'You go to sleep and think, will I wake up?': Gazans describe life under siege in video diaries

'I don't guarantee my life after filming this video' - Four people living inside Gaza filmed video diaries of their experiences of the past few days in their own words


After days of Israeli air strikes on the Gaza Strip, residents of the besieged territory have spoken of the terror of falling asleep and not knowing if they'll wake up.

Crucial supplies of fuel, food, water and electricity have been cut off by Israel, under the demand for Hamas to release its hostages.

Shelters for those bombed out of their homes have run out of capacity.

With no humanitarian corridor available to those looking to escape, Gazan citizens have shared video diaries with ITV News detailing how they fear every night could be their last.

Mohammed, 44

"Everyone's tense, everyone's afraid," 44-year-old Mohammed told ITV News from inside the basement of a hotel where he's currently taking shelter.

"Every time you hear a rocket going off you think, is that coming my way? Will it be the one? You go to sleep and think, will I wake up?"

He explained that despite having been exposed to several experiences of bombings, it's not something "you get used to."

Omar, 21

Elsewhere, Omar, 21, said he's "terrified" after a "massacre" in his hometown where he says 15 people were killed, including women and children.

He explained that his neighbours have been given a warning to evacuate their home, leaving Omar unsure whether his house will still be standing in the coming days.

Meanwhile, Sama, 19, and her family have packed rucksacks full of essentials in the panic that their house could be bombed at any moment and "turned to ashes."

Sama, 19

She added: "I've witnessed so many aggressions in Gaza but I've never seen something this aggressive.

"Now I don't guarantee my life after filming this video, or while I'm filming it.

"This is a period of great terror for all of us."

The student also shared her worry over the fate of a friend and her family whose house was struck.

Plestia, a 22-year-old journalist, shared video clips of debris strewn across the demolished streets, describing her home as a "ghost town."

While blasts reverberate around her car, Plestia's expression remains blank in fear and says "it's just getting closer and closer."

After being evacuated from her neighbourhood, she has been travelling through Gaza to document the conflict, including visiting a UN-run school where people are seeking refuge.

Inside the courtyard, Plestia captures children participating in a make-shift talent show, performing press-ups to impress one another.

But she explained that even here people aren't safe from bombings.

The situation in Gaza remains time critical, as the largest hospital told ITV News it is full and can't take any more new patients and their generator only has a few days of power left.

Critical care is currently being conducted on corridor floors.


ITV News was taken inside Gaza's largest hospital, which is so overwhelmed critical care is being conducted on corridor floors, as Rebecca Barry reports

The hospital is well used to difficult circumstances but staff say this is like nothing they've seen before.

Nearly half of the wounded at the hospital are children.

And without electricity, hospitals risk turning into morgues, says the international committee of the Red Cross.

Dr Ghassan Abu-Sittah, a British surgeon who flew over from London over the weekend, told ITV News: "The situation here is just a few days from breaking point. The ferocity and the number of those injured has been shocking.

"The hospital is overrun with patients. There are wounded sleeping in the corridors now.

"We don't have the capacity to take the wounded that need to go to the operating rooms anymore."


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