybe every person have 66 kilogram explosion, high material explosion. So you can calculate also 1 million and one trees that face something like that. And when we talk about the explosive robots, it causes damage under the ground more than 30 up to 40 meters under the ground. So it's deeply penetrate the earth's surface and push the poisoning materials and the remaining explosions. And the sand of explosions is very poisonous under the ground and it's directly absorbed to the underground water. So you can imagine what's the meaning of pollution? What's the meaning of poisoning our life, our air, our water. So it's not easy to talk about destroying agriculture, just removing the trees, they root it and they need to uproot any hope to resume the agriculture by destroying the infrastructure and polluting the underground waters to prevent any hope to recover this again and again. And as my colleague Sharif talk about the olive seasons, nowadays we do some harvests in our olives, but the remaining trees is not enough. And we discover a little size and a lot of damages with the remaining trees. And we discover a lot of diseases that maybe infectious diseases against the trees and the olives. So in my expectations there is no enough amount of olives and olive oil. And also as you mentioned, for the economical issues, we will face a lot of struggles in the nearest time to pass this situation, because Gaza produce tons of olive and oil of olive and we do a lot of things with the olive within the next three months in the ordinary time. But when we do statistics nowadays, we discover most of our farmer land destroyed and the remaining trees lost. The olive from the explosions from the wave explosions. So we talk about just the olive tree and others. Agriculture is completely destroyed and we try to farming some lands within the waste part of Gaza. We discovered the salty water. It's not appropriate for the tree. And.

B (26:01)

Oh, I think we are. We just lost. I had.

A (26:07)

Was he. Was he getting a little staticky for.

B (26:09)

You just at the very end there?

A (26:12)

Yeah. Yeah, me too, at the very end. 1. One point I wanted to make.

B (26:17)

For.

A (26:17)

Comparison forever it's worth. And then in the neighborhood that I live in Washington, D.C. the university nearby conducted a lot of experiments in World War I for chemical weapons, mustard gas, and all the different munitions that were used in World War I. And to this day, there are bulldozers and diggers that go around digging up soil and getting rid of, like, toxic soil and replacing it with clean soil. And, you know, we're talking 107 years later, like the. The depth of this toxicity is profound. How's your connection?

C (27:05)

Yeah.

A (27:06)

Hey, I wanted to ask you, by the way, we reported, as I'm sure you know, about the Israeli destruction of the Sheikhajleen water treatment plan, the sanitation plan in Gaza City. What has there been. What has been the effect of Israel's burning of. Of that sewage treatment plant? Is it. Is it offline? Like, how are. What's. What's going on for when it comes to the treatment of sewage?

B (27:41)

I think we may have lost him again. Yeah. Just to remind people that that treatment plant. This is a story you worked on, Ryan, where, as they have done many times in the past, destroyed and burnt schools and homes and storehouses as well as water treatment facilities. But they did it in an extremely concentrated way the night or two nights before the ceasefire went into effect, knowing that they were withdrawing and so, like.

A (28:12)

Right.

B (28:13)

Kind of doing as much destruction as possible, which you documented with. With our colleagues. Eunice, I wanted to mention also something about the olive oil and olive attacks. You know, this is not. This is obviously not just in Gaza. It's happening, and it happens every year in the west bank. And it's happening to an extreme degree this year as settlers are more emboldened, more violent every year. I think it's been documented just in the past two weeks alone when the harvest began. 158 attacks have been carried out against Palestinians who are living with their olive trees and trying to harvest their olives. And we spoke with Jasper Nathaniel, who documented one of these attacks, you know, in a video that went viral as a settler attacks a Palestinian woman with a club and knocks her unconscious. This is just what's caught on camera. This happens all the time. And when you speak about, you know, the parts of land that Israel occupies, they have area A, B and C in the West Bank. Area C is where which Israel has administrative and military control, even though Israel really controls the entire west bank is where all the most fertile farmland is and all the most, the underground water is. And also when we talk about the olive tree being this important cultural symbol for Palestine, there is a process of ecological colonization that Israel has been embarking on in decades where they, they plant, they uproot olive trees and will plant pine trees or different kinds of trees that are actually not natural to that.

A (30:00)

Environment, which burn, which then burn at the drop.

B (30:04)

They burn, they destroy biodiversity. They look more European.

A (30:09)

Right?

B (30:10)

But, but this is also part of this, like, larger process of a settler colonial project. Thank you for coming back. Let's just, maybe we can get a final comment from you on what you think people need to understand right now there's a lot of focus on the ceasefire, on what's coming next, of Hamas disarming of, you know, what kind of stabilization force, quote, unquote, is going to be in Gaza, who will run it. But yeah, I think, and I think the reactions that I got from the ceasefire, from people I speak to on a regular basis in Gaza was joy, but also a lot of sorrow and fear that the ceasefire will break down, but also that Gaza has been destroyed. So what do you think people should understand right now in this period?

C (31:07)

Yeah, this is a very important question, Sharif. Yes, we have a mixed feelings between hopes, worries and happiness. But when they break this, the ceasefire within the last days, really we recover fears and with the high percentage, maybe devastated, and we hope the implementations will complete. But yes, you are correct, when we talk about disarming Gaza, all of our civilians really laughed when they hear that nothing remains in Gaza to talk about Gaza as an entity or as a country. So when we talk about granting the permissions for the international press or community to come into Gaza and to record the cleansing process, the ethnic cleansing here at what's happened here, they will touch the reality by their eyes. Okay, I know we have thousands and thousands of video clips over the Internet, but when you come to Gaza and smell the sand of explosions and the destruction here and the pollution here, you will touch there is nothing real. When we talk about disarming and let Gaza, it doesn't shape any threat over the Israel, there is no any threat. The threat really over our civilian Gaza, over our children who is suffering from immune diseases and our wounded and injuries they still waiting in the waiting list to medically evacuate out of the Gaza. So really we hope entering the second phase of the ceasefire without troubles. But you know, and we know the Israeli will not let it pass easily. They will put struggles and they will resume some attacks. But all of the things depends over the mediators rules. So we hope all of the international community and of mediators increase the pressure to pass and to entering the second phase especially to let the Israeli withdraw completely from the yellow line. The yellow line is this line no one can pass Salahdin. It's the east road of the Gaza for more than half, up to 1km and all of our farmer lands positioned there. So no resuming life with the first phase. The ceasefire. All of the things here is temporary. We need permanent implementations and complete with a draw from Gaza, especially from the east part and to the north pass to distribute our peoples over the land in Gaza Strip to decrease the number of crowded people, especially in the Mediterranean Kabanas and in the Khan Yunis in the south in Mossi. So it's very vital things to distribute AIDS fairly and on all of the Gaza land to prevent any coming catastrophe, especially environment catastrophe or infectious diseases over the displacement people within the next weather for the winter. So this is the situation and our hope.

B (34:45)

Yeda Maoui, thank you very much for joining us and for these important words. Representative of the Gaza Relief Committee. We've had the fortune of being able to speak with him several times over the genocide over the past two years. Please stay safe and we'll, we'll continue to be in touch. I also just wanted to give an update to our viewers about. Well, you know, this issue of people being able to access Gaza now that there is a ceasefire and Israel continuing to prevent international journalists from entering. There's a group called the Foreign Press association which is made up of foreign journalists based in Jerusalem, representing dozens of international news organizations. They had a case that went to the Israeli Supreme Court requesting entrance into Gaza today. That court gave basically delayed the case and gave the Israeli government a month to present a new position in light of the ceasefire. Because there was a preview, there was a previous case that they filed in September of 2024 and basically the Israeli government said that the court said no based on objections of the government, based on security grounds. So then this is a second case saying okay, there's, there's a ceasefire now, so why can't we get in? And they gave them the government a month to delay it. So quite Disappointing, not unexpected decision. But that's also preventing, yeah. International media from getting in, helping to shoulder some of the labor of covering what's happening in Gaza from Palestinian journalists who have died in record numbers and have suffered immeasurably. So that's happening. But before we sign off, Ryan, I wanted to ask you about a story you've been following about here in the United States about Senate candidate Graham Platner and what's happening in Maine's Democratic primary.

A (36:50)

Yeah, this is, this is a really incredible story when it comes to the fight for control of the Democratic Party because so Graham Platner kind of when he launched his campaign, the thing that he leaned into was that the Democratic Party's leadership has been complicit in a genocide and that it was a generational moral failing and that no, there can be no credibility on any issue for a party that is complicit in genocide. When he announced his campaign, the two term governor Janet Mills, who's 77, would be 79 when she's, when she's sworn in, if she wins, was waffling on whether or not she was going to run. She hadn't, she hadn't decided yet. The rumors were that she was being heavily recruited by the DSCC and by, by Chuck Schumer and Kirsten Gillibrand who runs the dlcc. She finally did get in a week, about a week and a half ago, days after she got in. So last Thursday you start to see opposition research about Platner dropping in Politico and cnn, the Advocate last night, including circulation of, of a claim that he, you know, had a Nazi tattoo. And you know, he said this is skull and crossbones that I drunkenly got at a tattoo parlor in Croatia. It's it, it is a Nazi tattoo. It's linked to the ss. So he got, he got that covered up. He apologized for his kind of, the kind of crude nature of, of his posts and said that he's grown since then and has, you know, has emerged as somebody who believes that the, the, the, the anger that he was expressing was, was connected to his PTSD from his, his like decade long, decade plus participation in the global war on terror. He's, he now rejects war. What he had done as being a foot soldier of empire effectively. And he said the, the antidote to that anger and isolation is, is hope and community. And so we have a reporter, Nathan Bernard, who went to his Waterville recent Waterville event, also went to an event of his at Ogunquit last night. He Said at both of them, standing room only crowds. He was at a theater yesterday that has a capacity of 500. There were at least 600 people added standing, standing room only. And he said that people there were just more energized perhaps than before. That's all anecdotal. You know, what you see on the ground, you know, who knows whether or not that translates more broadly. This morning a survey came out. Let me, let me pull this up from the University of, of New Hampshire that has, and here, let me post this actually. Let me make sure my DMS are not up. No, they're not. So this is an almost like comical level of disconnect from the party leadership. So this is a two term governor. She's the current serving governor. She, she's now been endorsed by Chuck Schumer, recruited by the party. And she has spent the last week, you know, hammering Graham Platner with opposition research. So this poll was conducted from October 16th to the 21st, which is, which aligns actually with his scandal. The 16th, I believe, was Thursday, last Thursday. And that's when the story started dropping on him. This poll has Democratic primary voters supporting Graham Platner at a level of 58%, with Janet Mills the sitting governor, I can't emphasize that enough. The sitting governor at 24%. And then this guy, Jordan Wood, we actually wrote a story about him. He's at 1%. His husband runs what this organization, this company called Mothership Strategies, which pioneered collecting people's emails and phone numbers and blasting them with like, if you, and maybe you even like get them, I, I get them. It's like, you know, they look like you haven't paid your phone bill, like that kind of scammy stuff. Or if you don't give Pelosi $5 now, like the world is going to end by midnight. So he has raised millions of dollars to be sitting there at 1%. But meanwhile, you, even if you combine him with Janet Mills, they're sitting at 25, getting absolutely crushed even in the wake of this scandal. So it represents, I think, a dramatic and fundamental break that the Democratic Party base is undergoing with its, with its party leadership. And I don't think you can connect, disconnect the, or disentangle the, the party leadership's embrace of this genocide with the, with the rejection that it is facing from party candidates. So Nathan, who was at the event, he interviewed a whole bunch of people. One of the first people he talked to said, you know, you know, he's apologized for what he said, I want a candidate who doesn't take corporate money and doesn't take money from apac. That's. That's my bottom line. Bernie Sanders has endorsed him and has stood by him. And Bernie Sanders, you know, lost family in the genocide, so in the Holocaust. And so if anybody's going to, you know, have standing to object to somebody with a. A Nazi tattoo, it would be somebody like Bernie Sanders. But he said, look, he didn't know was it. He didn't know it was a. Not linked to. It's a skull and crossbones. You know, it's. That's been a, that's been a symbol for, you know, renegade young men since, like the 17th century. And now that he discovered that it was. He covered it up. And I, and I think the more that they, that the party leadership kind of leans into this, the more they, the more out of touch they look and it. I think what people want today is to know who your enemies are. And the, this has brought, you know, his, his enemies out of the woodwork. So it's, it's something to watch. And, you know, it also is. Is a question for the Democratic Party about whether or not, you know, young, young men and women who have a. Have lived a life on the Internet and said stupid things on it are eligible to participate in Democratic Party politics or is it just for, you know, kids who did model UN in middle school and high school and then have been, you know, kind of curating their personality since then. And to me, Democrats have tried that. And we, we. This is where we are. So. And I. And that seems to be the position of the Democratic Party base. Like, we've tried the other thing. Let's try. Let's try this. So, yeah. So stay tuned for Nathan's dispatch. He filed it. I'll be editing it and we'll post it later today. But what he, what he told, what he just texted me now, he's like, what? This poll makes perfect sense with what I've been seeing in the ground. And he's based in Maine. He lives in Maine and he's, he's written for us back, you know, for, for many years now, even prior to drop site. So he has his finger on the pulse there. So, yeah, utterly fascinating race. We don't.

B (44:17)

You don't.

A (44:18)

You know, this is American democracy. You don't get many elections. Most elections are not even, you know, competitive. So people look at the ones that. Ones that are. And it. Right now it looks like this election is not competitive. Like, what is Janet Mills even doing? This is embarrassing.

B (44:36)

Yeah. I mean, if he's 30 points ahead, that's certainly not competitive. But yeah, I mean, if it's a barometer for the rest of the party. Yeah, yeah. And well, yeah, if it is. Very interesting what's happening within the Democratic Party between the rank and file, between the leadership, you know, very large disconnects. I think Gaza is a big part of that, even though the leadership is trying to rewrite history and, you know, Kamala Harris saying I wasn't president, you know, trying to absolve herself of positions she took which were supportive of the genocide. Anyway, I think we'll probably have to leave it there. So, yeah, look out for that article. That'll be coming up on Dropside, hopefully later today. We are now doing the live stream on Thursdays at 9:30 Eastern. If you want to support our work, you can subscribe on dropsitenews.com you can also make a 501c3 tax deductible donation to our work by going to dropsitenews.com and clicking on Ways to Give. We also have a petition up as well calling for international journalists to be allowed into Gaza to support our Palestinian colleagues there. So, yeah, that does it for today. On behalf of everyone at Dropsite, thank you, Ryan. I'm Shif Abdoul. See you next time.