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As mass bombing continues across Gaza. Two point three million Palestinians remain trapped in the Strip as the Israeli military conducts a total blockade. Israel has cut off water, electricity, and fuel while intentionally restricting humanitarian aid from being sent into Gaza. This is it could happen here. I'm Garrison Davis. On October seventh, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu gave a
speech addressing Palestinians inside Gaza. A part of the official English translation of the speech reads, quote, all of the places which Hamas is deployed, hiding and operating in that wicked city, we will turn them into rubble. I say to the residents of Gaza, leave now, because we will operate forcefully everywhere unquote. Sentence in this speech was left untranslated, but it roughly read quote, we will target each and
every corner of the Strip unquote. According to the UN by last Thursday, October twelfth, about four hundred and twenty three thousand people had been displaced from their homes by Israeli air strikes. That's about twenty five percent of the
Palestinian population. Many sought refuge in crowded United Nations shelters set up in schools, but even those shelters and hospitals were attacked by air Last Friday, October thirteenth, Israel issued a military order for all citizens in northern Gaza, including Gaza City, to evacuate their homes within a twenty four hour period, in apparent preparation of a major ground assault on the besieged enclave. Over one million Palestinians live in
this area, it's almost half the population of Gaza. In between bombings, Israeli military aircraft dropped thousands of leaflets into Gaza City, advising civilians to immediately leave their homes and the UN shelters, but not to actually try and leave Gaza. As the leaflet warned that if anyone approached the Israel Gaza security wall, they would quote expose themselves to death unquote. Israel laid out just a few roads that it was
supposed to be quote unquote safe to travel southbound. Thousands of people in northern Gaza began to flee towards the strip's southern half on Friday morning, but as they were following Israel's orders, Civilian convoys transporting Palestinian families out of Gaza City were bombed by the Israeli military at three
different points along the evacuation route. At least seventy people were killed, with hundreds more injured by the Israeli airstrikes as they were trying to follow Israel's impossible order to evacuate everyone from their homes in just twenty four hours between Netanyahu's speech and the evacuation order of northern Gaza. This leaves people questioning where exactly are these people supposed to go. A Palestinian in Gaza told the Associated Press quote,
we can't flee because anywhere you go, you are bombed. Unquote. Gaza isn't that big. It's only twenty five miles long, and it's completely surrounded by Israel and the Mediterranean Sea save for a small section on the southern tip, which borders Egypt with Israel, sealing off access to Gaza. The only way in or out is the Rafa border Crossing, located at the southern end of the strip bordering Egypt's
Sinai Peninsula. The Rafa Crossing is a critical passage for humanitarian aid and serves as a vital gateway between Gaza and the outside world. One of the very first targets of Israeli bombing this month was the Rafa border crossing between Gaza and Egypt. It was targeted by three air raids in a twenty four hour period, severely damaging the crossing, preventing it from operating and resulting in fatalities. There's video and audio of the bombings where you hear hundreds of
people make a singular scream. It's pretty gruesome. With Israel undergoing a quote unquote complete siege of Gaza, this crossing was the only way to send humanitarian supplies into the Strip and to let willing refugees flee the assault. The Egyptian Foreign minister has said that Israel has yet to allow the reopening of the crossing. Egypt is expected to assist in delivering humanitarian aid to Palestinians and the enclave, but it has rejected proposals to accept fleeing Palestinians into
its borders. Both Egypt and Israel operate a blockade of Gaza to strictly control the passage of people and supplies going in and out of the Strip. There's no freedom of movement to enter or leave Gaza, even when there's
not a declared war, one can't simply leave Gaza. There's no Gaza airport, least not since two US and two Historically, the Rafa border crossing into the Egyptian Peninsula was only open to the public very sporadically and often for very narrowly defined categories, such as medical patients, religious pilgrims, foreign residents, or residents of Gaza with foreign visas or passports. But I don't have to tell you how hard it is
to leave Gaza even when there's not a war. Because late last year, we interviewed two Palestinians for a still upcoming episode that's being worked on. During the interview, they touched on their own experiences escaping Gaza. So we're going to place some of that interview for this episode, and I'll jump in occasionally to add some context. So here is Ahmed Matar and Abdullah al Casab, athletes from a PK Gaza, one of the most recognized parker teams in the world.
My name is Ahmad Matar. I'm twenty six years old. I'm from Gaza, Palestine, and I do Barkour. I live at the moment in Sweden because yeah, I'm open within six years ago after I got invited for the Eraword Challenge. It's a parkour competition that was organized in Sweden and Helsingburg. And yeah, since that time, I just live in Sweden because I just did not want to go back for so many reasons that we can just talk about it later in this episode.
Hey guys, I'm a tadler. I'm twenty five years old and also in Barkour Athleta and I'm also right now in Italy.
I do the chance to travel to Italy because I part.
Of bated in a in a movie or in a film, which is the directory is in my village Gurosa. He's an Italian movie. It's called more jumb But my friend he was the main character. I was one of the characters in the film. So we got a chance to to to participate in a festival in si and it wasn't really easy. It was really hard to do it because because you know, having visa ahmed Alsos Dad, it's we get a visa as a Palestinian and especially from
gethera city with something really really hard. And even though it's about having the business about it, traveling outside Gaza, something else this is also other, completely different story, but we could manage that. And I've been here in Italy. I came to participate in Sishida. First of all, me and my friend we managed to get shing visa and it was just for five days. And now I'm here in Italy for almost eleven months. In the other city.
You when you were there, it is not you don't really feel free as free, you know, because you're surrounded all the time by so many obstacutes, you know, which is which is really crazy and it drives even though because we were really kids and we didn't have a really good childhood somehow.
Yeah, I remember since we were kids, we were seeing the tanks or what is it called, Yeah, the tanks that we were seeing it in front of the street, and we were hearing bombs and shootings. And that was
before two thousand and five. That was like since I was four years I could remember all of that moments where the tanks are crossing our road and we were seeing that attacks happening between people together, and bombs and flights and drones and and that's something that for sure affects us as a kid, that we we get the fear whenever we see some bombs and just we want to hide from the bombs and we want to be
close to the family. For me, all of these things that happened around me affected me that I wanted to be that guy who would like to enjoy life. In the same time, Gaza was a place that we had the situation where we are the psychologically or how is it called, like when you are affected by the situation where you know that you are you can be dead at a moment, or it can get a bump close to you any moment, or someone close to you who die.
I mean kids the most important for the kids just the more safety, and we didn't have safety. The safety is what kids really want, you know all the time. I mean, when you're a kid, you just need your mom or your dad next to you because you really feel this kind of safety. But when we were kids, we couldn't have this kind of feeling because even our parents they were not really sure what might happen to us or to them, so how they will protect us.
So it's not really easy for anyone to protect the others. You know, no one april to you know, to do that. That's something affected us for sure. Right, because we we we we've grown up on such things like that. Maybe for me an hour, if you were talking about this is maybe something usual, which is something normal, because I really good used to it somehow, which is not normal. I mean it should have been normal for anyone, but for us, you know, we could it kind of normal
because it's kind of we used to. And now when I really because before I was really kids, so I didn't know what but it's really going on. I was really terrified and I was really scared, and I didn't
know what is really going to happen. But now when I'm kind of an adult and I know what is really going on and I see the kids when when because for example, the last four especially when I'm even outside, guess that's completely completely different, you know, because when you're inside Gaza, you with your family and your friends, top apply,
it's really different. But now when I can see how the kids they are screaming, how the kids they they they have this kind of feeling, you know that you know, they are very terrififiled with the poemps because it sneaks to them. So I can really remember myself and I just go through back, you know, the memory, the stories that really happened, the memories, a lot of memories before about that it was really crazy.
We're going to go on a quick ad break, but when we get back, Ahmed will talk about his long experience trying to leave Gaza. When Ahmed was younger, he began to share videos online of his athletic skills, slowly gaining notoriety around the world for his pretty impressive parker ability. Soon both himself and Pik Gaza were being invited around the world to perform a parkour or to enter into
parker competitions. P k Gaza was invited to the Arabian TV show Arabs Got Talent, but they were unable to go on the program due to difficulties traveling outside Gaza. During this time period, the Rafa border crossing into Egypt was only open around six times a year and for
only a few days. To catch a flight out of Egypt, you need to have all of your proper paperwork, tickets, and a valid visa which lines up perfectly for when the Rafa border crossing happens to be open, and you have to also hope that you're not in the back of the line to get through the border crossing because they only let a certain number of people through each day.
Ahmed was invited to participate in the Red Bull Parker Challenge in China and even successfully got a visa to travel, but wasn't able to leave Gaza because the Rafa border crossing was closed during the timeframe when the visa was valid.
The US based World Free Running and Parker Federation tried to help Ahmed travel to the United States to participate in the wfpf's twenty sixteen competition in Las Vegas, but Ahmed was unable to get an American travel visa due to long wait times to use the Northern border crossing into Jerusalem, and even if you did manage to get into Israel, it was quite difficult to receive a US
travel visa as applicants were frequently denied. A park Ori Gym in Italy frequently invited Ahmed to participate in their summer and winter events, but the Italian embassy denied requests for a travel visa three times. In late twenty sixteen, Ahmed got invited to the Air Whip Parkour Challenge in Sweden, and with the help of some Swedish friends, he was
able to secure a travel visa in just two weeks. Unfortunately, when Ahmed got the visa, the Rafa crossing was closed, but by pure luck, just one day later it was announced that the crossing would be reopening. When he went to the crossing, he learned that there were thirty thousand people in line in front of him, with the crossing only he said to be opened briefly and the temporary
visa set to expire. It was not looking great. After a very challenging series of events that Ahmed is about to explain, he was able to get to Sweden and just last year he started in a play about his own life and his journey traveling from Gaza to Sweden.
Tell us a little bit about this. This is going to be a play about your life that they're doing in Sweden.
So we have had the premiere for the play in ninth of May. So we have been doing the show for a while now, like we have had eight performances at the moment, and the play is about me with my family and then my friends from Picky Gaza. I also talks about the journey from Gazza to Sweden, which was the biggest part of the play that yeah, talking
exactly about how it is to face the visa. There's an embassy Egyptian control, Egyptian security when we get out of Gaza, that they have to also a Palestinian side that they have to interview. Was every if I have the visa. Let's say I got the visa after some trial, then I have to apply for the trouble which I have to stand in the queue behind all of that people who already applied before me, which is image nine thirty one thousand, Mike, you number is thirty thousand. Then
I have to wait. And okay, let's say I got in front of all of that people and today I am here in the Palestinian side. Then this Palestinian side, then RAPA orders have to interview me and check all why do I need to travel? Show me your documents if I have any mistaken my documents, and I go back to Gaza. Even if all my documents, I have the vision and everything. And then if you don't want me to travel, then I have to stay in Gaza. Okay,
let's say I did best the Palestinian side. I am in the Egyptian security side, and there one time the Egyptian security sent me back to Gaza after waiting. I have the visa, and I was like, no, what are you going to do. I'm going to do parkour. I have a poor competition out what is parkour? Jump? Oh, then you go jump back in Gaza. I have to
go back. And my family did not expect I would be back in as because I was at home around five am in the morning and I was a whole day like waiting to get to the Egyptian side, and then from there he sent me back and yeah, and the end, I mean, without the help I could, I would not have to travel because thirty thousand people in front of me. I have the Q number, but I am behind them, and I have the visa that will expire in two days. Like let's say that starts in
two days and it will expire in twenty days. And if I don't travel in this twenty days, my visa will expire and then I cannot travel with him. And the only thing I had to do was like going to the crossing the first day with my father. He went with me and we just stand there in front of the crossing. It's you know, there is a control. There is a list with names that you cannot really cross if you don't get any help. So I go there and then we just waited around six hours, me
and my father. Then the sunset came and good dark, and then he was like, I cannot do anything. We have to go back. And then we went back home. The day after my fight, tell my father live, can we go? I have to travel. I have the visa I just will expire. And then he was like, well, I cannot do anything. He don't know what he will do, my father. So I told him, okay, I will go for the guy. We have a guy close to us like that say my neighbor, but he's a far neighbor.
And he was the manager of the crossings between us, like the manager of coordinating the visas or like the list between US and Egypt. So he can really do whatever he wants. He can enter Egypt whenever he wants. He's a very friend between Egyptians. So he's the manager of the cross he's the boss. So I go to him and I wait him outside his car like so I was close to his car waiting him to get out of his home. I know he goes to his
work around eight in the morning. Then I wake up at seven in the morning and I go there waiting him to come to his car. I see his car. Then I was really happy that he did not leave to his work and I knew that he's still there and I was waiting, waiting, and then he came and then I show him my visa and I really have to travel the competition and they have to join this competition. And then he was like, okay, but have the Q number. Yes, but.
I am the last in the list. Okay, but how will we do? I cannot tell you, but I have already. I told him I have already been into Egypt before, but the Egyptian security sent me back to Gaza and he told me, do you have the registration of that the time you travel? And I told him yes, and did have that time, and it was okay, follow me to the cross and I told him, yeah, but I can I go with you in your car so you
don't forget me when you go there. Because he's very like Beoble to just run after him and a crossing Marianda there, I had to tell you, I want to go with you, and he said, yes, okay, you can come with me.
And then he told me, but you cannot stop. I told him, can I stop her and say goodbye to my family first, because they did not know that I will travel. I just took a very small bag with me in case. I really had like a tack bag with me. And he said, yeah, but you cannot stop. I have to go now. And then I was okay, I called my mom, Mom, he's going to help me, and but I cannot stop say goodbye. And then yeah.
I went to the crossing and he put me into like a viv list that I had to go like in a very special past that was just five people in it. And I was very like respected by the control there and there was like I got all the way today to Egypt. And in Egypt, I really met the same guy that he also asked me about parkour and he was like, oh you And then my friend, the guy that manager of the crossing told me show him what parkour is. I really had to go a
slept for him. I did a workst in that room where he the control chick, and I was oh, wow, so cool. Okay, here's the stamp enter to Egypt. But I had to go into that airport. He did not know, you know, the Egyptian don't understand the visa. Like if it's in the visa, it says that it's gonna be valid in this day. If it's valid in this like, imagine I get the visa today, but it's not valid yet, but the crossing is open today and tomorrow and the day after. I have to travel in these three days.
Then the crossing will close for another six months. So I had to travel in the days otherwise I will lose my visa. So my visa was not valid at that time. I traveled from Kazas, so he thought that it's valid. So it was oh, go to the airport now and travel from there. He thought that I can travel to Europe directly, but if my visa is not valid,
Europe would not let me in. So I had to stay in the airport that time that my visa was not valid, which was five days and then and I traveled, but I had to wait in the airport because he did not understand my visa.
No one should have to do a Webster front flip to cross a border. Because there was still one week left until the visa became valid, Egyptian security sent Ahmed straight to the airport to wait for the week. While in Limbo. At the airport, the Egyptian authorities locked him in a small room without his phone or his belongings until the visa became valid. After many harsh difficulties and compounding inconveniences, Ahmed boarded his plane for Europe. Ahmed has
built a life for himself in Sweden. He's been teaching parkour classes there for years now. In fact, that's how the play came about. The mother of one of his students is a theater director and she became interested in his story. By his account, life is much better for him him now, but he still is not free to see his own family or to go back to his original home. Getting into Gaza is almost as hard as getting out of Gaza.
And hopefully you guys can get back into your families too, because I know that must be really difficult, being separated and not being able to get back.
Yeah, it's been six years almost.
Jesus said, yeah, that's really hard, you.
Know, dramat the theater. I've invited my brother and luckily he got the visa from first time. He got help from the same guy that helped me and asked them and he put him into a special vest. He traveled from Gaza with having doing and now he's here. Oh wow.
He didn't have to do a backflip in the visa.
Now I did not. Because he's an artist and he had the visa and everything. So he got the visa because Dramat in the Theater Center invited him to be part of the show with his oh cool bas of fabric that he drove. True. Yeah, Abdullah the same way with the Yeah, if you don't have someone to help you, you would not travel.
Yeah, it shouldn't be that way.
Abdullah had to get it also held because his visa also was also one week, one week and they have to travel in that week, and he's named the last of the place.
Unfortunately, Abdullah had some internet issues and some of the audio isn't usable. But he similarly only made it out of Gaza because he had a friend who had a contact at the Italian consulate. When Abdullah tried to apply for the visa, the office wasn't taking any more applications, but this friend was able to explain Abdullah's situation to the consulate and they decided to give him a travel visa.
Abdullah also had to travel through Egypt and was forced to stay in a small presence well for three days without food or water. Once he got to the Cairo airport, the German airline he was booked on refused to accept his paperwork because they didn't want the responsibility of stamping his passport with the alternative of just going back to Gaza, Abdullah was able to find a manager of sorts and explain his situation with the travel visa and needing to
go to this film premiere for this Parkhorp thing. You know, it's not the easiest thing to explain, not everyone knows what parkhor is, but the manager was sympathetic, and then, just like what happened with Abed, they requested a Parkourt demonstration to see if this guy was actually telling the truth.
So the already exhausted Abdullah did a backflip in the airport as he was recovering from the COVID vaccine, and then the manager, seemingly satisfied, transferred him from this German airline to an Egyptian airline and he was able to make it to Italy and escape the prison of Gaza.
When when you're anyone who's in prison, the only thing that he thinks about I mean, when you're a prison for the whole life, I mean, the only thing they think about is just have to escape. Now, I mean that's normally because you just want to be free because you're in prison.
I've never been into the prisons, I.
Mean, I've never had no We both sall.
I mean, I've been to the Brazen of Gaza, but not the real.
Exact That's exactly what I mean. So we both we were in a prison which is open, big prison, and the only way that we were thinking about is how to get out of that, and the owner was really possible is just to use per four as an opportunity for us so we can get our freedom. And somehow now you're in Sweden and me in Italy, we have this grant freedom. But at the same time it's really hard because our family is all friends and everyone we still connected, so it's like still connected.
Like I mean, I was trying to meet my and the last in this summer, and I applied for the Egyptian visa. Because I still don't have the Swedish passports, I have to apply as a Palestinian to go back or to visit Egypt. So I applied for the Egyptian visa to visit my family because my mother was in Egypt and she was there to to attend the marriage of my accent. But she was there in Egypt with my sister and the Yeah, I applied for the visa. I never with the visa, so I had to say,
so it's like I'm not free yet. Yeah, I mean, yeah, I will get the Swedish passport soon. I don't know when, but I'm sure it's not more than six months from now, because I have been applying. I have applied six months ago and it's usually not more than a year to get the decity. And usually it's accepted if you have everything correct in the country, like if you're legal and you pay attacks and working, you're studying and another language,
I'm good there, Just like I have to wait. So in the end I will be able to meet them.
I would not be able. I would not say I will be free to enter Gazza whenever I want, because yeah, to enter gas at the moment I hear from people, it takes like three to four days and you suffer in the way, just like you have to stay in the car these three days and every thousand kilometers one thousand meters, you get to stop by a control like a road control that you need to check everything you have, every bag you have, take it out in the road and you have put it back by yourself, and then
the car continues another thousand another control, and then in the end you arrive like Gus and you say, this is the worst part of my Gaz because they don't want to do it again. They don't want to get to Gaza and suffer the same way again. I'm the same to get out of Gaza. To get out of Gaza. I mean, if I have the Swedish passport, for sure I will have I will have the able to travel from Gaza without worrying about getting a piece or not.
But in the same time, yeah, I need to wait an aqueue when while I travel, When I will be able to travel from Gaza, is it like gonna be one month, two months, three months, because it's like thousands of people who want to travel, and it just they allow five hundred people a day and that's maximum, and then I don't allow any more of that people. And then also they they closed the crossing at any moment.
And I remember the time I traveled from Gaza was the crossing was closed for six months to three six months and it was none it was not open at all, and it was started one thousand people in the front of me in the queue, thirty one thousand. So I imagine like I was the last person in the queue and they have to wait all of the people to travel, and the crossing was open just the three days every three months. That means like in this three days, it's
one thousand, five hundred. When is the rest gonna travel? And will I have to travel? And imagine you have a visa that is valid for like ten days. If you get the visa just for event in Europe that is just three days, and then you get the visa for ten days, and then if you don't travel in that ten days, your visa get expired, and then you have to apply for a new visa. And then after that you have to wait because if you get refused visa,
you cannot apply directly. You have to wait six three to six months and then you can apply for the new visa. So it's really terrible, like I don't want to go through all of that process again. That's why side stay in Sweden and work in Sweden and get a Swedish citizenship where I can travel freely without worrying about getting a visa or not. And because till now, because I'm not Swedish, I have to think about getting a visa or not. Will I be refuse this or not?
And even Egyptian embassy refused my visa and they did not even answer me. I called them every day, did I get the visa? When will you give me the visa? I go to their officer in Stockholm the end like, oh, you have to call us, send us an email, and I call and send the in Oh, we will call you when you get the visa. But will you call me that if I don't get the visa. No, we will call you when you get the visa. And then I said to my mom, I'm not coming to they.
Yeah, that sounds rough. And I know for a long time Abdallah was in Ghaza when you were in Sweden, right, and Abdellah was trying to get the visa to travel. Last time we spoke, you hadn't been able to get one. So I'm glad you did. I'm glad you're now a film star.
You have been applying many times. Yeah, remember we went together many times and they also like there is a weird and also invited him and she had also and they got refused viza. And I'm sure he applied the Folso to Italy and he applied for England. I also applied Italy. I got refused Italian visa around four times,
and I got the refused visa from Norway Oslo. I got some event in two that's thirteen and USA fight did me like for Las Vegas and WFTF invited you for an event in Las Vegas that they could not make and also Germany Hamburg and Hannah Over they invited me and there was many events that I could not make. In the end I could make it to airwork. But the first year of the airwork like they invited me to fifteen and I applied for the visa, I did
not get it. And then the year after twenty sixteen and he got the visa because I had the help also from another private invitation. So I got double invitations that it made it stronger for the consulate and the embassy in jury residence the visa and it was like yeah, it was twenty one days visa and directly when I arrived with and as like my friend knew, I don't
want to go back. So they taught me to the migration office in Helsingborg in Malmo, and there I extended my visa for six months first and in that six months I wanted to work and stay here, so I started to look for a job. I started my own jobs actually, like start to work with hardcore or myself, like making classes that I was teaching in English. And I had one of the students translating to the kids in Swedish, so he was getting three classes. It was tough.
At that time. I was like it was hard for him also to translate because he was not more than thirteen years old. He was so shy and everything. And I was Forrest. Forrest to learn the Swedish language because of that, because I wanted to work, and I just started to know hands head and the food news and it was easy because it was similar to English. And by the time the kids had taught me to speak Swedish at the moment, because it was the only way I learned Swedish, it was my way to learn Swedish
was I was the kids all the time. The kids language was the eighties to take like to back out because the kids have a sample language that you can really learn it much faster than talking with an adult that talks really fast and talking very advanced Swedish. I dreamed to travel from Gaza, and then I made it. I did travel from Gaza, and then you think, Okay, what do I want to make next, and then I I want to work with Parkour, and then I start
working with Parkpur. I never expected that I would be in the biggest theater stage in Sweden, and then I am here in the biggest theater stage in Sweden. That's just like being overle come and watch my store and watch me performing Parkour and telling my story to the It's like I never think thought about it, but just Parkour brought back to me.
As an extra note, earlier this week, James spoke with Ahmed and Abdullah, and as a few days ago at least both of their families were okay. Obviously, this is an ongoing situation, but I just wanted to add that in here as that's the most up to date information we have. Ahmed is still in Sweden, is still doing Parker. You can find him at Matargaza on Instagram or his
website Matargaza dot com. That's Matargaza dot com. Abdullah is still in Italy and is studying to become an English teacher, and just last February, Ahmed and Abdullah were able to see each other in person for the first time in quite a while. The documentary that Abdullah is in is called One More Jump. It's about very similar questions on whether it's worth it to stay and fight for your
country or try to escape and fulfill your dreams. Thank you once again to Abdullah and Ahmed for talking with us. I'll link their social medias in the show notes below. See you on the other side. It Could Happen here as a production of cool Zone Media. For more podcasts from cool Zone Media, visit our website cool Zone Media, or check us out on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts,
or wherever you listen to podcasts. You can find sources for It Could Happen Here, updated monthly at Coolzonemedia dot com slash sources.
Thanks for listening.