Haifaa Younis – Stories from Gaza – What It’s Actually Like There
AI: Summary ©
The speaker describes a doctor who called a patient to ask for permission to use their picture on a group in Southern California, and shares their experience of being in the hospital and praying for her victory. They also discuss a woman in their room reciting the Bible and a woman in their family's minds who experienced dissatisfaction with a male's actions. The speaker encourages people to apologize for their mistakes and reminds them to talk about their experiences.AI: Transcript ©
I'm completely different than,
doctor, actually.
I bugged people to go,
Honestly, since I learned there was physicians going,
I don't know how many applications I filled.
For some reason, Allah didn't want it to
happen.
And then I was going to Umrah and
in the plane, I was filling application. My
friend says, this is gonna happen.
And 10 days, nobody answered me. Then I
made the dua, and that's the first thing
I want everybody
to really know. And I'm not saying this
bragging.
But when you really want something from Allah
and you are wanting it only for
him, he opened it. Suddenly, I remembered. I
was in Mecca. I was also in Umrah.
The last 10 days of Ramadan is my
only vacation the whole year, and I booked
it and I paid and everything.
And then I remember there was a physician
from Canada where somebody put her picture on
a group that we have in Southern California
and says doctor Elvie went.
So I texted the I texted her.
And I don't know the woman, and she
said, doctor Hayford, do you really wanna go?
And I said, yes. I do. She said,
we can't get you on the April 1st
because it's full. We'll get you on 15.
I said, I can do the 15. I
work. I'm back on 15. She said, let
me see. We have to get a lot
of there's a lot of approvals you have
to go. And you're talking here I think
we were like day 12 or 13 of
Ramallah.
Long story short, she said, yes. You are
going, but that doesn't mean anything
because you can easily get to Cairo, and
then they will deny you. I said, fine.
I'm completely opposite everybody. I didn't tell anyone.
I told only 1
3 people. 1 of them was actually a
person who I said, if I don't come
back, Jannah Institute will be
for you.
And I didn't tell my family because they
will go crazy, and I didn't see anybody.
I took all this. I didn't, post anything
when I was there.
And if I can have the slides, because
I want you to read the first thing
that I put in this slide. I have
a lot of much longer, but I just
made it as short as possible. This was
supposed to be a medical mission,
but it was not a medical mission. It
was anything but a medical mission.
The first thing you see here is April
1st is when we actually enter Gaza,
and that day will be with me till
the day I leave this world.
Nothing like
the feeling when you enter Gaza, and this
is what you see.
If I have I think I have to
move. Please forgive me. Am I? The
next. Yes. The next. Yes. This is what
you see. As you come out from the
immigration from Gaza, you you look and you
see and this is exactly what is I
love Gaza.
Right? We reached there about 5 o'clock, if
I remember, and we left the
hotel in
Cairo at 4 AM.
But we didn't leave till after Maghrib.
And Allah had a reason because we could
be the people that were bombed. SubhanAllah. We're
the last people to leave that.
And the beauty of it and I have
a video, but again, because of the time
that as we were there
and suddenly I hear somebody reading Quran, if
you remember,
the young man who was reading Al Ait,
of course. This is something
norm in Gaza.
Everybody reads Quran beautifully,
young and old. You don't ask people, are
you a hafel?
Literally, it's an insult
because they will look at you and says
5 of that, 10. Oh, I'm not yet
a hafl. Oh, I'm not only a hafl.
You remember, Abdullah,
on the software, on the special one. As
you enter, as you're going closer to the
hospital, this is what you see.
This is the norm.
Children,
donkey is the main way of transportation,
and children are,
guiding it. And then people are walking.
And then you come in here, and then
what I heard and then I I've never
seen
that you will see that what no eyes
have seen and no,
ear have heard, this is Gaza.
The things you see, whatever words somebody
just asked me, and I said words are
hollow, has no meaning because what you see.
It's the misery, but at the same time,
the resilience.
The the sadness at the same time is
the happiness.
And it's it's amazing, SubhanAllah. And if you
go to the next, and this is especially
for the youth.
If I can get this bigger, remove my
picture because I want you to see. The
one on the left,
will be your right,
the cans.
So we arrived to the hospital at 8
PM.
Where is everybody? They took us to the
administration offices. Where are they?
They all were praying Isha, if you remember,
And we joined. Was it only Isha? Now
you're talking about drones, and any minute we
can get a missile or an f 16.
They did a full.
The amazing is you don't know who's the
imam because every 2 rukaats, somebody go back
and saw another person come to the front.
All of them reading beautifully,
and they were
because they chose from the Quran. They didn't
read like the whole Jews. They picked up
ayaat and every ayah,
the imamrad is related to where they are.
Talk about sabr. Talk about don't despair. Talk
about Allah's victory is coming. It's amazing.
And then they we met them and they
said your
iftar is in the room. So you go
to the room and that's what you get.
It was 3 cans, and we were lucky
because we were physicians.
They actually gave us a piece of bread.
So, of course, I was personally very hungry.
So I ate only the hummus, the the
did you see it open?
And all night, I was thrown up.
And I said, may Allah forgive us.
The spoiled people coming from America, we cannot
even eat this.
And they were living on it.
3 days later,
after the World Kitchen,
they were killed.
Now you start seeing more things coming,
and I couldn't believe when I saw eggs.
3 days later from my window, and I
told doctor Hina was my roommate, I think
I'm seeing eggs. He said, I think so
too.
Run down. I bought 4 eggs
for 10 shekels.
It's almost $3,
4 eggs. And we were wondering how I'm
gonna do the boiled egg.
The
the head nurse, she said, don't worry, doctor.
We can fix it. When I ate the
eggs,
may Allah forgive us.
As if I ate whatever you everyone in
this room loves.
Because before that, we were we were eating
on protein bars 3 days.
Subhanallah.
Now if you go to the next one,
this is one of the memorable moment for
me in that trip.
This is where we prayed
Taraweeh,
and we prayed qiyam. And the qiyam starts
about 12:15, 12:30
till 3, 3:30.
The imam, Abdullah, is 21,
22
reading
amazingly,
fluently,
enjoying it normally. And again, I'm sharing. I'm
not a person who loves
the, the,
dua that everyone does. I love to ask
Allah me except with Abdullah.
The way he was making dua, the way
he was asking Allah, you can tell,
and I'm sure Allah will respond to him.
It's just the timing. We don't know when.
The boy that the young boy on the
left, it's probably on your right side,
that boy his his his, video was viral,
if you remember. There was a video online
where the boy was had a broken arm,
and then they were doing cast, and they
didn't have pain medication, and he was reciting
Quran.
It was that boy.
How did I notice? We were praying and
then this is 1:30 AM under the drones
in a room least to say uncomfortable.
Don't talk about the bathrooms.
And this boy comes in and join
join the man like a young man.
And then, Abdullah finished the turukat,
and this young man run to Abdullah. I
don't know what they were talking. Suddenly, this
boy becomes the imam.
He led us
and then had not done.
Sad looked at us and he start making
an
about Palestine.
What of words? They all speak fluently
excellent
eloquent Arabic.
Those were raised to be leaders.
More than one boy. I I what I
was impressed is by the boys and by
the woman.
Amazing. If you look at the next one,
this is the scene. This is the hospital.
This is actually the door of the
parking. Now it's all tense.
Everything is tense.
If you go to the next one, this
is a video actually.
It's the drone which you also I don't
know if I'm gonna okay. These, pay attention.
These are the bullets
that
they
target
one part of the body, and,
doctor
showed a lot of it. They
target legs,
Subhanallah, legs.
And you see all these, the,
the the bullets.
This is the scene. The next one
is the scene from the ER, and you
lived it.
Literally, the ER is like this room right
now.
If I want to go to see a
patient, I am gonna say, excuse me. Please
excuse me.
Please excuse me. And now you're sitting and
you're comfortable. In between, you see people on
this side,
bleeding. There's gauze on the floor. People are
mourning. There's people who don't know who they
are. It's amazing scene.
I've never seen it in my life.
The impressive thing from everybody, in 8 days
we lived this,
I have never heard a word of complaint.
Only one word, and it is not a
complaint.
And this was actually from the head nurse.
She looked at me, and I said, how
are you feeling? She said, the,
we're tired.
That is
it. For 8 days, this is what we
heard. Doctor, I got day, finally, they allowed
me to go to the, maternity hospital
because the they're aware the maternity hospital was
inside the Shefa. I'm sorry. In inside the
Aqsa, but because of the war, they made
it all trauma center, and they moved all
the deliveries
to this hospital. So the last day, I
was actually fortunate to go.
They used to do 5 deliveries a day.
Now they do 50 delivery a day,
10 c sections per day. I did 2.
Out of patient privacy and, I couldn't put
it.
They don't have they don't have scrubs.
They don't have sheets to cover the patient.
Normally, they bring the instruments,
and then you open the instruments here and
then you throw it. They don't throw it.
That
they cover the patient.
And I said and said, doctor Haifa, what
size gloves you are? And I said,
I'm 5a half. They said, we're sorry. It's
only 7a half.
The instruments they showed me literally needs to
be in the museum.
I understand. And that's how they work. They
take the patients to the recovery room. There
is no monitors.
There's no blood pressure.
Your wife did a c section. They actually
they called us in the middle. Patient was
bleeding. And I said, what is her blood
pressure? They all looked at me.
And I literally did the old way. I
held her pulse and I said her pulse
is fine. She's okay. Just get a fluid
and there is no stance to put fluid.
Somebody was holding the fluid.
Doctor Haifa, in in the last minute, if
I may ask you,
now that you talk about this this particle,
aspect of it, the ladies in Gaza.
The next What's your experience with those ladies
in Gaza? Next slide if I can have
it.
Ladies,
everyone I this is this is one who
really left an impression on me. It's a
long story, but because of the time, I
actually put it on the social media for
those of you who follow.
Ladies,
for 8 days, this is what I saw.
I did not see a hair
in this all 8 days.
Every lady was covered,
young and old.
And they and I and I looked at
them, and one one of them, she said
to me,
so we if we die, we die covered.
I don't know. This is how they talk.
That's number 1. Number 2, they're strong. I
didn't see a woman whining.
Where is your husband?
Martyr. Shuhada, the name is like martyr. Where
is your son? He's still in the north.
Where is your daughter? She went with her
husband to the,
to the south.
They are this is how I feel. Allah
prepared them for this.
Allah knows if it was us,
how we would have responded.
Every woman,
The the
you hear about,
you read about, I did see them with
my own eyes. There
was a woman who I put her picture
after I took her permission.
You enter the hospital on the left on
the right side. Remember?
You all remember because this is where the
you we go where we pray. There was
a small,
literally mattress.
The woman is maybe in her fifties there.
I go in, she's there. I come out.
Finally, I spoke to her, and she said,
I've been living in this for the last
3 months.
Where is your husband? Husband and the son
still in the north with my daughter. What
do you eat? Whatever they give us. Please
forgive me. Where do you go with the
bathroom?
Whatever everybody else goes.
Not a single word of complaint.
Nobody said why me? No. Why us? You
know how this is common for us? No
one.
Subhanallah.
And then this is as we were the
last day they moved us earlier to the
south. Again, they said for security,
this is what we saw.
This is the norm.
On your right, on your left, everything is
destroyed.
And then here,
one of the best memory is the.
The last, maybe 20 years, every,
I'm in Mecca.
Nothing like this.
Nothing like this site. The the mosque, actually,
they told us, don't go. It's very dangerous.
They may attack
because there was a rumor inside the hospital
that the Eid will be.
They throw some, like, brochures saying will be
black. So they told us, don't go.
We went.
And if you pay attention to the window,
the window is shattered.
And then these are the girls coming for
aid.
We gave little bit of chocolate.
Remember? And it was riots,
and we stopped.
And I was like, yeah, Allah, what is
a chocolate?
Let alone if you wanted to give
money. But they were look at the girls.
They were smiling. They were fine. They were
that's how it is. Yeah. You leave the,
and this is what you see.
The norm these kids are alone, they there's
a category
called orphan with no parents. Alone. No parents,
no family by himself.
That's one of the examples. This was in
the European
hospital in the last day,
and this was the last the the this
is a smile.
This is a girl
displaced. She was in the European hospital. She's
an artist,
and she was painting
on the walls of the hospital. And this
one says.
Your real aid is the day you are
victorious.
This is she, and then she showed me
all her portfolio. Says I keep
painting.
This is a displaced girl living in a
tent. I'm glad she has a a piece
of paper and,
a pen, and she was absolutely happy.
And talk,
I asked everybody I met, what do you
want from us?
Actually, I asked if we even do anything.
I mean, you really feel your I am
useless
in front of all this tragedy.
They said, no. Your presence
was the best gift you give us. So
I I second Understood. Anyone can go.
And you know what? People tell me you
went to your death. I said, wherever we
are, we death is gonna come to us.
Humble. If I was supposed to die, I'm
I'm gonna die.
So if you can go, definitely go. And
the second thing they said to me, and
I'm sure to all of you, is talk
about
us. Don't let people forget us. We exist.
And may Allah
make it easy on them.
May
Allah forgive our shortcomings.
I reward you for your for your experience
over there and for being there for our
brothers and sisters as well too. And, what
what a what a, a, a, a privilege
really to to be in the presence of
you guys.
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