Gaza Strip, Palestine — Mohamed el Saife has covered multiple wars in Gaza City “but this time, and for the first time ever, I feel scared” he said, while taking refugee in Khan Younis’ Nasser Complex. El Saife’s home was bombed a few weeks into the deadly Israeli bombardment of Gaza, “I lost everything that I built and everything that I have,” he said.

Mohamed is a Palestinian journalist who has been based in Gaza for the last nine years. He’s been contributing media from the frontlines of Palestinian territories to Unicorn Riot since 2021. El Saife shared his experience having to gather his family and flee from Israeli bombs, watch (Vimeo) and transcript below.

“My name is Mohamed el Saife. I’m a 31 years old video journalist working and based in Gaza City.

Since 2014, I was working as a journalist and a video journalist with several media all around Gaza Strip. I covered [the] 2014 war and I also covered the 2021 war. And I covered multiple escalations and aggressions in Gaza City.

But this time, and for the first time ever, I feel scared.

And I don’t have any words to describe what’s happening in Gaza. IDF warplanes just decided out of nowhere that my neighborhood, which is a residential building, Al Zahra residential buildings is ordered to be totally bombed and flattened to the ground.

I lost my house.

I lost my memories.

I lost everything that I built and everything that I have.

Thank God I didn’t lose any beloved.

I evacuated my family, my belovings, my sisters, my father, all of them just got displaced to the south of Gaza City to Rafah, a place that they never had been to.

This is not a war.

This is not something that we usually cover.

I can’t ever understand what is happening at the moment and what its going to be the night and how it’s going to be tomorrow.

Thankfully, my family is still safe for the moment, but I can’t guarantee anything more because even the south Gaza is indeed under bombardment nonstop. With a majority of massacres and an approximate death every day raised from 350 to 700 citizens. Being bombarded every single night.

I just want to hope one thing here, me and my family to get out all of that just with our own souls and lives.”

Mohammad el Saife – Khan Younis, Nasser (Hospital) Complex.

At least 41 journalists have been killed since Oct. 7. Watch an exclusive view of frontline footage from the first few weeks of the bombardment of Gaza, where we hear directly from some of those impacted – video (Vimeo / YouTube) contributed by Mohamed.

For more from Palestine, see our archives.

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