#Tareq S Hajjaj

[disruptiveempathy]

“We spent a terrifying night in Rafah before deciding to return to central Gaza,” Jamila told Mondoweiss. “My granddaughters were screaming when the bombs dropped near us. My two girls spent an entire day trapped under the rubble last October when their sister and mother were killed while they were all asleep." “When we heard that same familiar sound that they had heard on the day their mother was killed, none of us could bear it anymore,” Jamila continued. “They kept crying, saying ‘this time we’re going to die like mama and our sister Judy.’”

—Tareq S. Hajjaj, from "Fleeing Rafah," in Mondoweiss

[frankoc3an-cantsaveunow]

https://twitter.com/tonipotenciano/status/1714568842490560781?s=46&t=HMQna756egaJvmEVQOi-fw

[chimaeraonwards]

"The stories I never wanted to write" by Tareq S. Hajjaj (2 November 2023)

Mahmoud al-Na’ouk, The Dreamer

Rushdie Sarraj, The Journalist

Ismaeel Barda, The Vendor

Remember them. Palestinians are more than just numbers.

Read the full story here:

[fiercynn]

During the first two weeks of the war, I refrained from going on social media — going through my feed was like walking through a minefield. As I continued to scroll, I would see yet another person with whom I worked in the past or with whom I have had both passing and intimate friendships. As I continued to scroll, I would see friends posting pictures of their friends, and I would know without even reading the accompanying text what those pictures meant. Now, however, after almost a month since the start of the war, I make a point of looking through social media — not to know who has died, but to check in on which of my friends was still alive. After the massive increase in the number of deaths, which continues to climb every minute, I’ve taken to contemplating and focusing on the details of every person around me, wanting to take them all in, to sear their faces into my memory before I lose them — because I am now certain that the Israelis are going to exterminate a massive number of people, including people I grew up with. All of them are friends. All of them are family.

tareq s. hajjaj relayed this piece via voice note from gaza, and it was published on truthout on november 4, 2023. i am terrified that we are going to lose him too. my heart is with him and his loved ones.

[alanshemper]

Tareq Hajjaj was still reporting and able to send out audio reports as of October 25, 2023

This could be my last report from Gaza by Tareq S. Hajjaj. Please read.

[houseofpurplestars]

"Keep my stories alive so that you keep me alive. Remember that I wanted a normal life, a small home full of my children’s laughter and the smell of my wife’s cooking. Remember that the world that pretended to be the savior of humanity participated in killing such a small dream.

Remember me, as I prepare myself to leave this world by force and go to a better one — one where the U.S. and Israel do not exist."

Tareq S. Hajjaj,

October 15, 2023

This could be my last report from Gaza

Tareq Hajjaj at mondoweiss

[holyfigtree]

Tareq S. Hajjaj, October 15, 2023, Palestine

[kissingcullens]

“Come out, you animals’: how the massacre at al-Shifa Hospital happened

“During the massacre at al-Shifa Hospital, the Israeli army shot patients in their beds and doctors who refused to abandon the sick, separated people into groups with differently-colored bracelets, and executed hundreds of civil government employees.”

TAREQ S. HAJJAJ  APRIL 11, 2024 

[hylaversicolor]

recommend reading The stories I never wanted to write and Their lives came into my own, and Israel killed them. These are some of their stories. by Tareq S. Hajjaj

[educatinggenocide]

"The shocking inhumanity of Israel’s crimes in Gaza", Tareq S. Hajjaj.

[disruptiveempathy]

Accompanied by the perpetual Israeli statements promising that the army would invade Rafah soon, the past few weeks served to terrorize the civilian population in Rafah. Thousands began to flee back up north, heading towards the cities and refugee camps of central Gaza. The campaign of forced displacement has been caught on camera for all to see, repeated again and again throughout the war. But the difference during this most recent campaign is that there is nowhere to flee. Wide swathes of central Gaza have been leveled and converted into an open field for the Israeli army’s operations.

—Tareq S. Hajjaj, from "Fleeing Rafah," in Mondoweiss

[they-want-my-toes]

The writing of Tareq S. Hajjaj on the genocide of Palestinians in Gaza. He is reporting about how he doesn’t know if this is his last report, if he will survive the day, the night. His wife fears for his life when he walks into the streets of Gaza in his PRESS vest, but his home is just as unsafe as the streets. People are being killed not only in the streets, but also in their homes. At least in the streets he can spread was is happening to him and other Palestinians.

“For an occupying power, I might pose more of a danger to Israel than a fighter.

The fighters may die, and their journey will end, but as a writer, my stories can last forever,” Tareq S. Hajjaj.

This is an ethnic-cleansing, a genocide of the Palestinian people. They have been occupied and tormented for 75 years by the state of Israel. Do not ask me to condemn the actions of Hamas when Israel is the oppressor. Palestinians are without food, water, or electricity. Their children are being killed, hospitals bombed, entire family trees lost, do not tell them not to fight back. They were throwing stones for that is the only weapon they had.

“Some people want to criticize the table manners of a starving person. You don't criticize the table manners of a starving person, you let them eat, right? You want to talk about, 'Well, they shouldn't be doing things this way or they should be doing things that way.' All right, get your boot off my neck, and then we'll talk, right?” Tom Facchine.

https://href.li/?https://mondoweiss.net/2023/10/this-could-be-my-last-report-from-gaza/

[sangcore]

"Keep my stories alive so that you keep me alive. Remember that I wanted a normal life, a small home full of my children’s laughter and the smell of my wife’s cooking. Remember that the world that pretended to be the savior of humanity participated in killing such a small dream" - Tareq S. Hajjaj

[fiercynn]

The war strips us of everything that makes us human; we aren’t able to mourn our dead, and we can’t say goodbye to them. People are killed and buried in mass graves far from their loved ones. Authorities have been forced to dig huge ditches for the slain — killed together, buried together. Hundreds of them are entombed together without identification, the brutal nature of their deaths leaving them disfigured beyond recognition. For many, little remains of them but pieces of flesh that are collected in a white shroud and buried with the rest. Every day feels like the next, unending and weighing heavily on the heart. Sometimes, I feel that the end times might look better. To start your day every day by hearing that 500 to 600 people were killed is not normal. What’s even worse is to hear their stories. To report on the death of a person or the demolition of a home has now become old-fashioned. Today, we’re dealing in bulk: mass killings, leveled neighborhoods, a few hundred people massacred in a mosque or a school or a church. Nowhere is sacred enough to be off-limits. [x]

tareq s. hajjaj for mondoweiss on october 22, 2023

[drsonnet]

Dear God, I only ask you one thing, just keep me alive so I can see my son growing old. I badly want that. Dear god, do not let him face this tough world without his parents! Please! Tareq S. Hajjaj.. #Gaza