"In the days before we reached the Netzarim checkpoint in Gaza in early April 2024, my wife and I rehearsed a stripped-down version of ourselves. We had already lived through six months of war, but this would be the first time we stood before Israeli soldiers. After seeing journalists killed, hospitals bombed, and bullets ripping through children, we believed that how we told our story could mean everything - for our lives and our chances of getting out."
"We would tell the truth. But we would keep it to the parts least likely to invite suspicion: that we were a displaced family obeying Israel's orders, which often came via air-dropped flyers and anonymous, automated phone calls, to evacuate south after our neighborhood in Gaza City was left devastated by months of bombardment; that Asmaa was pregnant; and that our 2-year-old son, Rafik, was weak from malnutrition."
"We walked through a shell-scarred stretch of road by the Mediterranean. The stroller wheels scraped against broken concrete; drones hummed above. My hawiya - the green Israeli-authorized ID Gazans carry - was in my pocket. After about two hours of walking, we arrived at Netzarim. A coastal stretch where families once walked the beach, it was now a militarized corridor of tanks, berms, and scanners. Two tanks sat ahead of us, snipers stood above the mounds of debris."
A Gazan family rehearses a simplified identity before approaching the Netzarim checkpoint to avoid drawing suspicion from Israeli soldiers. They claim to be displaced civilians obeying evacuation orders, highlight the wife's pregnancy, and describe their two-year-old son's malnutrition. The father carries his Israeli-authorized hawiya and walks through a war-ravaged coastal corridor with tanks, snipers, drones, and damaged infrastructure. Soldiers group civilians at the checkpoint and direct them toward cameras and scrutiny. The family intends to conceal their work as journalists and their plan to seek refuge in Egypt through the Rafah crossing while prioritizing their immediate survival.
Read at Intelligencer
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