Driving across the divide

Summary

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The Documentary Podcast — "Driving across the Divide"

BBC World Service | July 26, 2026
Host: Naomi Sherbel Ball

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Episode Overview

This poignant documentary explores the complex human realities behind the Israeli-Palestinian divide through a powerful lens: the volunteer-driven journeys of sick Palestinian children traveling from the West Bank and Gaza to Israeli hospitals for life-saving treatment. Through first-hand testimonies from patients, their families, Israeli volunteer drivers, doctors, and aid workers, "Driving across the Divide" uncovers stories of cooperation and kindness in a region scarred by violence, all set against the backdrop of ongoing war and deepening suspicion. The episode draws vivid contrasts between moments of profound connection and the hardening separation since the October 7, 2023 attacks and subsequent war in Gaza.

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Key Discussion Points & Insights

1. Early Morning Journeys: Humanizing the Divide (00:41 – 09:34)

• First-hand View: The episode opens at the Taqumiyah checkpoint before dawn as seven-year-old Samir and his father, Mohammed, travel from the West Bank, joined by Eddie, an Israeli volunteer.
  • "I'm feeling good. I hope the test of Samir blood of all things is good when we reach." – Mohammed Al Rub (02:28)
• Necessity & Hardship: Palestinian patients must navigate multiple checkpoints and expensive, exhausting journeys due to lack of specialist care locally.
• Volunteers’ Role: Over 1,200 Israeli volunteers (from the charity Road to Recovery) enable thousands of Palestinian patients, mainly children with cancer and complex diseases, to obtain treatment otherwise impossible to access.
• Tensions Heightened: The October 7 attacks have increased mistrust, hostility, and logistical difficulty for all involved.

Notable Quote

"For myself, I can say that I had no doubts, no hesitations. I knew that I would keep doing this because a kid is a kid, a sick person is a sick person and whoever needs help must get help. That’s it."
— Eddie Benedik, volunteer driver (06:10)

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2. Bridges, Limits, and Lingering Trauma (09:34 – 14:08)

• "An hour of peace": Volunteers describe the car journeys as a rare opportunity for authentic, if fleeting, human connection between Israelis and Palestinians.
• Inspiration from History: Eddie is driven by memories of those who saved his family during the Holocaust, acknowledging that others risked everything for people they didn’t know.
• Diminishing Optimism: While volunteers create a microcosm of coexistence, Eddie voices deep pessimism about prospects for larger reconciliation:
  • "We can talk and talk and talk. It will be empty words… nothing depends on us." (08:42)
• Systemic Obstacles: Permits, bureaucracy, delays, and refusals make access uncertain; even as patient visits increased compared to 2024, a third are still denied permits.

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3. Families on Both Sides: Resilience and Hope in the Face of Fear (14:08 – 23:06)

• Personal Testimonies:
  • Samir (West Bank): His treatment in Israel changed his young life, fueling dreams of becoming a doctor, yet also brought missed school and social isolation.
    • "I hope not return to this period in the future and hope not for anybody in the world. For your son or for your daughter." – Mohammed Al Rub (12:23)
  • Bassam's Family (Beit Umar): Facing settler violence and restricted freedom, the family clings to their land and roots, even as emigration feels increasingly appealing.
    • "To take land from a farmer who has been cultivating and growing it in his family for 80 or even a hundred years? It’s heartbreaking." – Bassam Adi (16:34)
• Fragile Ties: Some Israeli settlers, notably Myron Joshua, support their Palestinian neighbors through Road to Recovery, forging unlikely alliances amidst growing distrust and violence.

Notable Quote

"Our relationship… has grown from taking him to the hospital with his son Nasser, to friendship, to almost a partnership, maybe creating hope, right? But I pray to feel one day be hopeful. I’m a pessimist, realist."
— Myron Joshua, Israeli settler & volunteer (19:53)

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4. Breaking Points: The Aftermath of October 7, 2023 (23:06 – 32:39)

• Gaza’s Suffering: Before the war, over 1,200 Gazan patients traveled monthly through Erez Crossing for medical care in Israel. Since October 7, access is essentially cut off.
• Medical Collapse: Gaza’s hospitals are devastated, most only partially functional, and thousands await evacuation—nearly 300 have died waiting.
• Personal Losses: Families recount harrowing, repeated evacuations, living in tents, illness, and the agony of lacking necessary care.
  • "My children, grandchildren, daughters, all of us together… We fled barefoot." (32:02)

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5. Enduring Connections and Yearning for Recovery (32:39 – 51:08)

• Unbroken Bonds: Former patients and their families in Gaza and Israeli volunteers/doctors share enduring personal connections even as the war severs possibilities for face-to-face meetings.
• Reciprocal Kindness: Stories of doctors sharing medicine via Red Cross, families checking in across the divide.
  • "Our relationship was not built on something bad. It's been only good from beginning to end. I hope we meet them again, God willing." – Ibrahim El Hajj (46:43)
• Volunteers’ Trauma & Perseverance: Road to Recovery’s director, Yael Noy, wishes for a return to trust and cooperation. The organization itself was hit hard, with seven volunteers killed in the attacks.
  • "My son is going to join the army in two months and he will be a part of it... I need to take a big breath and pray." – Yael Noy (49:04)
• Dreams of Peace: Despite concrete barriers, suspicion, and wounds, many still cling to hope of peace and a return to shared humanity, especially for the sake of their children.
  • "I hope that one day we can live in peace. And yet, kids from Gaza can get treatment here." – Dr. Orli Haskin (50:50)

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Memorable Moments & Timestamps

• The car journey as “an hour of peace”: (05:03)
• Eddie’s reflection on post-Holocaust values: (06:28–07:57)
• Volunteer killed, but mission continues: (05:55–06:10)
• Mohammed’s argument for coexistence: (13:18–14:08)
• Settler Myron’s “unsettled settler” identity: (18:21–19:53)
• Yael Noy on trauma after October 7th: (39:06–41:43; 47:45–48:52)
• Gazan families recalling support from Israeli volunteers: (46:17–47:09)
• Doctors and patients expressing mutual care: (50:33–51:08)

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Tone and Atmosphere

• Candid and Empathetic: Narration and interviews flow in the unfiltered voices of those who live on either side, revealing individual pain, hope, and kindness despite political and military realities.
• Reflective and Somber: Undercurrents of grief, exhaustion, and trauma pervade, counterbalanced by moments of warmth and resilience.
• Nuanced and Grounded: The episode gives space to conflicting emotions—pessimism and hope, fear and friendship, despair and resolve.

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Themes & Takeaways

• Shared Humanity Amidst Division: Despite one of the world’s most entrenched conflicts, personal relationships—formed over hospital visits and car rides—remain possible and profound.
• Limits of Individual Acts: As many interviewees express, while these relationships offer hope, broader peace and justice are hostage to political processes beyond their control.
• Longing for “Recovery”: Both in the medical and emotional sense, recovery is a recurring metaphor—children’s illnesses, traumatized communities, and a region desperate for healing.

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Conclusion

"Driving across the Divide" brings listeners into the intimate, often unseen spaces where Israelis and Palestinians reach across boundaries—sometimes literally, often metaphorically—to save lives, build relationships, and stubbornly nurture hope despite immense obstacles.

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Transcript

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[Naomi Sherbel Ball]

It's early morning just after four at the Takumir checkpoint, one of the main gateways in and out of the West Bank. To get here, Mohanad and Samir have had to travel for around an hour, passing by taxi and on foot around checkpoints closer to home. And it's here that they're met by Eddie, a volunteer who's driven from his kibbutz in southern Israel to meet them and drive to hospital just outside Tel Aviv. Good morning, Good morning. Nice to meet you. 7 year old Samir and his father Mohammed Al Rub are among the dozens of Palestinian patients who wake up at the crack of dawn each day and travel to Israeli hospitals and for much needed treatment. How are you Kefalek? Exhausted. Samir smiles faintly before falling asleep in the back of the car. I'm Naemi Sherbel Ball and for the documentary from the BBC World Service. I'm also up before dawn to speak to some of the patients and the volunteers who come together at checkpoints so that Palestinians like Samir can travel to hospital in Israel for life saving treatment. Strangers from two places in conflict united for a car journey, a rare opportunity for humanity and connection in a fractured part of the world. This trip is one Samir and Mohammed have done many times over the last year and a half since Samir was diagnosed with with a rare form of cancer known as E wing sarcoma. It affects children's bones. How are you feeling about today?

[Eddie Benedik]

Good.

[Mohammed Al Rub]

I'm feeling good. I hope the test of Sameer blood of all things is good when we

[Naomi Sherbel Ball]

reach Samir is one of thousands of patients who need specialist treatment they just can't get in hospitals in the west bank and so the Palestinian Authority pays for them to be treated in Israel.

[Mohammed Al Rub]

Sometime we suffer from being in the lake. Now we talk to the specialist doctor I would say to doctor how this happened.

[Naomi Sherbel Ball]

The journey to the hospital can be dangerous and fraught and since October 7th tensions have deepened.

[Mohammed Al Rub]

I am going to Israel every week now for my son, because going to hospital, no problem. All people in the world, we have a humility and volunteer transmission the patient from the border to the hospital free. And this is very, very big. We cannot know this person before this moment. It's great, very, very great.

[Naomi Sherbel Ball]

Mohammed's talking about the more than 1200 Israeli volunteers who continue to wait at west bank checkpoints and Israeli hospitals to make sure Palestinian patients can access the often life saving treatment they need. At times they've navigated the roads despite rocket attacks from Gaza, from Lebanon and Iran. With no public transport available, taxis are prohibitively expensive for Palestinian patients. Without the volunteers, this journey would be impossible for most.

[Eddie Benedik]

You know, in the kibbutz we used to believe in peace.

[Naomi Sherbel Ball]

75 year old Eddie Benedik, a former agronomist, speaks gently as he focuses on the road in the morning light.

[Eddie Benedik]

It was an ideology to study Arabic in order to be able to communicate, to promote relationships between us and Arabs. So all of us, the kibbutz learned Arabic. It didn't help.

[Naomi Sherbel Ball]

It's the first time that Eddie, Mohammed and Samir have met. These car journeys provide a rare space for Palestinians and Israelis to speak and sit together away from military checkpoints. Volunteers call it an hour of peace.

[Mohammed Al Rub]

Many words of Hebrew, Arabic, Semitic languages.

[Naomi Sherbel Ball]

The charity which organizes the car trips Road to Recovery, used to pick up patients from Gaza as well. Before October 7, many of those who volunteered were so called peaceniks from the kibbutzim among the Israeli communities brutally attacked by Hamas.

[Eddie Benedik]

I lost friends and friends of mine were abducted. It is still very, very painful. Something we have never been through before. You know, we have been at and we have lost friends and we have been injured. It was such a shock we never experienced before.

[Naomi Sherbel Ball]

Seven volunteers working for the Israeli charity were killed. Among them well known peace activists. But Eddie said he knew he had to continue to help despite concerns from his family who feared for his safety.

[Eddie Benedik]

For myself, I can say that I had no doubts, no hesitations. I knew that I would keep doing this because a kid is a kid, a sick person is a sick person and whoever needs help must get help. That's it.

[Naomi Sherbel Ball]

And it's the actions of those who helped Eddie's own family survive the Holocaust in France that inspire him to keep volunteering.

[Eddie Benedik]

Today my mother was hidden in a Catholic orphanage. My father wandered from one place to another. When the war was over, he discovered that he's the only one who survived. His whole family was gone. All of them.

[Naomi Sherbel Ball]

Does that story motivate you to do what you're doing now, driving to do this, volunteering?

[Eddie Benedik]

Well, it is significant knowing that people risk their lives in order to save other people. What I am doing is nothing. I don't risk my life. And they definitely did. And it's funny because in front of our home in France, there was a Catholic orphanage which was run by the same order that my mother was in. And every day, you know, we used to get some sandwich or a fruit to enjoy during break. And every single day, my brother and myself, we got two sandwiches or two fruits, one for us, one for an orphan.

[Naomi Sherbel Ball]

And you're carrying on those values, that message today.

[Eddie Benedik]

We have to.

[Naomi Sherbel Ball]

So we've just arrived at the children's hospital. As we get out, Mohammed and Eddie give each other a warm hug. Thank you, Muhammad says in Hebrew. Be well, replies Eddie. It's a small gesture of the simple bond that's created during these journeys. Before Eddie leaves, I ask him how he approaches these car journeys and bridges the divide that separates him and the Palestinian patients he drives.

[Eddie Benedik]

I think that what I am doing is saying what I have to say and there is really no need to put words on it. So I guess that it's useless to have such conversations with Palestinians with whom I could easily be friends with. And it's useless because nothing depends on us. We can talk and talk and talk. It will be empty worlds.

[Naomi Sherbel Ball]

And you feel that since October 7th, those conversations seem even more futile.

[Eddie Benedik]

They are more than futile. I am much more pessimistic. It all depends of cynical political moves and we are not part of it.

[Narrator/Reporter]

Good afternoon.

[Naomi Sherbel Ball]

This is the documentary from the BBC World Service. Hi, I'm Naomi Sherbao Bool and this is Driving across the Divide. Good afternoon, Omar. Every day, Israeli volunteers drop sick Palestinian children off at the automatic doors to the Children's hospital, many suffering from cancer, blood disorders and other life threatening illnesses.

[Narrator/Reporter]

9, 9.

[Naomi Sherbel Ball]

Navigating different languages and health systems, it can be a bureaucratic tightrope. The numbers of Palestinian patients fell after October 7, but it's improving. Last year, 50% more patient visits were referred for treatment compared to 2024. But around a third of patients and the carers who cross with them still had their permits refused by Israel. How was it? It's good, yeah.

[Mohammed Al Rub]

The result?

[Naomi Sherbel Ball]

Mohammed knows he and Samir are among the lucky ones. According to international law, as an occupying power in both the west bank and Gaza, Israel has a legal obligation to provide access to health care. International organizations, including Doctors Without Borders, say it is not meeting those obligations, Samir's diagnosis has taken turned his life upside down. His parents say he's overly shy for his age, as his treatment has meant he misses school. But it's also stoked some ambition. What would Samir like to be when he's older?

[Narrator/Reporter]

Doctor.

[Mohammed Al Rub]

Doctor.

[Naomi Sherbel Ball]

Doctor. Samir and his family live in Deir Summit, a small town surrounded by olive and fruit trees, a few kilometres inside the occupied West Bank. A sign on the hillside welcomes visitors and from here you can see the separation barrier and in the distance, Israel and the Mediterranean Sea. They live in a family home close to the town center, with different generations on each floor greeting us as we go. Among them, Sameer's grandmother, the matriarch of the family.

[Mohammed Al Rub]

I remember that very, very hard moment when we no. My son suffered from cancer this year changed my life. My life only forced me medication. I hope not return to this period in the future and hope not for anybody in the world. For your son or for your daughter.

[Naomi Sherbel Ball]

Despite the last two years throwing the war and his son's cancer at Mohammed, his optimism is defiant and insistent.

[Mohammed Al Rub]

I am not feeling different in anything because I am Palestinian in the opposite. It's very, very good feeling in the hospital and make many friends in Israel during medication of Samiyah. The relationship is very, very strong.

[Naomi Sherbel Ball]

Were you afraid to go to Israel for the first time since the beginning of the war?

[Mohammed Al Rub]

Talking with all Israelians now the Palestinian and Israelian people. Israel feeling not good in both sides. Not in one side, in Palestinian and Israeli people. Because every people in Palestine and Israeli people against the war and killing everybody. Palestinians in Gaza and West bank not agree for this war. It makes very difficult life of all Palestinians. What the result for the war? Only killing the kids and children in Gaza and killing many people in Israel There is the result of war. There is one solution for Israeli people. Live together. We can live together. We should live together.

[Naomi Sherbel Ball]

Just over 10km away along Route 60, the main north south road in the west bank lies the town of Beit Umar. Just arrived at one of the entrances to Beit Uma. There's a bright orange gate which straddles the road into town. And most of the roads that provide access to the town have been blocked in this way for much of the war. The Israeli military say it's a security measure, but it makes life here very difficult, preventing residents from driving in and out of town. And so at the gate people have to get out and then walk across the orange gate and take another car or taxi to continue their journey into town. Welcoming us to their home, a 24 year old NASA and his parents, Bassam and Supa Adi. NASA suffers from a rare enzyme disorder, glycogen storage disease type 1b, which can be life threatening. It can affect almost every organ in the body and he's struggled with it since birth.

[Mohammed Al Rub]

When I was a kid, I was into cars and toys like other children, but I also had to focus on staying alive.

[Naomi Sherbel Ball]

So just off the living room we've got NASA's room. The huge cupboard is dedicated to medical equipment and NASA is on the trip right now and receiving this important nutritional IV fluid which goes directly into his veins and will prevent that sugar low that's so dangerous for him. We've just come up onto the roof of Nasser's house with Nasser's father, Bassam. How has this landscape changed in recent years?

[Mohammed Al Rub]

Recently, settler outposts have been established near us. Taking these fields from the farmers of Bet Umar is like losing our soul. Farmers earn their living from this land. How can you take land from a farmer who has been cultivating and growing it in his family for 80 or even a hundred years? It's heartbreaking.

[Naomi Sherbel Ball]

Nasser's house is near the top of the hill, surrounded by olive and fig trees. Caravans on the neighbouring hillside mark one of a number of outposts established in recent years, gradually encircling the town. These outposts, home to Israeli Jews, are illegal under international law.

[Mohammed Al Rub]

They use violence in many ways. Sometimes they uproot trees, hurl stones, take away cattle from farmers and deny people access to their land. You don't feel safe in your house or your shop.

[Naomi Sherbel Ball]

Since October 7, the United nations says that settler violence has reached the highest levels recorded in recent years, creating a climate of intimidation. It's leading Bassam and his family to question their future here.

[Mohammed Al Rub]

We have strong roots in this town. My ancestors have been living here for thousands of years. Now everyone is thinking about immigrating abroad to build their future.

[Naomi Sherbel Ball]

Despite the bleak outlook, the family have an unlikely ally trying to support them. At the orange gate blocking off the town, 78 year old Myron Joshua from the settlement next door laughs and chats in Hebrew with Bassam and Super.

[Myron Joshua]

It definitely became what I call an unsettled settler.

[Naomi Sherbel Ball]

Kfaitzion has been home to Myran for more than 50 years. Overlooking Beit Umar. It's a religious kibbutz and the very first Israeli settlement to be rebuilt after the 1967 war when Israel occupied the West Bank. Settlements are illegal under international law, and the direction of the broader settler movement is something Myron struggles To reconcile.

[Myron Joshua]

I can understand Israelis who look to me and say, but if you're so unsettled about what's happening, why don't you just leave? If I close my eyes and my life to what's going on here, I don't know if I'm contributing to the future by living here. I have the naive feeling that I can hopefully be a thorn in the side of my co settlers and that I can also reach out to Palestinians and help them in ways I couldn't do it in the past. And actually that has happened through the road to recovery because, and in spite of the fact maybe that I'm a settler. Shalom, Bassam. I'm here with Nomi.

[Naomi Sherbel Ball]

As we speak, Myron's phone beeps constantly with messages from Bassam. News of a recent settler attack in Bayt Umar. Later, it's another Palestinian patient who Myron will take for treatment.

[Myron Joshua]

So it's like a partnership. It's actually grown from taking him to the hospital with his son Nasser, to friendship, to almost a partnership, maybe creating hope, right? But I pray to feel one day be hopeful. I'm a pessimist, realist.

[Naomi Sherbel Ball]

The communities here have long been intertwined. Palestinians used to come to the kibbutz to work, and Israelis would shop in neighboring Palestinian villages. After the HAMAS attacks in 2023, many of those connections have been broken.

[Myron Joshua]

The minute young people don't come into contact with Israelis and the fact that Israelis don't come into contact with Palestinians, we demonize each other. But since October 7th, it's almost as if we're building the fear. But the fear is real. The fear is true, but we're like casting it in cement, making it so we can't deal with it.

[Naomi Sherbel Ball]

Every week, Myron drives Nasser and his mum to Sheba Hospital near Tel Aviv. How have you seen this area change since the start of the war?

[Myron Joshua]

It's become more and more like a fortress in a way. Once you didn't need a permitant here at all. Any Palestinian could drive through. And that's changed since October 7th. So right now we're passing an area where gas station and shopping center, which was once considered sort of like an island of coexistence.

[Naomi Sherbel Ball]

Driving through the checkpoint into Israel, the group cast an unusual image. Myron, an Orthodox Jew wearing a kippah, driving NASA and Suba a hijabi. Myron calls it a tent of Abraham. This week, Nasser is collecting boxes and boxes of medication. Waiting in the hospital cafe, Nasser explains that he has spent 14 years, more than half his life as an inpatient in hospital. It's where he learned to speak Hebrew and where much of his education has taken place. But in recent years, crossing the divide to Israel is now much more difficult.

[Mohammed Al Rub]

The situation is always tense. If anyone starts any problem at a checkpoint or carries an attack, the impact can affect us all. So I am always on guard. Thankfully nothing has happened to me personally, but I always stay cautious. There isn't any trust anymore. I still have Jewish friends, but at the same time there is fear. And it goes both ways. They are also afraid of Arabs. My Arab friends are like my Jewish friends. There is no difference between them. It is all one.

[Naomi Sherbel Ball]

Before the war, these sliding hospital doors used to welcome a small number of patients from Gaza too. But the October 7 attacks and the war that followed destroyed any hope of further treatment. Today, more than 20,000 people in Gaza wait desperately for urgent medical evacuation. We'll hear how former patients have survived the war and how Israeli doctors have continued to try to help from afar. You're listening to the documentary from the BBC World Service. DQ presents the Blizzard Double Flip Deal for a Limited Time when you buy one Blizzard treat, you get a second for just 99 cents. That's two Blizzards, two spoons, two flavors and two flips. So don't miss out on the Blizzard Double Flip deal, available only for a limited time and happening now at dq. Because the only thing better than a Blizzard treat is a second Blizzard treat for just 99 cents. It's a deal to flip for the Blizzard Double Flip Deal. Get it in the app. Participation may vary.

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[Naomi Sherbel Ball]

Gaza's Nasser Hospital in Khan Younis. Devastated by two years of war, it remains overwhelmed with patients and poorly equipped. During the war, hospitals themselves became part of the battleground. Despite being protected under international law. They were often targeted by the Israeli military, who say Hamas used medical facilities to hold hostages and as cover for operation command centers. Today, just over half of hospitals in Gaza are partially functional.

[Narrator/Reporter]

The doctor here is seeing 300 to 350 cases daily at the moment when I finally got to see him with Tamman. The doctor was already too exhausted to talk to me about his case.

[Naomi Sherbel Ball]

That Samar, whose son Mohammed was one of more than 1200 of Gaza's sickest patients who before the war used to leave each month from the Erez crossing for treatment. While most would head to hospitals in the west bank and East Jerusalem, a few hundred patients, including Muhammad, who needed highly specialized treatment, would go to hospital in Israel. Hamas's brutal attacks on October 7 and the destructive war in Gaza that followed severed that desperately needed medical treatment. Patients were left in a war zone, not only struggling to access medicine, but dodging bombs, evacuated from their homes and living in tents. I'm Nani Shabao Bull and for the documentary from the BBC World Service, I've been speaking to patients in Gaza who were cared for in Israeli hospitals before October 7th. They speak about the hardship they faced during the war, but also about the bonds with Israeli doctors and the volunteers who used to drive them for treatment, relationships that have endured despite the conflict, waiving their medical referrals. These patients are among the 20,000 waiting desperately to leave for treatment in a third country. Since last October's ceasefire, only around 2,000 patients have managed to leave. Those who remain are despairing. Since the ceasefire, nearly 300 people have died awaiting treatment abroad, according to the Hamas run Health Ministry.

[Eddie Benedik]

My name is Mohammad Al Said.

[Mohammed Al Rub]

I live in Albuj in Gaza with

[Eddie Benedik]

my family who I really love a lot. I spend my time on the phone watching television soaps.

[Naomi Sherbel Ball]

Number 14,000 and something on the waiting list is 26 year old Mohammed Syed, the youngest of four siblings. Mohammed lives on a quiet street in central Gaza with his parents. While the family were forced to evacuate during the war, their house survived. Brilliant red and purple bougainvillea flowers frame the gate that leads to their home. Samar, Mohammed's mother, is a former high school teacher, but for years now her focus has been to simply keep Mohammed alive.

[Narrator/Reporter]

We concentrate all of our efforts to keep Muhammad as healthy as possible. He has his own special healthy diet, his own private room, and I don't allow him to mix with people to protect him from infection.

[Naomi Sherbel Ball]

Mohammed was born with a rare genetic disorder called Kabuki syndrome, which affects his development, so he struggles with his speech.

[Mohammed Al Rub]

I wish to play football and go to the gym, but I can't. I want to ride a bike and go out with my friends, but I'm not able to.

[Naomi Sherbel Ball]

At the age of nine, Mohammed was diagnosed with an aggressive form of lymphatic cancer. The treatment required was Highly specialized and he would have to travel to Israel. That cancer returned multiple times. For more than a decade, Mohammed and his mother would travel regularly to Gaza's Erez border crossing where they would be met by an Israeli volunteer. Mohammed remembers the snacks, chocolate and crisps that the Israeli drivers would bring for the journey to the hospital an hour away, just outside Tel Aviv. Every month they would come through these electric doors for immunotherapy, which helped keep Mohammed strong while he waited for a bone marrow donor.

[Narrator/Reporter]

Our last visit to Sheba Medical center in Tel Aviv was on October 3, 2023, four days before the war began.

[Yaron Imbaar]

I was here at home. Like every Israeli, we were totally surprised and shocked. And that day we had missiles coming and. And it was very difficult for us to understand what is going on.

[Naomi Sherbel Ball]

66 year old Tel Aviv based Yaron Imbaar has been a friend of the family since he started driving Mohammed and Samar to hospital five years ago. Like so many Israelis, he knew someone killed that day.

[Yaron Imbaar]

Unfortunately, later on I learned that my friend, his son was one of those that he wasn't in the security group in Kiskibuts and unfortunately got killed on October 7th. It was a very difficult day and it took us all the day to start to build a picture on what was really going on.

[Naomi Sherbel Ball]

What were your thoughts about those that you've helped From Gaza?

[Yaron Imbaar]

I got in contact with Samar and I remember very well what was her first reaction. She immediately said to me in Arabic, she said, yaron ahna mish Hamas, which means Yaron, we are not Hamas. And she said, please tell the Israelis that this is not us. Unfortunately, when we were in contact, I knew at that point of time that a disaster is coming. I was sure that Israel had no other option but to react. My fear and my preoccupation was that what we will see is something which will be terrible. And unfortunately, all this happened.

[Naomi Sherbel Ball]

Amid airstrikes and Israeli evacuation notices. The family was forced to flee 12 times while Mohammed was sick and weak.

[Narrator/Reporter]

We went to what was considered a safer area, where my daughter lived. Suddenly, shells fell from every direction. Even now I still cannot forget the sound of the shelling. At the time, 15 to 20 of us were living together in a 100 meter square apartment. My children, grandchildren, daughters, all of us together. The children were screaming and crying. We ran from the second floor apartment to the ground floor floor without shoes. We were all terrified. We took nothing with us. No money, no certificates, no clothes, nothing at all. We fled barefoot.

[Naomi Sherbel Ball]

By January 2024, they were living in A tent pitched on a pavement in Rafah, southern Gaza, by then refuge to two thirds of Palestinians living in the Gaza Strip, nearly 1.5 million people.

[Narrator/Reporter]

Mohammed developed a high fever and severe cough, and he began experiencing shortness of breath. The tents were surrounded by sewage and stagnant water. It was dirty and the conditions were extremely hard for us. There was constant fear with missiles and explosions over our heads.

[Naomi Sherbel Ball]

Desperate to find treatment for Mohammed, Samarz spoke with his doctor back in Israel, who advised him to take antibiotics. But with medicine scarce, that meant a dangerous trip to neighbouring Khan Younis. At the time, it was a major front in the war, with Israeli troops fighting Hamas on the ground, operating around and inside Nasser Hospital. But that strip of tablets they finally found kept him alive. Today, Mohammed's condition is stable, but they live not knowing if the cancer has returned. Gaza doesn't have the testing equipment needed to detect it, leaving their lives in limbo, an agonizing wait for treatment. Alongside thousands of others,

[Narrator/Reporter]

Children have done nothing wrong. How is Bhammat to blame for this situation? For three years, he has not been able to receive the treatment that keeps him alive. Neither the Israeli nor Palestinian people have anything to do with what is happening. I don't think that the doctors or nurses at Sheba Medical center in Israel were consulted by Netanyahu before they started striking Gaza. And Hamas didn't come and consult us saying they want to strike Israel. In the end, we are all victims.

[Naomi Sherbel Ball]

Despite two years of bombing, displacement and death, Samar and Mohammed still say they dream of returning to the hospital in Israel.

[Narrator/Reporter]

He's been treated at the hospital since he was nine years old, since 2009. The doctors there know him really well, and they used to say to me, this boy is like our son. He grew up under their career.

[Naomi Sherbel Ball]

For now, despite legal petitions in the court, no patients have traveled from Gaza for treatment in Israel since the beginning of the war. Even hope for medical evacuation to a third country remains distant. And now, on top of everything else, as we finish recording, Samarz sends a message that her husband has also fallen sick with a blood disorder, another name waiting for treatment that can't be found in Gaza. But while the war has deepened and embittered divisions between Israelis and Palestinians, Samar and her Israeli friend Yaron still speak about a day they can meet once again.

[Narrator/Reporter]

When Yaron spoke with me a week ago, he told me, I want to see in the hospital, the markets of Tel Aviv, and I want us to come to Gaza. I want there to be peace for us to remain in contact and for us to live in safety like the rest of the world.

[Naomi Sherbel Ball]

This is the documentary from the BBC World Service. You're listening to Driving across the Divide, and I'm Naomi Sherbal Bull.

[Yael Noy]

I think it was a nice childhood. You know, we were just outside all the time. You see, it's very green, it's very nice, and it was very peaceful. And Gaza was the nearest city. And when we were in the kindergarten, we went with the bus to the beach in Gaza, you know, a day trip.

[Naomi Sherbel Ball]

Yael Noy heads up the Road to Recovery charity that helps Israeli volunteers take Palestinian patients to Israeli hospitals. She grew up in Kibbutz Alumim, a religious community close to Gaza. Her parents still live here, and her father is one of the volunteers who used to drive patients from Gaza's Erez Crossing to hospital in Israel.

[Yael Noy]

This is Gaza. You see what.

[Naomi Sherbel Ball]

That's a couple of kilometers away at most from here.

[Yael Noy]

Yeah. And this is the avocado trees. You see there, the avocado trees. So they came through the avocado trees from there. That's the 7th of October.

[Naomi Sherbel Ball]

On October 7, 2023, the kibbutz was among the first Israeli communities to be attacked by Hamas. You can hear one of the migrant workers whispering down the phone, trying to warn his boss about the gunman from his hiding place. 22 Thai and Nepalese workers were shot and killed in the agricultural part of the kibbutz, the first area targeted by the gunmen. In total, 43 people were killed that day. In Alumim, Yaya's parents were hiding in their shelter.

[Yael Noy]

I was at my home, not here. I was at the north. And when I saw it, about 6:30, I tried to phone my parents that were here, but they didn't answer the phone because it was Shabbat and they are religious, so they don't use the phone. I called a friend that I knew that told him what's going on. He said, your friend that you took to the sea came fresh to kill everyone. That's what he said. Because what I'm doing, this was his answer. Eight o', clock, seven of October, morning, you took them to the sea. Now they come to kill everyone.

[Naomi Sherbel Ball]

He means those Gazans who you took to hospital.

[Yael Noy]

Yeah.

[Naomi Sherbel Ball]

There's no evidence that patients from Gaza shared intelligence with Hamas to help plan for October 7th. Their movements were restricted to the hospitals. During visits, many of the volunteers were themselves from the kibbutzim that were worst hit. Seven of them were killed by Hamas.

[Yael Noy]

I don't want to believe it. I Don't want to believe it. We cannot believe what we're seeing and what's going on. I think till today it's almost three years and we're still not believing it. We went from a funeral to funeral to funeral and it was very, very bad time, you know.

[Naomi Sherbel Ball]

How did you start to get things back on track in that climate, in that atmosphere?

[Yael Noy]

I think we didn't see stop for one minute. Listen. At the 8th of October morning we took Patient from Jenin to Rambam Hospital. We didn't stop for one day and I think this is what saved us. This is what saved me. I had to do something because it was so hard. My father that was driving patient, he lives in aluminum, he got a call that day from a friend in Gaza that he took his daughter and he asked him if he's okay.

[Narrator/Reporter]

Was that Ibrahim?

[Yael Noy]

Yeah, yeah. And he was all the time in touch with us start trying help them. But we could not do nothing until now. Today we cannot help the Gazan people. Now.

[Naomi Sherbel Ball]

Just over 10km away, Ibrahim El Hajj, friend to Yael and her family, welcomes Satim to his home in Gaza. The Israeli government has stopped foreign journalists from independently entering the Gaza Strip since the start of the war, citing security concerns. So we rely on trusted freelancers. Ibrahim's four year old daughter Kaukab plays a clapping game under the shade of a decades old olive tree. Her mother and her eldest sister Noor were medically evacuated at the beginning of the war. Today she doesn't remember a time when they lived with her. She knows them only through video calls. I am Mahal haj, I am 14, 14, 14 years old from Gaza. This is my daughter Noor. Okay now Noor. Hello, I'm Noor, I'm 18 years old and this my mom and tell me where you are now, Noor. I live in Egypt, in Al Arish and I'm alone here, just my mother. Maha could have taken her other four children with her but in the chaos of conflict she didn't know where she would be taking them and for how long the war would continue.

[Yael Noy]

The feeling is very difficult.

[Naomi Sherbel Ball]

Like mother, like your heart is having my mind for Noor and my heart

[Yael Noy]

is for my children and the boss

[Naomi Sherbel Ball]

stop the same moment as Maha continues in Arabic she tells me she misses everyday moments like combing her children's hair. She feels she had to protect her weakest child but remains torn. Her other children's hearts are fragile too, she says. Almost a decade ago, Ibrahim Hajj, Noah's father, called Palestinian Television to make a desperate plea for his then nine year old daughter. She was desperately sick, but couldn't get the specialist care needed to diagnose and treat her in Gaza. Please, he says, this has nothing to do with politics. I want to go back to school and play with kids like me, 9 year old Noor says from her hospital bed. I want to live. The appeal worked. Months later, under the care of Dr. Orli Haskin at the Klali Schneider Hospital in Israel, she was finally properly diagnosed with a rare genetic disease.

[Dr. Orli Haskin]

The only chance for her to live is if we go ahead with the liver transplant and then the kidney transplant, because otherwise she will just continue to deteriorate and she will die.

[Naomi Sherbel Ball]

In order to be able to live without being dependent on dialysis, Noor would need a highly risky operation, a double transplant. Her mother would need to donate a kidney and part of her liver to Noor. That operation was successful and she grew

[Dr. Orli Haskin]

to be like this really nice and beautiful teenager that was coming here after the acute phase. She was coming here with her father once a month for regular checkups and to receive her medications and she was doing very well.

[Naomi Sherbel Ball]

But after hamas's attacks on October 7 and the war that followed, any access for medical treatment was ruptured. How vulnerable was Noor with her health conditions, living in a war zone?

[Dr. Orli Haskin]

So obviously very vulnerable because, you know, she is dependent on her medications and also hygiene is very important because she's immunosuppressed. So yeah, obviously it's very sad that the kids had to suffer because of the war. You know, she couldn't continue with the medical care here.

[Narrator/Reporter]

Three, three years.

[Naomi Sherbel Ball]

For three years. That's when Noor last saw her father, brothers and sisters. When she left Gaza for treatment in Egypt, she weighed just 28 kilos. Initially housed in tents, her health deteriorated further. But her mother reached out to her Israeli doctors who advised on her treatment over WhatsApp and even managed to send medicine through the Red Cross. Noor speaks to me in Arabic for ease, explaining the pain she felt watching her family suffer during the war and not being there to help. We voiced up her clips. I would hear my father telling my mother that there was no food left. He would tell her that he wouldn't eat. So my youngest sister could. The Internet would be cut off for long stand stretches of time and we wouldn't have any news about our family. It was frightening.

[Dr. Orli Haskin]

Sometimes we couldn't sleep at night.

[Naomi Sherbel Ball]

For now, Noor's health has largely recovered and she's stable. But she dreams of reuniting with her family and of building a future, one inspired by her own story. Working in nursing or translation,

[Narrator/Reporter]

I felt

[Naomi Sherbel Ball]

like I was raised in Hospitance. And that's when I started learning Hebrew. I liked it and I learned quickly. The hospital strengthened me in almost every way. I learned nearly everything there, the language, nursing, and many other things. The volunteers and the medical staff at the hospital welcomed me with so much love, care and kindness. Like a second family.

[Yael Noy]

Wow.

[Naomi Sherbel Ball]

Back in Gaza, Ibrahim is on the video call too, speaking from the house that somehow survived the war intact. A Hebrew speaker, he worked in construction in Israel before the war and has stayed in touch with Yael's family from road to recovery, who used to drive them to the hospital.

[Eddie Benedik]

War hasn't changed anything in this friendship. On the contrary, they check on me, and I also see how they are. They always ask about my daughter, Noor. They ask me if I need food, drinks, cash or medicine. They used to call me on holidays and special occasions. Our relationship was not built on something bad.

[Naomi Sherbel Ball]

It's been only good from beginning to end. I hope we meet them again, God willing.

[Eddie Benedik]

I'm hopeful we can.

[Naomi Sherbel Ball]

But even the idea seems like a dream. Back in Kibbutz Alumim, Most of the 500 residents who were evacuated have now returned. Kindergarten age kids run around underneath the purple blossoms of the jacaranda trees. Most of their lives have also been shaped by war and displacement. Yael Said says while on the surface the kibbutz may have recovered, the trauma remains unseen.

[Yael Noy]

My parents were here in the kibbutz. They were like more than 48 hours in the safe room. And they were, I think, very traumatized, you say? Very. And then they were evacuated for long, long time. And I'm seeing they're still trying to get their life back. They will say they are okay, but I don't think no one here in the kibbutz is okay.

[Naomi Sherbel Ball]

The community here have been living through what many are calling Israel's forever wars. First with Gaza, Hezbollah and Lebanon, and most recently Iran.

[Yael Noy]

Yeah, it's very, very hard days for Binau. You know, it's three years that we are in a very difficult war. Very. And even now in Israel now it's here, it's quiet where I live in the north, it's, you know, this morning I came with alarms all the time. So we can't rest all the time. I don't see it's getting better. No, it's just getting worse from day to day.

[Naomi Sherbel Ball]

There's a new fear that also preoccupies Yael, her son, will soon be conscripted into the Israeli army, which is mandatory for most Israelis over the age of 18.

[Yael Noy]

My son is going to join the army in two months and he will be a part of it. And as an Israeli man, cannot stop it. It's the biggest pain I have now that my son will be a part of it.

[Naomi Sherbel Ball]

You feel power?

[Yael Noy]

Yeah, I think so. I can't do nothing against it. I need to take a big breath and pray.

[Naomi Sherbel Ball]

As we wander around the green of the kibbutz, still in the shadow of the October 7th attacks and the war in Gaza that followed, Yael navigates multiple worlds. The trauma her parents and friends live lived through in Israel, the pain and loss of patients, now friends in Gaza, and her hope for the future, faint but still there.

[Yael Noy]

She says Israel need a recovery. All of the people in Israel needed the soldier that came back and the child that grew up in a very, very bad war. And I think all of us, all the people who were here in these terrible years, we deserve a recovery.

[Naomi Sherbel Ball]

Do you think there will be a time when once again patients come from Gaza?

[Yael Noy]

This atmosphere now, I cannot imagine it, but I know in the hospitals, I talk with people in the hospitals, they are waiting for them.

[Naomi Sherbel Ball]

And that's something that the Israeli volunteers, the doctors like Orly Haskin and the patients from Gaza all tell me. They still hold some faint hope that one day they will be able to meet once again.

[Dr. Orli Haskin]

Obviously, I want to help her. I mean, she's gone through such a, you know, a long journey and her family did everything for her with her mother donating liver and the kidneys. It's a very conflicted situation. I hope that one day we can live in peace. And yet kids from Gaza can get treatment here.

[Yael Noy]

Yeah.

[Naomi Sherbel Ball]

You've been listening to the documentary from the BBC World Service, presented and produced by Naomi Shah Balbor, edited by Richard McElroy.