It is impossible to get a feel from outside the scope of suffering by civilians in Gaza.
A video coming out from Jebali on Monday, 21 October, however, provides a uniquely high sense of insight into the pressure and horrors extracted from civilians by Israel’s current offensive in northern Gaza. Watching it leaves one nearly like an eyewitness.
Every day, like all journalists who have been compelled to report this war from outside Gaza because Israel will not let us in, I have watched many videos that emerge online on the day of harrowing scenes of wounded, dying, and suffering people in hospitals and of men in the rubble rescuing survivors and digging out bodies.
Civilians were forced to move by the Israelis, trudging through thick sand where roads used to be, past ruins that are altogether unrecognizable.
All are horrific to behold, and so was the one that emerged from the attack in Jabalia on Monday morning. But for me, it was a bit unusual because it showed pain, grief, chaos, panic, and hopelessness in the seconds and minutes immediately after an attack.
Most people do nothing but watch; taking out a phone to film it is the last thing they do. I have been a reporter in wars for many years, and I have witnessed and experienced the same disbelief and shock. Time is needed for the brain to catch up with a new reality entirely changed by what your eyes see.
The Jabalia Boys Elementary School was attacked just after 09:00 in the morning on 21 October. It was no longer a place of learning. Still, it had been turned into a shelter for displaced civilians, like many schools in Gaza run by UNRWA, the UN agency for Palestinian refugees. All the ones still standing, that is.
In the video, a paramedic called Nevine al Dawawi, who grows increasingly panicked, runs between dead and dying civilians, using her phone to record what is happening; when I reported this first, on the day of the strike, she was misidentified as Nabila.
We were able to find Nevine in Gaza City. Now, she could herself describe what had taken place on Monday morning. She answered questions and, much more composed now, replayed the video.
In it, she is agitated and scared, running between civilians lying in their blood next to dead bodies.
