AMY GOODMAN: Before we go, because this is — we are a live broadcast, unlike a lot of programs on television that put together taped pieces. It looks like we just got Abubaker Abed. He is in Deir al-Balah. He is under siege right now.

Abubaker, can you tell us how you are right now? We have just reported on the killing of your colleagues, the Israeli military airstrikes that killed your colleagues Mohammed Mansour, as well as Hossam Shabat. Your thoughts right now?

ABUBAKER ABED: I think there are no specific thoughts to tell you, but it’s unending misery, something that we can’t really imagine. You know, it’s taken a very heavy toll on every single one here, particularly the children. We’re here stranded. We’re seeing the systematic killing of everyone, as Israel is targeting every single one here in Gaza. We’re seeing assassinations of journalists, medical staffers and ordinary people. So, Israel does not spare anyone in its attacks.

And we are hoping people to help after the killing of more than 700 people in the past seven days, that this will stop, because I’ve been talking to people outside, and they are very desperate for an end to this. People are now we want an end to this genocide. We don’t need anything more. And that’s what they need, because they cannot really keep grieving more people. They cannot really keep grieving, you know, the losses of their loved ones, the losses of their entire families. That’s why when we talk about this particular issue, people don’t know what to do.

It’s an indescribable feeling that they are being killed every single day, that they are being killed every single moment and that we are into siege for more than 20 days. There’s no food available. A lot of people are being taken to the hospital to receive treatment, where doctors cannot really give the proper treatment for them, and the medications are not available. Israel has been blocking the two crossings, not allowing a trickle, one single truck into Gaza. And that has really left people on the cusp of imminent death. So, we are talking about death, that we are facing death in every single direction, from the starvation, from the relentless bombardments and from the conditions that we are living under. So it’s a very, very horrific situation.

AMY GOODMAN: And how, Abubaker, are you personally feeling, meaning physically your ailments right now?

ABUBAKER ABED: Yeah, for me, like, yeah, I’ve been diagnosed with malnutrition. I know that. I’m trying to recover, with no means at all. I’m trying to have a way through this. But, unfortunately, there is no help at all coming from outside or coming from inside, because I’m helpless towards myself. My family is helpless towards me. The doctors around me are also helpless, because there are nothing — there is nothing that I can really opt for so I can really help myself recover from the trauma, from the illness that I have.

And that’s not only me, because I’ve been seeing around me many of the children who are malnourished and who are desperate for food and desperate for everything, because even the free food that people have been receiving is no longer available, and the same here. We’re talking about that there’s a scarcity of every food staple inside the territory, like vegetables, like fruits and those much, much-needed food staples for the population. So, how can people really cope with such an incredibly dire situation, that people don’t have anything, that people do just — have just now resorted to canned food? Canned food is not helpful for us. Canned food is of a very, very bad quality. And that’s what Israel has been doing.

So, as long as the world allows Israel to do so, this will not stop. We need more people to come out in the streets, to close the roads and to go on global strikes to make sure that this can be lifted, that this blockade and this aggression can be stopped. Other than that, all that we will see is just more killings and mass murders of Palestinians. And all that you will see is more suffering and more painful memories and pictures that you have been keep watching for the past 17 months. And that’s now phase two of the genocide.

So, nothing — like, no one in Gaza feels safe anymore. No one in Gaza realizes what they are going through, because what they are going through is now going beyond hellish, because this time of the genocide, the seven days that we have been living through, is a much, much bigger scale of killing, of bombardment than we have lived ever before during the past 15 months of phase one of the genocide. So we don’t know really what to do. We don’t know how we can really cope with such an incredibly difficult situation and under the most atrocious conditions that no one can really imagine.

AMY GOODMAN: Abubaker, the latest news, the United Nations announced it would reduce its presence in Gaza by withdrawing about a third of its international workers there, following repeated strikes on its facilities by Israel. We’re talking about doctors and nurses, humanitarian aid workers. At the same time, Israel is now putting forward that they may reinvade Gaza with something like 50,000 soldiers. We have one minute for your response.

ABUBAKER ABED: I don’t know what to say. I don’t know what to say. I don’t know, like, how long — how long the world will keep watching. I don’t know what the world wants to see in Gaza happen so they can really move and act and stop what the hell inflicted upon every single one.

Half of the population is children. They have nothing to do with this war. Most of the population have been having gone through or have had tragedies because of this genocide. Literally every single one in Gaza has lost a loved one, has lost a family member. The houses are destroyed. Everything in Gaza is destroyed. I don’t know why the Israeli military wants to conduct another military campaign inside Gaza, because there’s nothing to be destroyed at all. It’s very simple. I can’t really put it into words. But it’s very simple, that nothing can be salvaged. If Israel wants to continue that — 

AMY GOODMAN: Abubaker Abed, we want to thank you so much for being with us, a Palestinian journalist, 22 years old, speaking to us from Deir al-Balah in Gaza, has been diagnosed himself with malnutrition. And, Sharif Abdel Kouddous, my deepest gratitude. Thank you for all of your work. I’m Amy Goodman. Thanks so much for joining us.