Listen to the audio:
When I received my assignment to report on the humanitarian crisis in Gaza for the September edition of ONE, I knew that the conversations I would have, the people I would meet, would break my heart. Their grief and their suffering proved me right. It is a cruel dichotomy to listen to their stories of unimaginable loss while simultaneously reading of aid trucks sitting just out of reach, of shootings at distribution sites.
One story has remained particularly vivid in my mind since it was first recounted to me by Hani Farah, the former executive secretary general of the Y.M.C.A. in Gaza City who fled to Egypt in April 2024 with his wife and children.
Hani told me of his aunt, Elham Farah, a vibrant 84-year-old woman who was Gaza’s first music teacher. In November 2023, she decided to leave Holy Family Catholic Church, where she was taking shelter, to make a brief trip back to her house, where she planned to shower and pack some warmer clothes. But she only made it a short distance from the church before a sniper shot her in the leg, and she fell to the ground. Hani told me that she called him, in pain from the wound, begging him for help. He wasn’t nearby, though, and no one could get to her. He knew of a doctor just 15 meters (50 feet) away and told her if she could only get to the doctor, she would be okay. She said she could not walk, could not even crawl the 15 meters to help. And so, she laid in the street for hours, until she was eventually crushed by a tank and killed.
I have thought of Elham often since Hani told me this story, and I have thought of how many more stories like hers exist and how many more loved ones are left to mourn.
Elham’s story is ripe with tragedy, perhaps one of the greatest of all being that help was just out of reach. Hers is a poignant reminder that aid — whether it is medical assistance, food or water — is only as useful as its accessibility allows, a point made all the more apparent as prices rise, availability dwindles and people starve.
My article delves into the humanitarian crisis and famine in Gaza. Hear more from Hani and others living through this war in the latest edition of ONE.
Read the cover story, “It Is Famine,” by Olivia Poust in the September issue of ONE.