Bonus: The Global Story - A Gazan journalist's diary

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1:10Hey there, I'm Asma Khalid. And I'm Tristan Redman. And we're here with a bonus episode for you from the Global Story podcast. The world order is shifting. Old alliances are fraying and new ones are emerging. Some of this turbulence can be traced to decisions made in the United States. But the U.S. isn't just a cause of the upheaval. Its politics are also a symptom of it. Every day we focus on one story, looking at how America and the world shape each other. So we hope you enjoy this episode. And to find more of our show, just search for The Global Story, wherever you get your BBC podcasts. It's been a week now since the ceasefire in Gaza was announced.

1:54The bombs have stopped for now. And so we wanted to find out how people in Gaza are feeling now that the initial elation of the ceasefire has passed. And we specifically wanted to know what life has been like for Palestinian journalists who have been living through this war while also covering it these last two years. And so we are going to do something a little different for today's episode. Over the past month, our colleague Hannah Moore, one of the producers on the show, has been calling up Rada Alkourt. She's a freelance journalist from Gaza City, and she's reported for the BBC and other news outlets.

2:30Normally, the BBC would send our foreign correspondents into war zones. But that hasn't been possible in this conflict because the Israeli government has blocked international media from going into Gaza independently. We talked a little bit about this on Monday's episode with the BBC's chief international correspondent, Lise Doucette. The media watchdog groups, the Association of Journalists, including the Foreign Press Association in this country, they've reiterated their demand for journalists to be let in. It's nothing less than heroic what the journalists of Gaza have done. And yet a record number, more than any other war the world has known, the journalists have been killed.

3:14From the BBC, this is The Global Story. And today on the show, a Gazan journalist's diary.

3:30The first time Khadam messages me is on September the 13th. Hello, this is Ghadal Kurda, freelance journalist from Gaza. She's walking through her neighbourhood, Ramal, which is in the west of Gaza City. and I can hear in the background normal everyday life. I can hear people chatting, I can hear car horns beeping but I can also hear drones flying overhead and she says that the Israeli Defence Forces, the IDF, has just carried out an airstrike nearby. She wonders what's going to happen to her city. I'm living this situation days and nights and I'm still here in Gaza And I love this city. I love Gaza.

4:15I love the places where I was born, where I was going to school, where I'm meeting all my friends here. It's a very hard situation here to live under the explosions around the hour. The sounds of these drones is killing us all the time. Whenever you are hearing the drones, it means that you are an unsafe place. Khada's job is dangerous. At least 197 journalists and media workers have been killed in this war in the past two years. That makes it the most deadly conflict for journalists in history, according to the Committee to Protect Journalists. The Israeli government has repeatedly denied that its forces target journalists

5:16By mid-September, the IDF is preparing to invade Gaza City which it claims is now the main stronghold of Hamas It flies over the city, dropping thousands of leaflets telling people to evacuate I watched the videos of the black and white pieces of paper fluttering in the air and the children below running to catch them. Today is the 14th of September, 2025. And I'm going now to the office to do my work. Just moving from my house to the office. What I'm seeing around me, people, they are leaving west of Gaza City, taking their tents to move to the south, as the Israeli army just published evacuation flyers to evacuate immediately.

6:15This is another threat. They are just throwing these flyers every day to oblige the people to leave to the south. When Hamas attacked Israel on October 7th, killing around 1 ,200 people and taking 251 hostage, is set in motion an Israeli government response that would cause hell for Gazan people. At least 67 ,000 people in Gaza have been killed, according to the Hamas-run health ministry. Most of them civilians, more than 18 ,000 of them children. Reporting on this conflict means Fahada interviewing the people she lives beside in her community. community, people who were struggling to find food, people who were losing their friends and family.

7:11This morning I wanted to see my neighbour. I used to see them every day, but unfortunately they have decided to flee to the south. I wanted to see Emma. She's 18 and she's married with a young guy who loves her too much, unfortunately. His name is Anand. Anand went to the King Crossing to get some food for his pretty wife, but he got shot and killed. I'm thinking too much of Amal every day. She's pregnant now. I keep thinking of her every day. What will be her future and her baby in these difficult circumstances?

8:15Khadr's also got her own family on her mind. At the start of the war, one of her brothers and his family was killed in an Israeli airstrike in the north. She thinks they're still buried under the rubble. But it hasn't been safe enough to go and check. Her father died around the same time because they couldn't find him the medication or the food he needed. They buried him, but they don't even know if the grave is still there. Now the IDF is starting its ground offensive. On the TV, I'm seeing videos of apartment blocks being blown up. It's amazing how quickly they fall. And they leave these huge clouds of smoke in the air.

9:08This is how Prime Minister Netanyahu explains what the Israeli government's doing. We're not bringing down those towers to intimidate people. Those towers are serving as Hamas strongholds. We ask you to leave. And what is Hamas doing? they're asking them to stay because they want to use them as human shields as they've done from the beginning of the war. But leaving isn't easy. I'm here with my oldest brother and he's sick and he cannot even walk. We didn't find a transportation, a car or anything to take us to the south and I cannot leave him behind me. And yes, I'm still reporting in spite of the airstrike, the explosions around us.

10:00Khada also has two daughters to think about. There's Mira, who's 13, and Fatima, who's 11. She sends them out of the city ahead of her to stay with their dad, her ex-husband, while she stays behind with her brother. Good morning. How are you? On the morning of September 15th, she sends me a photo of her office in Gaza City. The windows are smashed in and there are electricity cables and tiles hanging loose from the ceiling. I have limited access to internet, she writes. Our office is partially destroyed and there is no connection. The IDF has bombed a building right next door. Targeted and all the street, the neighbourhood was partially destroyed.

10:45But we're still here, we're still reporting in spite of all of these circumstances. Over the next few days, Israel's bombardment will force hundreds of thousands of Palestinians from their homes, scrabbling to take what they can along the coastal road heading south. Khada and her brother, who's ill, have been struggling to find somewhere to stay in the south, but someone in her family offers space for him while she'll go and stay with friends. They pay a driver hundreds of dollars to take them what's normally a 20-minute drive. It's 6 p.m. now. It's been like three hours. I'm waiting in the cloud.

11:30And I'm leaving this city. And I think this is forever. Maybe this is the last time I will see Gaza. Destroyed Gaza, my beloved city.

11:46And I don't know what will be the next step of my life. Over the next days, her messages get fewer and shorter. On September the 21st, I just send her a heart emoji. I don't know what to say. September the 22nd. How are you today, Chara? Hi, dear. I'm doing good. The next day, the same message, when we both know that's not true. For the next few days, I hear nothing. On the 27th. Hi Hannah, sorry for not sharing notes. I have limited access to internet. She tells me she's ended up at El Nusrat camp and that the road to get there was so crowded that it took 12 hours. And now she's got to live in a tent.

12:37I'm worried about her and I give her a call. Hello Ghada, can you hear me? Yes, I'm hearing you very well. Where are you just now? I'm inside the cafe, like waiting for your call. It sounds really quiet in there. I'm surprised. Behind me, it's very noisy. Okay. Like the windows are broken because there was a target here. Like they destroyed a building behind me so I can get the noise of the streets. I'm going to go all the time. And you know the tent that you're staying in, what kind of structure is that? Is that a sort of just like a camping tent? It's a camping tent. It's like enough for four people.

13:23And I had to evacuate with my friends. And we have limited access to water. And we just built a manual bathroom. It's just made from covers, from blankets. And yeah. So it's very difficult even for me and for the girls. We are in an open land. So there's just no privacy at all? Nothing, nothing. Everyone knows that when you are going to the bathroom, they can see you. We have to hide behind this bathroom. It's painful, actually, because I'm taking care of my privacy and it keeps me under stress and pressure all the time. Talking to her, I realise that I know quite a lot by now about the daily struggles.

14:16that she's living through. But I don't understand fundamentally what has brought her to this point, why she's reporting on this conflict. And what becomes clear as we carry on talking is that she just loves her job and she loves the place she's from. Before the war started, Khada says she was really happy.

14:39She'd been working as a reporter for about a decade and then she went to Istanbul in Turkey to do a master's degree. Studying abroad is quite unusual for Gazan women. While she was there, her daughters stayed behind with their grandparents. And then when she finished her course, instead of moving the family out of Gaza, she went back. I was very happy to come back to Gaza to see my daughters again, see my family. We were happy to be together all the time, going with them to markets, buying for them lots of toys. And I want to teach them and to raise them. I want them to see me as an idol for them.

15:20This was August 2023. Hamas attacked Israel in October that year. So she only had two months of normality with her daughters before everything changed. She says she's been displaced seven or eight times during the war. And every time she moves, she's got to gain people's trust. When you talk to people, who do they feel angry with? Do they feel angry with Hamas? Do they feel angry with the Israeli government? To be honest, like, they feel angry from everyone. Because before that, there were seven girls. It was very beautiful. And we were having, like, cafes, restaurants, buildings, very modern buildings.

15:59And now, like, yeah, they're playing both Hamas and Israel. They are playing with our life, like, moving from north to the south. Retaining from south to north, then resuming the world in starvation, closing the roads, closing the checkpoints, closing the crossings. She says everything is destroyed. Kids aren't going to school, they're not getting an education. She says that a lot of them are forgetting how to read. There's no social life and nothing to look forward to. I cannot hide. I'm under pressure, under stress. I don't have the ability to start working, actually. I was crying all the day today.

16:39I feel like my brain is full and empty at this time. You know what I'm thinking? All the time I need, I told myself, maybe I need a psychological doctor or something just to talk to him, to express my feelings much better. And I know myself, like I will work, but it will need time. Completely. Are there memories that keep coming back to you, you know, in terms of just trying to keep your spirit up? I'm just all the time. Sometimes I'm just watching some reels on Instagram about Istanbul, where the places where I was living. I'm telling myself I went to this place. I went to this place. I know this place.

17:26and yeah sometimes like I just go back to my childhood where I was living in east of with my parents with my brothers we were living inside big yard surrounded by trees like I want to go back to this time where we were very happy and a very happy family living inside one house and even my daughters were with me and even like something like this. Will you keep me updated if you manage to go and see them? Sure, yes. Yeah, for sure. Thank you. I'm going to let you go because I know you have a lot of things to do and it's a lot to talk about all this stuff. I imagine like emotionally it's really a lot.

18:18You can call me and we can discuss more if you want. Okay, we keep in touch. Inshallah, I hope so.

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20:00When the news of the ceasefire breaks, people across Gaza are celebrating. Playing music in the streets, cheering and crying. I call Khada again, and she sounds hopeful about what this could mean for Gazans. Well, I was expecting that President Donald Trump, that he will achieve something at the end. But it takes time for him. You know, last time it was in January and it was a ceasefire and the second time now. We've been talking here as people, as journalists between each other that it should come to the end, but it would take time. And Gaza needs now, Gaza needs new government and new people and new leaders and new officials that.

20:46will look for a better future for the Palestinian who has been suffering for a long time here in Gaza. But as the days go by, the fractures in the ceasefire are starting to show. I'm recording this on Wednesday afternoon, and at this point, Hamas hasn't returned most of the bodies of the dead hostages to Israel. And Israel, in return, is withholding aid from Gaza. The hundreds of thousands of people displaced by the war, including Khara, have also now got to weigh up whether it's safe to go back to the homes that they left behind, if they're still standing.

21:31Hello? Hi, Khaira. How are you? Hi. I'm good. Yeah? Yes, tired, but good. You've been reporting a lot, right? I've been seeing you on TV. Since the ceasefire, like, I didn't stop. Where are you now? In Nusairat, leaving maybe after, in two hours to Gaza. OK, you're going back to Gaza City? Again, yes. I'm waiting just for the car and I need my friend to come with me also to carry all the luggage that I have. Then we will move to Gaza. Is your brother going back with you as well? No, he's not. He has some work in Dere al-Balah. He told me now he will not be able to come back with me. Actually, I don't want anyone to be with me in the apartment.

22:20I want to be alone, just to relax. That's it. 92 % of the buildings in Gaza City have been destroyed or damaged, according to the United Nations. But Khados found out that her home is still standing. She's comparatively fortunate then to have somewhere to return to. How long she'll be able to stay is a different question. Has your job as a journalist become any easier over the last few days since the ceasefire came into place? No, it was like more heavy. It was heavier for me. I had to report many incidents. I had to make so many interviews. And I'm in this place now in central Gaza and I'm thinking of going back again without electricity, water, without anything.

23:13Being away from my daughters, I could see them twice only during my displacement in one month. I cannot tell you, I cannot describe for you how tired I am now. Yeah, after yesterday covering the news of releasing the hostages and coming back late at night, I couldn't even change my closet. I slept immediately. She's been interviewing some of the families of the prisoners that Israel has released. The release involved about 250 prisoners who'd been convicted of crimes including murder and deadly attacks against Israelis. And about 1 ,700 detainees from Gaza who had been held by Israel without charge.

23:56They just were cheering up and playing summer music and carrying Palestinian flags. Mothers, wives, daughters, they were crying whenever they saw their relatives. It was an emotional day. But amid the celebrations, a lot of confusion, distress and anger. The list of who was going to be released changed several times. Some families waited for hours to find out their brother, father, sister wasn't coming home after all. And at Nasser Hospital, Khadr met people who were expecting to be reunited with their family members and instead were presented with dead bodies. Some of them, they were waiting for their family, but they found like their families completely killed during the war.

24:47So they were actually, there was some kind of sad moments in the yard of Nasser Hospital. Not all of them were happy. Some of them lost all the family members and relatives and friends. They were shocked because they didn't get any information about what was going on in Gaza. Families, they were killed. How have things changed around you? I mean, you know, a lot of the early messages that you sent me, the sound of drones was just this constant in the background. And you were always fearful about bombings, explosions. You couldn't sleep. How have things changed around you in the past few days? We can witness some kind of calmness here, quietness.

25:37There is no airstrikes, no targeting in the streets or even markets. It was very risky to go out even after evening. Now we can't return home late at night. This is the ceasefire. What does it mean for us? The Israeli bombing has paused, but in its place, a new violence. Hamas fighters and rival gangs get into deadly shootouts in the streets. We were afraid some of the gangs will meet us in the roads, at the streets and will ask us to give them whatever we have because there is no security forces in that area, I mean in the eastern area of the Gaza Strip. The BBC has verified video that shows Hamas executing eight people on Monday night.

26:26The it alleges were Israeli collaborators. Israel's previously said that it's supplied weapons to other armed groups in the Strip. Meanwhile, the IDF still controls more than half of Gaza. In the past few days, its soldiers have shot and killed Palestinians who it says crossed the yellow line it has withdrawn to. Life is still so fragile. So your plan in the next few hours is to get in a car and drive to Gaza City. Do you want to rebuild your life there? Well, my life is for me. I have finished everything. I have my own work. I have my own apartment. The problem for me is just to rebuild my daughter's life.

27:13They need to go to school. They need to read and write again. They need education. I will invest all my effort now just to teach them and to find schools for them. And if I have the chance to leave, take them with me, I'll do it. So because the Rafa crossing into Egypt from Gaza might open soon, do you think you might leave Gaza?