– English Lyrics

Lyrics & Translation

[English]

This is Gaza

after two years of war

Homes

schools

In this special report we take stock of

the human cost of this war

how much aid is getting through

The scale of destruction to buildings and food production

And how hospitals are surviving

The war started on October 7th 2023

after Hamas attacked Israel,

killing about 1200 people and taking 251 hostages

47 remain in captivity, with 20 believed to be alive.

In response, Israel launched a massive military campaign,

saying its aim was to destroy Hamas and bring the hostages home

The human toll of the war has been enormous

According to Gaza’s Health ministry,

more than 60 thousand people have been killed

as of the start of September.

The ministry does not distinguish between fighters and civilians

but it says 30% were children and 16% were women.

Israel says this death toll can’t be trusted

because the health ministry’s is run by Hamas,

but their figures were seen as reliable

by the UN in previous conflicts.

Counting the number of dead in a war zone

with bodies buried under the rubble is difficult

The Lancet the respected medical journal

analysed the Health Ministry’s figures and estimates

the real death toll is 40 percent higher

and it says most of the dead were women, children and the elderly.

Now international attention is focusing on hunger and malnutrition in Gaza.

UN-backed experts that monitor global hunger the IPC

say famine has been confirmed in northern Gaza and is expanding

In a new report released in late August.

It says half a million are facing starvation and death.

And a more than hundred thousand children are threatened by malnutrition

Israel called the report false and biased.

The IPC rejected the allegations

More than a hundred aid agencies have issued a joint statement

warning that people in Gaza are wasting away as mass starvation spreads.

and the world heath ogranization says

what is happening is "man-made mass starvation".

“I lost a five-year-old son,

his name is Naim Ibrahim al-Najjar,

I can send you his pictures,

so you see how he was and how he ended up and how his bones wasted away.

For those who say there is no famine here are lying,

let them come and see

Aid agencies say this is happening because of the lack of food getting into Gaza.

Before the conflict started,

the UN says Gaza was receiving an average of about 500 truckloads of aid each day.

In the first 16 months of the war,

the UN says that average dropped dramatically to around 116 trucks a day.

and in the 2 month period after the US and Israeli-backed Gaza Humanitarian Foundation took over,

in May, that number went down to an average of 60 a day, according to Israeli figures.

according to Israeli figures.

That's a massive drop of 88 percent

compared what was coming in to Gaza before the war

The Gaza Humanitarian Foundation has only four sites.

They are located in militarised zones.

Palestinians must travel long, risky distances to reach them.

Since late May, the UN has recorded at least 1000 Palestinians killed

near GHF sites while trying to get food

The UN says the majority killed were shot by Israeli troops.

Israel denies that

Global experts and aid agencies warned of a looming famine earlier this year,

after Israel completely cut off supplies to Gaza at the start of March.

That total aid blockade lasted almost three months.

Israel said it was putting pressure on Hamas to release its hostages

and insisted there was enough food inside Gaza.

In late July additional truckloads of food entered Gaza

after Israel promised to open more aid routes

but humanitarian agencies warned vast amounts more are needed to stop starvation.

The aid agencies say the scale the destruction

and the displacement of Gaza’s population

makes distributing whatever aid gets in extremely difficult.

There are a hundred thousand children suffering from severe food insecurity,

and they need immediate intervention, whether with nutritional supplements or medicines,

so that we can stop the deterioration.

And here we stress that the destruction we have witnessed means

we will be in a state of emergency humanitarian response

in terms of shelter for a long time.

Let's take a look at what a satellite map shows us about the scale of destruction.

The red dots show the extent of damage,

according to an analysis by satellite data experts at Oregon State University.

The scale of destruction can be seen increasing over time.

They estimate the percentage of buildings destroyed

or damaged in the Gaza Strip is nearly sixty percent.

Other estimates put that figure higher

the UN says 92% of homes have been destroyed

Aerial pictures of places in Gaza before and after the conflict began

can also help us understand how bad the destruction has been.

On the left, is drone footage of Gaza City before the conflict

and on the right, is what it looked like in January this year.

And this is what the centre of Khan Younis looked like before

and after the bombardment began.

Israel has demolished thousands of buildings across Gaza

since it withdrew from a ceasefire with Hamas in March.

Entire towns and suburbs once home to hundreds of thousands of people

have recently been levelled

Satellite images we’ve analysed show that

massive amounts of destruction has occurred in several areas under Israeli control

Israeli forces have carried out controlled demolitions on tower blocks,

schools and medical centres.

An Israeli Defense Forces spokesperson said

it operated in accordance with international law that Hamas concealed "military assets" in civilian areas,

and that the "destruction of property is only performed when an imperative military necessity is demanded".

Israel destroyed more buildings in northern Gaza earlier September.

This was ahead of its Gaza City ground offensive,

claiming the city was a Hamas base.

But some experts and military historians say the intensity of the destruction

and percentage of the population that’s died

is worse than any conflict since World War 2.

The only meaningful comparison of Gaza today is World War 2.

And before Gaza Germany

the bombing and invasion of Germany ranked as

The worst civilian punishment campaign by a western democracy was

killed about 3 percent of the German population.

Today the bombing and invasion of Gaza has killed

between 3 and 5 percent of the population of Gaza.

The bombing has left Gaza’s health care system on the verge of collapse.

According to the World Health Organization:

only 18 of Gaza’s 36 major hospitals are open

and they are described as only partially operational

because they’ve suffered serious damage.

This is Nasser Hospital

It came under Israeli fire on August the 25.

At least 20 people were killed, including five journalists.

The attack drew international condemnation.

Israel say it was targeting a camera operated by Hamas,

but it didn’t provide any evidence

Before the attack hundreds of thousands of people depend on it.

the last major partially-functioning hospital in southern Gaza.

But doctors here say it's reached its breaking point.

They say the hospital is completely overwhelmed with mass casualties,

and struggling to cope with shortages of fuel, beds, medication, staff, and food.

The situation is very similar at al-Aqsa Martyrs hospital

which last month treated a large number of children injured in an Israeli strike

while they were queuing for nutritional supplements.

Doctors say shortages of essential medicine and equipment is now critical

with not enough painkillers or even bandages.

We are focusing on life-saving operations whilst postponing the rest.

Of course, delays in some cases lead to the condition of the affected patients to get worse,

and we may end up losing some of them.

The war has also affected Gaza’s food production,

which has been nearly wiped out.

Although Gaza was dependent of food aid before the war,

a substantial amount of its food came from farming and agriculture inside Gaza.

The Palestinian Bureau of Statistics says

44% of the agricultural commodities people consumed before the war came from local production.

Satellite pictures of farmland taken before the conflict

and more recently show how badly agriculture has been hit.

We showed them to three agricultural experts.

All of them agreed the images show agricultural production

in this key farmland area has been devastated.

And that the land has probably sustained longterm damage.

The UN says 86% of Gaza's farmland has been damaged

and less than 2% of it now Is accessible to farmers

Agriculture has also been hurt by the enormous damage to water systems.

UNICEF says that - as of June only 40% of Gaza’s drinking water infrastructure remained functional.

So many of the things vital to communities and Gazan society lie in ruins.

One other way of illustrating the destruction

is a night-time satellite view of the lights of Gaza

before the conflict

and after it began.

Two years of intense bombardment

has severely darkened life for the people of Gaza.

Key Vocabulary

Vocabulary	Meanings
war /wɔːr/ A1	noun - a state of armed conflict between different countries or groups within a nation
destroy /dɪˈstrɔɪ/ A2	verb - to damage something so badly that it no longer exists or cannot be repaired
hostage /ˈhɒstɪdʒ/ B1	noun - a person held prisoner by a captor in order to compel others to act in a certain way
famine /ˈfæmɪn/ B1	noun - extreme scarcity of food, leading to widespread hunger and death
malnutrition /ˌmælnuːˈtrɪʃən/ B2	noun - a condition caused by not having enough food or not having the right type of food
starvation /stɑːˈveɪʃən/ B2	noun - the state of extreme hunger resulting from lack of food
destruction /dɪˈstrʌkʃən/ B1	noun - the act of destroying or the state of being destroyed
displacement /dɪsˈpleɪsmənt/ C1	noun - the forced removal of people from their homes or land
bombardment /bɒmˈbɑːdmənt/ B2	noun - an attack by military forces using bombs or artillery
collapse /kəˈlæps/ B1	verb - to fall down suddenly or cease to function
humanitarian /ˌhjuːməˈnɪtɛriən/ C1	adjective - relating to or meant to help people who are suffering from war, poverty, or natural disasters
devastated /ˈdevəsteɪtɪd/ B2	adjective - completely destroyed or severely damaged
casualty /ˈkæʒuəlti/ B2	noun - a person killed or injured in a war or accident
infrastructure /ˈɪnfrəstrʌktʃər/ C1	noun - the basic physical and organizational structures needed for the operation of a society or enterprise
blockade /blɒkeɪd/ B2	noun - the isolation of a place by hostile forces to cut off food, supplies, etc.
intervention /ˌɪntərˈvɛnʃən/ C1	noun - the action of interfering in a situation to improve it or prevent it from escalating