Haifaa Younis – Saving Gaza Victims – A First-Hand Account of Experience in Gaza
AI: Summary ©
A physician shares his journey from the US to Egypt, including his experience with the coronavirus and lack of social interaction. He also talks about his experiences with the pandemic and how it has affected his personal life. A woman recites a Quran and refuses to go out, leading to a scene where she refuses to go out again. She emphasizes the importance of wake-up, not being infected, and the need to change her behavior to be ready for life events. She also talks about her desire to become a doctor and her desire to change her future.AI: Transcript ©
For coming, and
I second
doctor Sanahu what he said. Actually, this just
came out
literally we're back and then again on the
group, very active group and very passionate group,
which which is surprising to me as a
physician now.
And then this all came up.
This is the 4th time I speak about
it since I landed
in the United States. I did a podcast
on Friday with Sheikh Hamus alayman, and then
I did
in Dallas at night. The masjid was packed.
They said it is like Ramadan.
I can't tell you. There was no chairs.
Everybody was on the floor.
Where do I start?
The verse that came to my mind, and
I don't know why, but just came to
my I thought you will say it, but
I'm like, you didn't.
This is an oh, this is in,
the cow.
And many of you probably very familiar with
this. It's
way different, exactly what you just said, when
you read
and when you live it.
And I'm not talking about the people of
Gaza.
I lived it
and you lived it. We were just talking
about the drive and I'll take you through
that.
Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala said the following,
It's gonna happen.
For those of you who know Arabic. This
is a stressed Allah used 2 tools to
stress the point.
And this is Allah, not you and me.
You will be tested.
Don't think about anything else. You will be.
Like, by what?
A little bit.
Could be all of them, could be one
of them, could be 3, could be 4.
Fear.
Hunger.
And you're gonna be losing
some of lives,
meaning people I know you know. What's the?
Your business,
your corpse, your vegetation.
Did I live this? And I'm not talking
about the people of Gaza. Today, I'm gonna
share to you me
and us
what we felt and not as a physician.
Subhanallah for some reason Allah did not want
me to work full fledged physician
for security reasons and hospital reasons till the
last day. Last day, I delivered 2 babies.
Well, how did I deliver them? We'll talk
about it at the end.
When Allah subhanahu wa'ala
say he will, he will.
Never ever ask Allah to test you.
Never.
Leave it.
And he's testing us as we speak here,
but we don't look at comfort as a
test.
We don't look at hunger or
eating too much as a test. Both are
tests.
So where did we live?
We will be tested. I'll take you through
the journey, the one that I didn't share
on Tuesday.
And I was planning not to speak about
it at all, but I think it's a
good lesson for everybody. So we arrived as
we left the double door. On the left
side, you will see a beautiful
sign, Inraj says Gaza.
One of the most joyful moment of my
life.
I never believed
I will be there because I always have
been blessed, have been to Palestine
many times. Every time I wanna go to
Azza, and every time they tell me you
can't, security
reasons, security reasons. But when Allah wants something,
he'll move you
and put you. How I ended up there,
that's a different story.
2 days before, I didn't know I was
going.
And then the day we arrived to Egypt,
the organizer texted me and says, you may
be not allowed.
Don't be surprised.
16 hours of drive,
we arrived,
you come out.
And what do you see? A lot of
trucks, all food. And we were waiting for
about at least 2 or 3 hours getting
our luggage out.
So it was Ma'arib
and we were fasting.
These are the last 10 days of Ramadan.
Everybody was fasting.
Everybody, not us, everybody, including the people of
Gaza. Suddenly, I turn and I hear someone
is reciting
Quran.
And he was reciting
Ayatul Kursi, young man, the norm in Gaza.
Everybody knows Quran.
It's something
not like school of,
not like the people who go to the
Masjid.
Everyone. You go you walk in
the hospital and people are holding Quran and
reading or the whoever was read leading salah,
they read very well, and all of them
are ordinary people. Oh, wait.
It's getting dark, and we were told
we had a a long meeting with the
UN. It's like avoid driving in the night
and avoid going out in the night. We
had no option
because our luggage didn't come out.
So I get into the car.
And by the time there was streets,
okay, but then it became dark.
And by Allah, I had a feeling something
is gonna happen all the way because it
was so dark.
There was no streets, and the driver and
we don't know where are we going. We
had no idea. There's no GPS.
Right? And then he goes right, and then
2 seconds, he go left.
Another 2 seconds he goes another again,
left or right. There's no straight.
And it is absolutely anything but a road.
It's all bumps up and down, and there
was something in the air
so scary.
And I didn't remember, but yesterday in Dallas,
doctor reminded me, he said, doctor Ife, I
don't remember. You said, hey, people
say
So if we die,
at least we die on the shahada. But
amazingly
what Allah gave us, you said it and
I felt it,
we felt asleep.
And I remember a verse in Surat Alaihi
Imran, Allah says
He talked about the people in
Badr when they were scared. Allah made them
sleep.
Like a like a a short nap.
We all did it.
And then we arrived
to the hospital. Just to tell you,
1 hour after we arrived,
the World Kitchen
victims arrived.
They arrived dead
to the ER.
They took exactly the same road
we took, but Allah decided for us
to come back.
But this was fear.
None of us here, wherever you you say,
you will feel this feeling.
And then we lived for 8 days with
this sound,
247.
There they call it a in the Arabic,
something that keeps
bugging you. Like like you have a
a bug
close to your ear and keeps and it's
so annoying.
But look at the people of Gaza.
They look at me and says, the Torah,
if you hear it smile.
And I said smile? They said yes
because if you hear it there is no
bombing.
Get scared when you don't hear it.
And by Allah the first two days me
and doctor Rahana was with me in the
room when we were praying.
It's Ramadan. It's the last 10 nights.
And then
I I say she
looks at me and I know what she
will say. She said it's quiet.
There's no.
Then we learned
also from the people of Gaza, look at
us, we are coming to help them.
They looked at me and
says, don't worry, you know, then you start
hearing the bombings.
And they said, don't worry.
And I was like, yeah, Allah,
don't
worry. And they said, if you hear it,
you are alive.
And if you hear it, it's not coming
to you.
And I said, what does that mean? They
said, when it comes to you, you will
not hear it.
Either you will be dead or something is
gonna fall on your head.
And they say the way
no. I'm I'm speaking to you and I
they say it as if they are telling
you a story about somebody else.
Hunger, hungry,
may Allah forgive us.
And we were better than the people before
us because when we arrived, the World Kitchen,
tragedy happened, so they allowed more food.
But the first two days 1st day, they
gave us cans. I have a picture of
it. I don't know if we are gonna
do the, presentation.
And I ate it because we were hungry.
And they gave us us because we are
physician coming,
the they call us, the delegation.
This is how they call us. So they
gave us bread,
and I took 3 bites,
and my stomach could not take it.
And said, you Allah, please forgive me, the
spoiled woman coming from America.
They lived on this
from October 7.
The people in the north, they don't even
have that.
The the north is a different story.
No. We were in the middle, not in
the south, not in Rafa. We're in Deir
Beleha.
2 days later,
what is eggs for us?
I saw it.
And I looked at and I said, do
you see eggs?
She said, it is eggs.
I ran down,
bought 4 eggs
for 11
shekels,
2 and a half dollars.
4.
I took a picture of it,
and the nurse came to me and says,
doctor Rahifa, you want us to boil it?
I said, can you? She said, yeah. We
can. From nothing, they make everything.
You know what really impressed me?
I did not hear a word of complaint.
I talk to a lot of people. I
speak Arabic.
By Allah, the only word I heard,
one nurse looked at me between me and
says,
we're tired.
It's been too long. She looked at me
and said, 6 months,
That's the only one.
You see 8 year old. Remember his name?
The one the 8 year who pushed the
the patient's,
beds.
What was his name? In scrubs.
Zakaria.
I see Zakaria
so
energetic,
wearing scrubs,
pushing patients'
beds.
Last day, I had to talk to Zakaria.
So Zakaria,
what are you doing?
They talk to you. They are men.
8 year old is a man.
Well, why? He looked at me and he
said, I'm pushing patients' beds. I'm helping them
because I wanna be orthopedic surgeon.
Now what is Zakaria?
He has nobody.
All his family are dead completely.
1
by himself.
What future?
Nobody worried about the college they're gonna go
to. There's no college. It's gone.
But they didn't complain about it. Look at
and what I my goal today
is not only to share the stories,
but I want us to wake up. Not
to only to do something as both of
you eloquently said it, but I think we
need
to appreciate what we have number 1 and
we need to change.
We need to change as a Muslim.
You know, there's a verse in Surah Al
Amfal, it scares me to death.
Beware of a test
that is not going to affect only the
wrongdoers.
It will affect everybody.
If anybody,
bystanders
should not be tested is the people of
Gaza.
8
days and 2 days of travel,
I have not seen a woman not covered.
One of them looked at me and she
said,
this is we sleep and we wake up
with this.
And I thought because they don't have anything
to wear, she as if she read me
and she said, so if we
die, we die covered.
They talk about death
like you and I talk about what we're
gonna have for dinner.
One woman, she told me a long story.
We're gonna put it I took her permission.
We're gonna put it online.
And she was in the north, moved from
one house to the other, one house to
the other. Long story in Shefa Hospital. They
were bombarded that
the soldiers came in, took her husband and
son on the side. Please forgive me. Strip
them off in front of their 11 year
old boy. She left. They say, you go,
walked. Long story.
After she sang everything, she looked at me.
You, Allah. I was I was about to
cry, but I just held myself because she
is if anybody needs to cry and sad
it's her. She looked at me and says,
you know what?
I said
what? We don't live for this life.
She said, I always lived for akhira, not
now because Allah took away from them. Says,
I live for akhira.
This is
This life will end one day for all
of us. Her 11 year old in front
of her.
And then she looked at me and she
said,
you look like that you have Quran in
your heart. I don't know the woman. She
doesn't know me. She doesn't have Internet, so
she doesn't know me.
I'll see you in Jannah.
By Allah, that's what she said.
Then her 11 year old looked at me.
11 year old
walked the soldiers,
and she said 9 days we lived.
Me, my son, my 2 daughters. I said,
what did you eat in the north, in
the shifa?
She's actually, not in the shifa. They were
in a house of a Christian man who
was
staying in the church, and he said, you
use my house.
She said there was nothing in that house
except,
one bag of sugar,
and there was some water.
9 days, whenever they say they are hungry,
this is what she do. She said, I
give them a little bit of sugar.
Sugar.
So I looked at the son that's sitting
in front of her,
and I don't remember his name, subhanallah. I
put it he was the one who recites
Quran.
And I and and I said, how was
it?
They speak to you. And he said,
it was hard. He was saying in Arabic,
it was hard. And then his mother said,
tell her about what did you do when
you saw the tank
tank.
He said there was a a little bit
of it, like, a a a a an
area which is a little bit up. My
mom went and we saw the soldiers.
You're talking about Israeli soldiers.
Mom went up. She was asking them for
food, so I followed her. And then I
saw the tank. I wanted to see what
is in the tank.
The tank was open.
So he jumped on the tank,
and he looked and he said, what's that?
I looked. I said, what happened? He said,
the 2 soldiers went back and they were
scared.
Voila.
And I said,
why aren't you scared?
I said, no.
Why do I wanna be? They are scared
from us.
11 year old,
where are they living?
So they moved. They had a house.
They moved them to another house, a house
that's on the north. Shifa
walked 11 kilos, got to here.
Now she showed me. We visited them. This
was outside the hospital,
another camp.
A tent that normally
3, 4, 4 will be tight. 11 people
in that network.
11 people.
She hasn't seen her husband. She was told
he was released,
but they don't know.
And she said, I told them she's
I told them we're civilians.
She speaks very well.
I told them in in the Arabic I'm
translating to you, she said, we're civilians. Why
you're doing this to us? She's talking to
the to the Israelis.
And I said, what do you think is
gonna happen?
Whatever Allah
will give us.
My point,
I don't want this to be stories
we're gonna feel and then we go home
and life goes back.
I asked everybody I spoke to, what do
you want from us?
I felt I didn't do much. Like, masha'Allah,
you did a lot, you surgeries. I just
felt I didn't do much.
So I I used to say, please forgive
me. I didn't do much. You know what
they said to us? The fact you are
here,
tell us you care about us. People some
people care about us. They know what is
going on in the world. Some people care
about us. And I said, what do you
want me to take with me home
when I go back? What do you want
me to tell people in America?
Tell them. And I'm telling you because that's
an.
Tell them.
Don't forget us
and fight for us.
Fight for them.
Yes, Kufi.
Yes, protest.
Speak.
Speak up. Don't be shy.
Don't say
it is not me.
One of the verses in the Quran that
also scares me when I was seeing all
this, Allah said
it, These days we change it between people.
And I kept saying, you Allah,
it is not me
because I don't know if it is me,
what I will do,
what will happen.
SubhanAllah.
Then look at the other beautiful side. When
food starts coming,
there was a young man you both know
who said, my mom sent her salaam,
and she has to cook for you.
It was me and the physician. And I
said, jazaakumullah
hir, what do you cook for us?
We have to.
And he said, what do you want the
Palestinian food?
And I said, what is the Palestinian food?
You tell me.
I don't know. There's some Palestinians here. He
said,
was 2 more things.
Mahlubbe,
exactly, there was a one more one with
a chicken.
Mahtui,
I think.
And I I looked at Henga, and I
said, which one you want with the bread
or with without the bread? She said, no.
Let's have bread.
Because we didn't have bread since day 1,
and this is day 6 now.
Yeah. This is Monday. Tuesday, we were they
were moving us to the south.
The young man comes in with his cousin.
The the young man is a 2nd year
resident,
and there is no more residency.
Nothing.
The Aqsa Bailey was working.
Shifa, where everybody was. Shifa was like the
biggest
complex. It's not a hospital. It's a complex.
Most of these people were there.
So he comes in,
the generosity
of the people.
And I always wondered if this is me,
what will I do? He I took pictures
of all of it. He brought the best
msukhanev ever had in my life
with salad.
So I looked and I said, where did
this come from?
He said, we called everybody in the family.
This person had flour, little bit, this person
has this little bit, this person has this
little bit, and we made it all together.
They don't have electricity.
I said, where did you cook this?
We can manage.
Smiling, and this man has no future.
We had a long discussion. He speaks amazing
English.
One of the things he said that hit
me. I said, what how are you feeling?
He said, we don't have time to mourn.
Every person I spoke to has at least
5 to 10 people of his family are
gone. Gone meaning they know they are dead.
The missings this is another story.
They say we don't have time to mourn
now. We are in a survivor mode.
Survivor mode.
What I wanna tell everybody here,
it's time to be grateful,
and it is time to change.
We all are living
very good life, very good life. What do
we worry about? Where are we gonna go
for vacation? And what is gonna happen in
the summer?
But we need to change
our focus and what do you wanna do
in life before Allah tests us.
As I was walking around and seeing, especially
when we went into the European, the last
day before we left in the south in
Rafah,
there is a big tent. They looked at
me and says, hadi tent till Quran. I
said, what does that mean? And now since
there's no schools, everybody in this campus, in
this hospital, we bring them here, review the
Quran, learn the Quran, memorize the Quran.
One thing I wanna say to everyone as
I was reflecting,
the response of the people of Gaza is
amazing, we all agreed on that. And non
Muslims before Muslims are saying this.
But you know what?
It didn't happen in a day.
They lived
they lived Islam.
They lived Islam. They lived the Quran. Abdullahi,
you both know, who was leading us for
Isha, for taweeh,
and for tahajjud.
And the last day, I used to tease
him because if he make a mistake, I
come back. I was like, Abdullahi, I said,
I know
it was. He was 23 year old. The
last day as we were leaving, it was
so painful,
you Allah.
And I said, Abdullah,
He said, I am not a.
Then he looked at me and says, I
am from the special hafal.
And I said, what does that mean? He
said,
when you finish the Quran, memorize
this group of people who will go and
read the whole Quran from memory to their
teacher in one day.
And I said, how long it took you?
He said, me, I was a little bit
longer because my head was not 100%. I
said, how long it took you? He Said
from 8 to 4.
8 AM to 4 PM. Normally, it's 8
to 2.
When I
Allah said this in Suratul Ahazab.
From among the people, meaning the Sahaba, this
this actually was revealed because the Sahabi wanted
to to be martyred,
and Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala revealed it after
he was killed.
When I am ready
to meet Allah
and I work in my life
to be ready to meet Allah. When the
test comes in, I'm ready.
I'm
ready. They talk about martyrs martyrdom
and
death like you and me talk about vacation.
Points for us. Yes. Don't forget them. Work
for us. Talk about talk especially to the
non Muslims.
They need to know. They just don't know.
When I went to the 1st day to
the hospital and I said, doctor Yunus, where
were you? This is 6 weeks. I said,
oh, it's the holy month, and guess where
I was. And where were you? I said,
half of the nurses didn't know what is
that.
One of one of the reasons is me,
my fault.
Talk about it,
feel it,
make Dua. But the most important thing for
me, why did Allah took me and doctor
Jawad and brother Omar to
bring back?
We need to get ready.
We need to change.
And you please forgive me. Enough is enough.
And how many homes or how many jewelry
or how many cars or how many or
how many or how many times you go
out to eat, or
we need to change, we need to wake
up. There is big things is happening,
and we need to be ready. And if
Allah Subhanahu Wa Ta'ala will test me not
with this, with anything, I'm ready.
And that's personally, that's what I learned from
the people of Gaza. And the last thing,
I don't wanna take too long time, many
people asked me, will you go back?
And I'm gonna say what the nurse told
Anderson Cooper,
if you remember that interview,
with a heartbeat.
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