Capítulo 217: One Year Later with Tarneem, Ahmad, and Hamza Jaber
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Dreamed of exploring the world? Road Scholar invites you to turn that dream into reality. As a leader in educational travel for adults 50 and older, Road Scholar offers enriching adventures in more than 100 countries and across the United States. With Road Scholar, you're not a tourist. You're an active learner, immersed in inspiring experiences. To learn more, visit roadscholar.org.

roadscholar.org slash discover25. Road Scholar, celebrating 50 years of learning, adventure, and friendship in 2025. Sonoro and iHeart's My Cultura Podcast Network present The Setup, a new romantic comedy podcast starring Harvey Guillen and Christian Navarro. The Setup follows a lonely museum curator searching for love. But when the perfect man walks into his life...

Well, I guess I'm saying I like you. You like me? He actually is too good to be true. This is a con. I'm conning you to get the Delano painting. We could do this together. To pull off this heist, they'll have to get close and jump into the deep end together. That's a huge leap, Fernando, don't you think? After you, Chulito. But love is the biggest risk they'll ever take. Fernando's never going to love you as much as he loves this doll.

Trudito, that painting is ours. Listen to The Setup as part of the My Cultura Podcast Network, available on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts.

Hey, y'all. I'm Maria Fernanda Diaz. When You're Invisible is my love letter to the working class people and immigrants who shaped me. Season two shares stories about community and being underestimated. All the greatest changes have happened when a couple of people said, this sucks. Let's do something about it.

We get paid to serve you, but we're made out of the same things. It's rare to have black male teachers. Sometimes I am the testament. Listen to When You're Invisible on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts.

Do you remember what you said the first night I came over here? How? Go slower? From Blumhouse TV, iHeart Podcasts, and Ember 20 comes an all-new fictional comedy podcast series. Join the flighty Damien Hirst as he unravels the mystery of his vanished boyfriend. I've been spending all my time looking for answers about what happened to Santi. And what's the way to find a missing person? Sleep with everyone he knew, obviously. ♪

Listen to The Hookup on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you listen to your favorite shows. What would you do if mysterious drones appeared over your hometown? I started asking questions. What do you remember happening on that night of December 16th? It actually rotated around our house, looking as if it was peering in each window of our home. I'm Gabe Lenners from Imagine, iHeart Podcasts, and Lenners Entertainment.

Listen to Obscura, Invasion of the Drones, wherever you get your favorite podcasts.

Locatora Radio is a radiophonic novella. Which is just a very extra way of saying... A podcast! I'm Diosa Femme. And I am Mala Muñoz. We're podcasting through another Trump election year. We've been podcasting through election years, a global pandemic, civic unrest, political controversies, the Me Too movement, the rise of TikTok, and we are still here. We're not done telling stories.

We're still making podcasts. We're older, we're wiser, we're even podcasting through a new decade of our lives. Since 2016, we've been making Locatora Radio independently until we joined iHeartMedia's My Cultura Network in 2022. From our lips to your ears, fall in love with Locatora Radio like you never have before. Welcome to Season 9, Love at First Listen.

Hola, hola, Locamores. Welcome back to season nine of Locatora Radio. I'm Diosa. Locatora Radio is a podcast dedicated to archiving our present and shifting the culture forward. You're tuning in to Capitulo 217, 217. We're bringing you a special episode that commemorates the one year of the genocide in Palestine. I'm recording this episode remotely.

which means we're outside of the studio, we're on Zoom, and the quality may sound differently. I'm also sitting with Amar, Hamza, and Tarnim. They are three Palestinian siblings who crossed the Rafah border and are rebuilding their lives outside of Gaza. Their family remains in Gaza.

You will hear them describe their lives before October 7th, their lives during Israel's siege of Gaza, and how they escaped to Cairo, Egypt, and now how they're attempting to rebuild their lives. Today's episode does not follow our typical interview format. We are honoring their voices and stories, so you'll be hearing from them for the rest of this episode.

We hope you listen with an open heart and can support the stories of these three Palestinians. My name is Ternim Jabir. I'm 19 years old. I'm a Palestinian girl, especially from Gaza. I spent my whole life living in Gaza with my family. I spent like the whole childhood, school, and I was planning to start my university in one of the Palestinian universities in Gaza.

I was going to join the medical field to be a medical student and it's been my first week as a university student.

it was just you know when the person just joined and you like this was totally a new part for me in my life and the new experience i was just so much excited to join this this especially that i was the youngest in my family so all of my brothers have entered and joined the university before and medical school especially so my life like literally was

I can't actually explain another word than being perfect before 7th of October. Even if, when you want to just compare our life, Palestinian life in general, and especially the people that live in Gaza, with other people around the world's lives, literally you will find it so much harder. But for us, we just feel fine, at least we...

We have a life, we have a home to stay, schools, university, food, and that's it. Literally, we were just focusing on the very basics in the life. That's it. We didn't need extra things.

We've been like really like when we just were opening internet and social media and see people going and travel and that things were so much easy for the people outside. Just like sitting together and okay, let's have like a ticket to somewhere and we go, that's it. It was like, this is for us was a dream or something like that. So...

Our life was really was good for us at least. I was living with my family and like the last two months, especially before 7th of October,

I was just finishing my last year in school and I was just having a high average and people were coming to visit us and just say like congratulations. And the other event that happened is like my older brother have get married.

So this was another very beautiful experience in our lives because like he's the older and it's the first time. And the third thing is like we like my family like spend their whole life just working hard for like two things. The first thing is just teach us. And the second thing is just having our own home.

So when we just in August, especially, we moved to our own home and we just live the two months, August and September there. And it was literally a dream. We were literally living in a dream. And I don't know, something tell me in this period of time that I was just taking photos for everything, for everything. I just was taking photos and videos. Something was telling me inside just

Take them, they will be memory one day. So, and yeah, that's it until the 7th of October when just our lives changed, like upside down, completely changed. I am Hamza Jabbar, 24 year old. I am a six year medical student. It was scheduled to be graduated from my medical school in June 2024.

But unfortunately, due to the war, I missed that year. 2023-2024 was a really special year for me because this is the year of my graduation. So after six years in the medical school, I'm going to graduate. By the end of my sixth year,

I will be done with all of my medical subjects, subjects like internal medicine and surgery. So that's really exciting to me. And I just entering the sixth school at the sixth year, full of energy, full of excitement. So I'm going to graduate. So, yeah.

That's my situation. And the other thing that I have only two beautiful memories before the war, moving to our new house and the marriage of my brother. So by the way, my brother yesterday got killed.

a daughter so yesterday his wife delivered a daughter so my only two beautiful memories before the war this is it was our new house and the marriage of my brother and unfortunately we missed i missed my school i miss we missed our house and we are far away from our family

especially the new daughter came. So that's the situation to me. My name is Ahmed Jabir. I am 22 years old. I used to be a third

student in Gaza, but unfortunately the war just disrupt my education on there. And I just, I stopped because there is no education, there is no universities, there is no schools in there in Gaza, like everything were destroyed and stopped because of the war. We were in Gaza, like we were too heavy, actually, we were living the best life ever in

in Gaza. Like all of us were, all of us were in medical schools. Me, my brothers and sisters, all of us.

are doctors, I mean. So our family just were living in that zone of doctors. Like we had a great life actually, but the war came and just disturbed and destroyed everything. Before the war, we just, we lived in our, or we moved to our new home, which was the dream home actually. It had like, it has been a long time dreaming of living in a home that like this. But after the war, like the war just,

Because of the war, they destroyed our home. They bombed it, actually. Once the army just broke into our street, the place we were living in, they destroyed the home. So our dreams, everything, we were dreaming with. We lost everything. We lost life. We lost moments. We lost a friend. We lost family. We lost everything in there. Everything had been destroyed.

And just a question we have, like, we have no idea why. What's the relation between us, between the world, between everything? All right, like, we are students, we are just studying, we have dreams, we have life as anybody around the world, any people around the world, any student, anybody in my age.

I mean, outside of Gaza has like, has dreams, has life. Anybody in there. So like, why, why, why, why, like, why only, only we, we are just special in this. Why to suffer? Why to have pain? Why to be stressful in this? Why, why to be lost?

Why a man like me, 22 years old, just staying in Cairo without his family, half of them in the war, I'm staying alone in there, having nothing to do. I'm like, I'm living in pain because of nothing I didn't choose. I just, I found myself on there because I need to complete my education. Unfortunately, I didn't, I can't, or I don't have a solution just to complete it. Just why? What did I do? I did nothing.

I was just building my life to be. I have no relation about what happened the 7th of October. And this is like, see what happened the 7th of October, what caused me, what caused my family. It caused everything. Don't go anywhere, Locamores. We'll be right back.

Dreamed of exploring the world? Road Scholar invites you to turn that dream into reality. As a leader in educational travel for adults 50 and older, Road Scholar offers enriching adventures in more than 100 countries and across the United States. With Road Scholar, you're not a tourist. You're an active learner, immersed in inspiring experiences. To learn more, visit roadscholar.org.

Hey, y'all. I'm Maria Fernanda Diaz. My podcast, When You're Invisible, is my love letter to the working class people and immigrants who shaped my life. I get to talk to a lot of people who form the backbone of our society, but who have never been interviewed before.

Season two is all about community, organizing, and being underestimated. All the greatest changes have happened when a couple of people said, "This sucks. Let's do something about it." I can't have more than $2,000 in my bank account or else I can't get disability benefits. They won't let you succeed. I know we get paid to serve you guys, but like be respectful. We're made out of the same things: bone, body, blood.

It's rare to have Black male teachers. Sometimes I am the lesson and I'm also the testament. Listen to When You're Invisible as part of the My Cultura podcast network. Available on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. I started to live a double life when I was a teenager. Responsible and driven and wild and out of control. My head is pounding. I'm confused. I don't know why I'm in jail. I don't know why I'm in jail.

It's hard to understand what hope is when you're trapped in a cycle of addiction. Addiction took me to the darkest places. I had an AK-47 pointed at my head. But one night, a new door opened, and I made it into the rooms of recovery. The path would have roadblocks and detours, stalls and relapses. But when I was feeling the most lost, I found hope with community, and I made my way back.

This season, join me on my journey through addiction and recovery. A story told in 12 steps. Listen to CRIMS as part of the Michael Lura Podcast Network. Available on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts.

Do you remember what you said the first night I came over here? Ow goes lower? From Blumhouse TV, iHeart Podcasts, and Ember 20 comes an all-new fictional comedy podcast series. Join the flighty Damien Hirst as he unravels the mystery of his vanished boyfriend.

And Santi was gone. I've been spending all my time looking for answers about what happened to Santi. And what's the way to find a missing person? Sleep with everyone he knew, obviously. Pillow talk. The most unwelcome window into the human psyche. Follow our out-of-his-element hero as he engages in a series of ill-conceived investigative hookups.

Mama always used to say, God gave me gumption in place of a gag reflex. And, as I was about to learn, no amount of showering can wash your hands of a bad hookup. Take a big whiff, my brah. Listen to The Hookup on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you listen to your favorite shows. Have you ever looked into the night sky and wondered who or what was flying around up there?

We've seen planes, helicopters, hot air balloons, and birds. But what if there's something else? Something much more ominous that appears under the cover of night. Silent. Unseen. Watching. They may be right above your car late one night as you cruise down the road or look like mysterious lights hovering above your home.

Or are they? We used the word drone because it was comfortable to other people. One minute it was there and one minute it wasn't. Oh, that is beyond creepy. Do you feel like this drone was targeting you specifically? Yes, absolutely. Listen to Obscurum, Invasion of the Drones, on the iHeartRadio app,

Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts.

And we're back with more of our episode. Thank you to the three of you for providing us with some insight as to what your life was like before October 7th and what you've been what you and many others have had to deal with since the three of you talked about the home that you lived in and how it was your dream home. And so I want to ask you about living under occupation. You described

you know having this somewhat like dream home and you were accomplishing your dreams you know but can you tell us what it was like to live under occupation even before October 7th actually before a couple of days I meet I met a new friend here and she was just like asking me about girls and the situation and things so I was just explaining for her and how I came and these things

So I just noticed one thing that while she was asking me questions, like in every sentence I say, she tells me, but you used to, but you lived before, but you tried this before and you used to. So it's been like a question marks in my head. Why, like, why, why, why we, like why we have to use to these terrible things. Actually living in Gaza, like my whole life, it's been just in imagine, like in my imagination, like,

It's in my imagination, in Gaza especially. Gaza was looked like a small point, but circling with a siege. That's it, a prison. Literally, it was a prison.

But even this, we just, like us, the Palestinian, the Gazan people, we create life. We do life. We just, we made this siege and we make this present full of colors and life and just beautiful things. We just, like the families, the Palestinian people there just had to teach their students and give the most intelligent students from this area just to show the people and to show the world that this is really...

a place somewhere in the world have a human being that have the rights. Spending our whole life living in such things was so much hard. Imagine like literally we have, we were having like a schedule for the electricity, for the water. Like the electricity is coming four hour and it got 12, then come four, it got 12. That's it. This is our life. We were just waiting for

Imagine that you're sitting and, oh my God, I'm waiting just the electricity to come for like four hours. So the internet can come in these just four hours. Imagine what can you do in just like these four hours? Charging your phone, have internet connection, doing like turning the washing machine or what can you do in these four hours? But we never, like we never said anything. We know like it's a problem and we say before, but we never like...

Nobody used to know about what we live and what we suffer there. The same problem was for water, a schedule, a special boards.

The same problem where for if you want to leave, if you want to just go outside to complete your study, to have a job or anything. This was the top in hard, like hard, very, very difficult thing. You know, it was so much hard for someone to just live Gaza, especially it was a prison. Like imagine how much it will be hard for someone living in a prison and he just need to leave. The same was for us.

So that's why I was telling you that we never left Gaza before, not because of anything, like even not for having fun, not for study, because it was something so much hard. Gaza was such like as a small city, we have like just like a few hospitals, a few schools and a few universities.

But even this, it was so small, it was so, like, it was busy, like, it was full of people. Like, I think, like, you have three millions people live there in this point in the world. And all of these three millions people were suffering, were living the same hardness, were suffering.

trying just you know you know when you just live just to skip the day you just live this day to like just to spend this day and i'm waiting for tomorrow you reach tomorrow and just you skip this day to reach for the other this was literally our life we will just skip it we skip it and you see what's the next step in our life and that's was it literally without like

as I said before, a life with only the basics and some basics we couldn't even live or see or dream of having it. Can you imagine that three million people live in 360 kilometers and Gaza was under siege from 19...

67 people live there where if they are lucky the power come every day about six hours if they are lucky so sometimes you spend the whole day without electricity and of course there is no electricity there is no internet and no water so the basics the basics of having a life let's say

you can't find them. You don't have the right to have these basics. That was our situation in Gaza and if you decided that you want to travel,

there is no way to travel because Gaza are bordered by the occupation and the sea and we have a border to Egypt which is mostly closed and you have to pay to pass from Gaza to Egypt and because we are lucky also during the war for every person

Every person pays about $5,000 to pass from Gaza to Egypt, even if he's a child. So that's the number is fixed for every, if he's a human, he have to pay $5,000.

So that situation, they ask poor people, they don't have basic life right to do this. Moreover, we were not having any medical centers. So in all Gaza, there is only one medical center. It was called the Shefa Hospital. And this was not really prepared, but it was good for us. This is the best center in Gaza.

And also there's only two universities for whole Palestine, for whole Gaza people. But for us, even if this was our situation,

we were trying to adapt. We were attending the universities. Gaza having the highest rate of education worldwide. So people there are trying to be

trying to be something, trying to make their dreams real. Every person imagine make dreams and trying and work hard to make his dream real. The world comes and making everything and damaged everything, destroyed everything.

all of Gaza people missed everything in this world. So once we were living in Gaza, actually, like, our lives wasn't safe for the whole time or it wasn't regular, actually.

So like in each, like every two or three months, just we, we, we just have a military maneuvers in, in, in Gaza, like every two or three years, they out of nowhere, they start shooting or bombing home, like houses and just start killing people for, for a week, four or two weeks.

That was the usual, actually, in Gaza. Not a long war, it was just short for a few days, a week, two weeks, if it's too long. Actually, before that war, there was a one before, which was in 2022.

like the end of 20, 21 actually. And before like, like, like kind of from 2007 to 2024 or 2023, there were, there were like wars, a normal one, which, which we know we are in a war or the, the minibus that they do. So like our life was just kind of like,

like the usual or it is not like not normal life normal people usual life actually but this was our usual just to have wars or to live in in bombing and shooting and uh about the uh occupation actually like

Everything was hard just to live in there. Everything was hard. Once you think about anything, if you want to travel as any person around the world will just take his passport and go to the airport easily. We don't think that way, actually. We spent months

A long period of time just waiting to apply for a visa because you are Gazan, because you are Palestinian. So it takes too long just to apply for a visa. Maybe you may get accepted. Maybe not. If you got accepted, you're going to just put your name in the border so you can just wait your name until they accept you to travel. Actually, in 2020, I lost the whole year.

I lost the whole year once I finished my school, the secondary school, I mean. I applied for a scholarship in that period and I got the visa. And then because I am from Gaza, because I am Palestinian, after I think six months, I have been just waiting a long period, a long time.

to for my name to be in the border just to to leave and go for that scholarship to study outside they cancelled the visa because like it took too long because and i didn't i didn't join and the first semester had finished so they cancelled it and i didn't travel so i started like

I decided just to study there in Gaza. We tried to create beauty out of hardness, out of pain actually. We were trying to make our lives better. We were studying in this college

These colleges, I mean, just because these are the best. You can just have a life after. You can be respectful from anybody around the world once you are traveling or once you are in any place because you are a doctor. Like you can just, everything can be easy for you.

So like we were trying just to make our life just easy even if we were living in this situation, I mean, like occupation, wars, stressful, everything was hard and there I mean electricity. So you want to study, you want to download your lectures, the videos, you want to study. The electricity came for four hours a day, maybe like

in the morning once you are in the university this this like your four hours just came in the morning maybe at night when once you are sleeping like there's a schedule so like every day is different every day it's in a different time so like as like you and your luck you just you have no idea maybe just you can delay your studying for a whole week because like you don't know the schedule of the electricity you want to download your your lectures to study and just

you can't just find the right time for electricity just to download them because there's no internet connection, because there's no electricity. So like Gaza, like where just people in Gaza were living this situation and living in that way and they weren't satisfied or they weren't happy living there but they were trying so much to make it better

to study by education, I mean by studying. This was actually like, this was our, let's call it as our gun to fight with our education, I mean. This was the only way just to fight with, to go out of these borders. But here we are again, just they destroyed everything we have been trying to edit or to change or to do.

Don't go anywhere, Locamores. We'll be right back. Dreamed of exploring the world? Road Scholar invites you to turn that dream into reality. As a leader in educational travel for adults 50 and older, Road Scholar offers enriching adventures in more than 100 countries and across the United States. With Road Scholar, you're not a tourist. You're an active learner, immersed in inspiring experiences. To learn more, visit roadscholar.com.

Hey, y'all. I'm Maria Fernanda Diaz. My podcast, When You're Invisible, is my love letter to the working class people and immigrants who shaped my life. I get to talk to a lot of people who form the backbone of our society, but who have never been interviewed before.

Season two is all about community, organizing, and being underestimated. All the greatest changes have happened when a couple of people said, "This sucks. Let's do something about it." I can't have more than $2,000 in my bank account or else I can't get disability benefits. They won't let you succeed. I know we get paid to serve you guys, but like, be respectful. We're made out of the same things: bone, body, blood.

It's rare to have Black male teachers. Sometimes I am the lesson and I'm also the testament. Listen to When You're Invisible as part of the My Cultura podcast network. Available on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. I started to live a double life when I was a teenager. Responsible and driven and wild and out of control. My head is pounding. I'm confused. I don't know why I'm in jail. I don't know why I'm in jail.

It's hard to understand what hope is when you're trapped in a cycle of addiction. Addiction took me to the darkest places. I had an AK-47 pointed at my head. But one night, a new door opened, and I made it into the rooms of recovery. The path would have roadblocks and detours, stalls and relapses. But when I was feeling the most lost, I found hope with community, and I made my way back.

This season, join me on my journey through addiction and recovery. A story told in 12 steps. Listen to Crems as part of the Michael Lura Podcast Network. Available on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts.

Do you remember what you said the first night I came over here? How? Go slower? From Blumhouse TV, iHeart Podcasts, and Ember 20 comes an all-new fictional comedy podcast series. Join the flighty Damien Hirst as he unravels the mystery of his vanished boyfriend. And Santi was gone. I've been spending all my time looking for answers about what happened to Santi. And what's the way to find a missing person? Sleep with everyone he knew, obviously. Hmm.

Mmm, pillow talk. The most unwelcome window into the human psyche. Follow our out-of-his-element hero as he engages in a series of ill-conceived investigative hookups. Mama always used to say, God gave me gumption in place of a gag reflex. And, as I was about to learn, no amount of showering can wash your hands of a bad hookup.

Take a big whiff, my bra. Listen to The Hookup on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you listen to your favorite shows. Have you ever looked into the night sky and wondered who or what was flying around up there?

We've seen planes, helicopters, hot air balloons, and birds. But what if there's something else? Something much more ominous that appears under the cover of night. Silent. Unseen. Watching. They may be right above your car late one night as you cruise down the road or look like mysterious lights hovering above your home.

Or are they? We used the word drone because it was comfortable to other people. One minute it was there and one minute it wasn't. Oh, that is beyond creepy. Do you feel like this drone was targeting you specifically? Yes, absolutely. Listen to Obscurum, Invasion of the Drones, on the iHeartRadio app,

Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. We're back with more. We hope you didn't go anywhere. Thank you to the three of you for describing what it was like living in Gaza before and then afterwards. So the three of you mentioned that you just decided to leave and you entered Gaza.

Cairo. So how did you, one, escape the occupation and bombardment and take us through that journey of leaving Gaza and what that was like for the three of you? So our family, I was saying that our family just decided to let the three of us to leave Gaza because all of us are university students.

And our family just said, maybe the only solution just to complete your life is just to leave Gaza, to leave this war. And actually we applied to travel from Gaza for like,

for too long, like maybe before three months. We applied and we paid money. Each of us just paid $5,000 just to move out, I mean to cross the border, that's it. And you're going to pay them just to cross the border. Our family just decided to stay half a month there and just to let us go outside to complete our life.

it wasn't like it wasn't easy to decide to leave to leave gaza after like i was 20 21 after 21 21 years living in gaza and in the home like i mean the family home and out of nowhere you're gonna just leave and be responsible about everything and it wasn't easy actually we left

Our names just came, or we know actually from people, our friends just called us at 11:00 PM. They called us because there was no internet connection in the north of Gaza. We were living the whole war in the north. We stayed, and our family until now stayed in the north of Gaza. We didn't live, we didn't move, I mean.

So like there were no internet connection there. Just anybody just want to know if he got accepted to travel or not. Just he can check every day on the internet connection to make sure like if he got accepted or not. So like at 11 p.m. our friends were calling us telling us like you and your brother and sister get accepted just to travel outside of Gaza and tomorrow just your names are allowed to travel.

So we were in the north of Gaza and in like, like north and the south, there is a border in the middle. You want to just move from here to there. And then you want to go for the Rafah border just to leave out of, outside of Gaza. The day that our names were, they shared our names to travel, the Israeli border

army were in a hospital so like that streets which lead us to go for the cross like to cross the north of Gaza to cross it like it was kind of impossible actually just to move from there

And because like lots of stories where we were like, we were hearing that the army just taking people to jail, like people in the same age of us, just take them to jail or like they just kill them. Like because of nothing, they shoot them in the street. All of us were just

There was no way of transportation actually, no cars, nothing, just walking. We got our bags, we prepared them at 4 a.m. And we left home at 10 a.m., I think, on the 2nd of April. So we were going in the street and...

Like you are walking in the street and you just hear the sounds of the drones around, which include guns and it includes cameras, which is very...

video you once you are walking and going and you are afraid you your brother and your sister you are alone in the street every everywhere is just bombing you are afraid you have like you don't know what's what's what's gonna happen you're gonna arrive you're gonna go across it or maybe you're gonna die maybe you're gonna be taken to the jail you hope you have no idea so once we were like we went

We were just walking for kind of four hours, walking to the place which was in the middle of Gaza, just across. So like all of us, three of us just went on there. They were just talking with us with mics. I don't know, like it was the first time just to see the army and the soldiers, all of them having guns, staying with their...

and they were just shooting just to make us afraid. And they had dogs and they let dogs just run. And with people who have just guns,

with the lighter, I mean, just they were moving it in our bodies just to make us afraid once we were walking in there. And some of them were just riding their cars and just follow us, follow us like faster just to make us afraid and to let us run, even if we were just walking for four hours.

And we just, we have no idea. Just we carry the bag and we just, we run. Like they deal with this as games between them, a challenge.

if we were gonna kill them by hitting them in the street or not. Our life was a game with them, a challenge between them. Just like, actually I can remember before this situation, before moving and like, yeah, the flower, we're coming from that side. So people were going and waiting in this street just to talk.

some of them just to stay alive because there's nothing on the north of Gaza. So one day we went to that place actually and it was like, it was a hell just to go in there. Like we like out of nowhere you were just sitting in a normal way out of nowhere just you look on the right, you look on the left, you found people just falling down full of blood. They were shooting randomly.

like you have a background before going you have a background you know how evil they are how like what they have inside what they do so like once we were going on there like we were imagining or we were afraid just because all like me and Hamza were males and Tarim female we were afraid just to take us and leave Tarim alone to leave or just anything thank you Ahmad for sharing

That's terrifying and horrific that you all had to experience that while you were trying to get to the border crossing. So once you cross the border, what happened after that? Yeah, actually, once we crossed the border, we walked actually after like for two hours, I think, till we got a car. It was a car for like a journalist car, actually.

And just they, they like, they found us walking. It was, it was like Ramadan. We were fasting actually that day. Like it was like kind of six hours for walking and they found us in the street just tired. So they decided to let us go with them. And we went with them in Rafah and we stayed there in a school actually.

Because there is no, like we don't know anybody in there. We don't have a place. And it was late just to go for the border or just to leave Gaza. It was late. We arrived there, I think, at 4 p.m. It was closed. The border was closed at 2 p.m.

Yeah, so once we arrived in there, we stayed in a school for a night. Then second day, just we got ourselves ready and we left in the morning by the Rafah border. So it took about two days for you to get to the actual border crossing? Yeah, yeah. Actually, once we went to like, we were late actually. Our names were shared in the first of April.

We crossed Gaza on the 2nd of April. We crossed the border, I mean. The border on the 2nd of April. We left Gaza on the 3rd of April. So we were late two days. Okay. And you were still able to cross into Cairo? Yeah, because we were able to cross into Cairo. It was late, actually, because we were late two days. So they kept us at the end.

because we were late. But at the end, we left. Don't go anywhere, Locamores. We'll be right back. Dreamed of exploring the world? Road Scholar invites you to turn that dream into reality. As a leader in educational travel for adults 50 and older, Road Scholar offers enriching adventures in more than 100 countries and across the United States. With Road Scholar, you're not a tourist. You're an active learner, immersed in inspiring experiences. To learn more, visit

Hey, y'all. I'm Maria Fernanda Diaz. My podcast, When You're Invisible, is my love letter to the working class people and immigrants who shaped my life. I get to talk to a lot of people who form the backbone of our society, but who have never been interviewed before. I'm Maria Fernanda Diaz.

Season two is all about community, organizing, and being underestimated. All the greatest changes have happened when a couple of people said, "This sucks. Let's do something about it." I can't have more than $2,000 in my bank account or else I can't get disability benefits. They won't let you succeed. I know we get paid to serve you guys, but like be respectful. We're made out of the same things: bone, body, blood.

It's rare to have black male teachers. Sometimes I am the lesson and I'm also the testament. Listen to When You're Invisible as part of the My Cultura podcast network. Available on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. I started to live a double life when I was a teenager. Responsible and driven and wild and out of control. My head is pounding. I'm confused. I don't know why I'm in jail. I don't know why I'm in jail.

It's hard to understand what hope is when you're trapped in a cycle of addiction. Addiction took me to the darkest places. I had an AK-47 pointed at my head. But one night, a new door opened, and I made it into the rooms of recovery. The path would have roadblocks and detours, stalls and relapses. But when I was feeling the most lost, I found hope with community, and I made my way back.

This season, join me on my journey through addiction and recovery. A story told in 12 steps. Listen to CRIMS as part of the Michael Lura Podcast Network. Available on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts.

Do you remember what you said the first night I came over here? Ow goes lower? From Blumhouse TV, iHeart Podcasts, and Ember 20 comes an all-new fictional comedy podcast series. Join the flighty Damien Hirst as he unravels the mystery of his vanished boyfriend.

And Santi was gone. I've been spending all my time looking for answers about what happened to Santi. And what's the way to find a missing person? Sleep with everyone he knew, obviously. Pillow talk. The most unwelcome window into the human psyche. Follow our out-of-his-element hero as he engages in a series of ill-conceived investigative hookups.

Mama always used to say, God gave me gumption in place of a gag reflex. And, as I was about to learn, no amount of showering can wash your hands of a bad hookup. Take a big whiff, my brah. Listen to The Hookup on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you listen to your favorite shows. Have you ever looked into the night sky and wondered who or what was flying around up there?

We've seen planes, helicopters, hot air balloons, and birds. But what if there's something else? Something much more ominous that appears under the cover of night. Silent. Unseen. Watching. They may be right above your car late one night as you cruise down the road or look like mysterious lights hovering above your home.

Or are they? We used the word drone because it was comfortable to other people. One minute it was there and one minute it wasn't. Oh, that is...

Beyond creepy. Do you feel like this drone was targeting you specifically? Yes, absolutely. Listen to Obscurum, Invasion of the Drones, on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts.

We're back with more. We hope you didn't go anywhere. So you enter Cairo and then what happens? Do you know anyone? Do you have family? Once we have been in the border there, I mean in the border, we have no idea where are we going. It's the first time to travel, to move. We have no idea. Actually, we were in the border. We were asking each other where are we going. Are we going to stay in a hotel?

Are we staying on the street? There is one of our cousins in Cairo, she came as a visitor here.

So like she saw our names in the travel English and just she called my father. She told him that they can't join until they can find an apartment just to rent. So we got a location and we moved to her apartment. We stayed there actually. And once we met Kytlin, actually we were friends.

Actually, we were late because me and Hamza, it was midnight. Me and Hamza were out just searching for a place to rent and searching for an apartment, a place to stay at.

But like at the first time, once we left, like everything, like you are strange, you are strange in a strange place. You don't know anybody on there. Everything just came out of nowhere. You are traveling. We were sitting in the home normally and just like our friends called us. They told us we saw your names.

So like nothing was prepared, even our clothes wasn't prepared actually. Like we prepared everything in the morning just before traveling a few hours. So like we went there, we stayed in an apartment.

And then we got just, we found a place to stay at. And actually life in Egypt, it's too expensive to, as students, as people who don't have work, who took money from their family and who like their family is staying in the war. So it was too expensive, too expensive to rent an apartment actually.

And just the normal. This is the normal, not the fancy one, I mean. Not the one that you used to live in Gaza in your normal life. Just a place to stay there. But there is no choice, actually. Like, you want to stay. You want to stay in people's houses because...

Right.

Right. You did mention that at the top of the interview. So the three of you are no longer living together, right? Almost a year has gone or several months have gone by since you left Gaza. So what does your life look like now as you attempt to rebuild in different countries now? Actually, as I mentioned before, it was the first time for every one of us to travel and to leave Gaza.

So just this idea, just imagining this idea was hard. But I was saying, just imagine the easiest part is just your brother will be with you. So when we just go to Cairo, we stay together and everyone of us start searching and finding just a way to complete or to start or anything just to join universities. So in the beginning, like,

It was so much hard. I can't literally remember that memory we loved in Cairo and in Egypt the first month was so much hard. But the only thing that it can just make it easy for you that my brothers were with me.

So after that, when Hamza traveled, I stayed alone, me and Ahmed. And we stayed maybe alone for three months or something. Until that day, after I just, I couldn't find any solution to study in Egypt. So I just found my way to complete in Turkey. So it was just the first time for me to leave Egypt.

Like, living to Cairo wasn't that, like, I know, like, I left my mom, my brother, my whole family, like, behind in the north. But I was having just members of my family with me. And even, like, the whole life, I couldn't just, like, even the school, when I was just going for school, I was going with them and come back with them. And every single thing in my life, taking courses, everything.

going outside, friends, everything is just together. So it was so much hard for me to leave. I remember when I go, like the first time we go to say goodbye for Hamza and the airport, and we just started crying. The same thing when that happened for me, when I just say goodbye for Ahmed. And I remember that day when just he called my mom.

and detail her every couple of months I just say goodbye to one of my family members the first time I said goodbye to you when they left you in Gaza the second time I said to Hamza and now I'm saying to Karnim and

Every just time, every period, just the people is getting out of my life and just I'm staying alone. So that sentence was just falling my head. Now everyone, like imagine we're a small family. We spend every single thing in our life together. And one time, everything got changed to reach like just the level that every one of us literally living in a different area.

everyone like no one is with the other I'm in a city and my brother in a city and Ahmed's in a different country and my mom in the north and my brother is his wife and he got a new everyone like we're just like we are a family that like we are only seven members of this family but every single one of us is

totally living in a different place and totally living a special kind of suffering just to have like the suffering we live it here like Ahmad is just still suffering to find a university so he can complete and not to start from the very beginning me and Hamza we still suffer to complete our university and to live here in just a forging country a country that they didn't even speak our language

And the people that we never imagined that we will live with them, not just like come for a couple of days and have fun. We will live like a year. Like for me, I will live seven with this in this country, in this like foreign country. And the same things for my family, the family.

It's been just a few families that they sell in the north and my family was one of them. They're still in the north and they're just suffering to live. They're suffering to find food, to find water, to stay safe. They're suffering. They're running from a place to other just to protect their lives.

This was like 7 October and everything happened after that day was literally damaging everything in my life. Like imagine that you have just a simple dream list, but like after this day and after all of the situations that happened, everything was canceled and just affecting the whole thing that you lived before. So it was so much hard.

And even just taking the choice, like, you know, even just taking the choice to travel and just to leave your family behind was so much hard. You couldn't imagine how the night that we spent, like, covering the news in Gaza and especially in the north is so bad. Like, because we don't have, like, there's not a lot of people still in the north. So getting news or what's happening there or what's the updates there, it was so much hard.

So if you are lucky and someone just share a news about something happened in the north, they will just say like the top title, like they bump a house in the street and your mind, imagine that this is the street you're living in and just your mind now will start working. Which house? Which place? Is it my family? Is it next to them? Does it affect them? What's happened to them?

Imagine just your mind just thinking, like overthink and overthink about this and you couldn't even have a call. Even a call, imagine a symbol like a call, you can't do it. We don't have networks to call our family.

So even just the simplest thing, if you're like, okay, we didn't do it. Like we find it hard to meet them or to see them, but unless having a call with them just to make sure, like, are you fine? This is not acceptable. Just imagine how's the night that you spend, like your phone is not silent. You're just waiting every minute to get a news, to check them, to see how's the situation there. Anyone shared any news and sometimes people,

like some people share a news and in the end it turned that it's not correct or it's not specific this area and imagine every time you will be the someone who worried about every single news if it's right wrong specific not specific you will be just worried and imagining imagine like and feeling you know when just you're feeling guilty or something and like

about like that you take this choice and you take it as just this choice to complete your study you just need like to live this worries and this afraid because you left your family to complete your study thank you for sharing that Hamza same question to you what does your life look like now as you attempt to rebuild in Turkey you know that

I was the first one who decided to move to Gaza and I attempted two times to move from Gaza, to the north of Gaza, to the south, then to Egypt, but the first attempt failed. The first attempt was like I got my bag, handbag, and decided that I want to move. I decided this because

I was a volunteer in Shefa Hospital and in Al-Ma'madani Hospital for six months in emergency department and in orthopedic department.

When there is nothing to do, really, I'm doing nothing at the hospital, so I decided to move. Can you imagine that there was a young guy, I think he was 19, he got a bullet in his thigh. So there is no CT, no x-ray, no ultrasound. So we're just waiting. After four hours, he starts complaining of hematuria, blood in his urine.

And we complete waiting, nothing to do, we have nothing to do. So after two hours, his family started shouting, he's dying. So I went there, he's dying. So I start CPR, give adrenaline. So I kept doing CPR for 25 minutes until his pupils are totally fixed, dilated. So that means the brain has already dead.

So simply, I'm telling his mom that your son has passed away. You know that during the medical school for six years in the medical school, they're learning us how to break bad news, how to tell the patient that you have something, how to tell the family that your son or your daughter has passed away. But in this war, simply you are telling them that

Your son has passed away. So I decided to move. So the first time I attempt, it was failed because first time I got my bag and move. So I was crossing the streets. Every street I crossing waiting. So if I checking, is there a sniper or not? So I checking, is there military vehicles in this street or not?

So I kept going, going, going. So I crossed half of the roads. Then I find Ahmed behind me shouting, so come back, come back. The military is in this road. So I decided to come back. Then we got the second attempt and we moved to Egypt. Once I arrived to Egypt, so I start thinking, what should I do? So how and where, where?

how and where I will complete my study. So I searched for multiple ways to trying to find a way to complete my study. So if I compare the situation for me here in Turkey and the situation for me one year ago. One year ago I was living in a house, separate room for me. In this room you can close your door and do whatever you want. But

But nowadays, I'm living in a student housing, which is I have in every single room, there is five person. Five person, you are 24. There is extra four persons sharing the same room with you, which means there is no privacy.

You can't do nothing. You know that sometimes you feel you want to cry, simply. Normal feelings, normal emotion, you want to cry. So I just cover my head and start crying. I don't want anybody to see me crying, but I can't stop this emotion. To my sister or my brother, start telling them what I am feeling.

So one hour later, I am okay. Nowadays, I start crying, crying for an hour. Then I have to wash my face and I'm okay. I have to pretend that I am okay. But inside me, I'm not okay. That's the situation here. I was living with my family. I know all of them. They know me.

And my neighborhood, I know all of my neighbors. They know me. But here, I don't know anybody. And the second thing that people here considering us as a stranger. You're a stranger.

I am a human, so why this discrimination? Why are you doing this discrimination? I am a human like you and I don't have any difference from you, but they are considering us like strangers and refugees, not only strangers, even if I am studying. So I don't ask you for help, I don't ask you for shelter, I don't ask you for money, I don't

I don't ask you for anything. I am a formal person here. I entered formally this country and I am studying and they are considering us like strangers. So that's the situation. Thank you, Hamza. Amr, how about you? Egypt before the war was like a dream, just...

to come to Egypt as a tourist because there's lots of good places in here just to visit and to enjoy your time to be happy by visiting them but actually coming to Egypt in that situation just changed the whole idea just like we were happy at the beginning maybe maybe like

We were just, it's like not happy, but I mean, we were thinking that it is a good place to go to. Once we came and we just, we faced the reality of Egypt, the people here in Egypt, we found everything is different. Like kind of like people, you can just, I'm sorry for saying this, like it's kind of like buying people what, buy money. So it's like, how can you ask them to respect by giving them money? This is the only way here in Egypt.

And here just everything they said, everything that, everything happening in Egypt as bad things, everything just they say, this is related to you. This is because of you. Palestinians, Qasem came to here. They destroyed our country, our city. They make everything just more expensive. Their rents, it's more expensive. Everything just, yeah, everything they said, like this is because people came from the war in here. Just they make everything more expensive.

So that's the situation here. Like people here treat us like, I don't know, like, I don't know why all of us are like, all of us are people, all of us are normal. Maybe like you are like in your city, in your country, you are better than him. Actually, you are in a medical school and he

He's a normal, like he may be, he's not educated. He doesn't know how to write his name. But like he just hear people saying this. So he kept saying it. He try or they try to hurt you saying that words. Actually, according to me, I don't move the apartment. I don't like to like, I don't like to see people outside, like Egyptian people, like

It's horrible actually to deal with them, to hear them talking about you or your situation. Everybody just has a different opinion, different thoughts. They think it's horrible actually to deal with them or just to have a normal or a simple conversation in the street or I mean a supermarket or anywhere. Everything bad is related to you. That's it. I didn't take anything from you. Nothing. I'm not studying anything.

I'm paying for my reign myself.

I'm paying for my stuff, myself, everything. I am the one who pays. So like once you are calling me that I am a refugee or just I ran away from my country or I don't know what. A refugee, like the meaning of refugee just to be in a country and the country just pay you money because you have residency on there. You are like a resident in the country, in this country. But I am not.

Actually, I'm paying for everything and you're calling me a refugee? Why? We are both like, I am like my country now in a bad situation. Maybe the next time your country can be in that situation. So why you treat me that way? Why you tell me that this stuff? And actually Egypt used to have that situation. I mean, it were like kind of a war, but between them, themselves, the government, I mean. So like, why to call me, why to call me, why to treat me that way?

So this is the situation. So like now, I'm accordingly, I'm trying as possible as I can, as hard as I can just to leave, leave from him. Actually now, after turning him left, because like the rent is too expensive, I just decided to rent a room, an apartment. I'm living with strangers. I have no idea about them. I have never seen them actually. I'm living with a stranger in an apartment now.

So like, they can't just be on three, not on one already. I got nothing. I don't know. Maybe I can get, but unfortunately, semester started. I tried outside, tried in America, Canada, France, anywhere. I'm trying anywhere around the world and even not Arab country to go there because like, they're going to treat you that way. They're going to tell you that way. Like,

they don't respect that thing or they don't just tell that you are coming from a war or you are just you are living under pressure and you like have your family on the like

they don't think about that situation. They only think about that you are like, you came from there, you make everything worse. That's it. So I hope like, I hope I can get like, I got a chance just to travel from here, just to continue my education, to study outside and anywhere, just to continue from the third year outside in any country around the world, any place, any, I have no idea where, but I mean any place, any university just could like offer me just

just to complete my education. I have all my documents, I have everything. But unfortunately, here in Egypt, there is no chance. Thank you. Thank you. So final question and final thought, if you want to share with the listeners is, what is your message for them? What do you want the world to know? What do you want people, listeners to walk away from by listening to this episode?

So, dear listeners, actually what you are seeing in the TV or listening on the radio or I don't know, if you are following the news about Gaza, this is only a point in the sea. You are like, you are seeing nothing. This is normally like they don't share everything. They don't share everything for people to

because they care about people's feelings. I mean, people who are living in the situation, like living in the war in Gaza, they suffer and see more and they see a lot more than the people who are watching from TV or just following news outside. Keep supporting Gaza. Keep just helping them.

keep just working on stopping the war and this is a personal message for the people or for anybody who can listen I am here in Egypt I'm stuck I have no idea if I can just complete my education or not if anybody if you or any person who could help me just

Who know anybody in university, a doctor, professor, I don't know anyone in the university, anybody just who can help me to find a chance just to complete my education, to complete my dental school, to start from the third year. I have everything, everything. I have my documents, all of them.

So please, anyone who can help in this way, just please help. Thank you, Omar. Hamza, how about you? What is your message to our listeners? To me, my message is, when I was in Gaza, I was thinking that humanity, human rights is a big lie. But when I left Gaza,

and start dealing with this world, I realized that human rights and the humanity is a big lie. Unfortunately, I realized this. People performing racism toward us and the big thing that if we compare other situation in the world with our situation, they are considering people from the same situation but different country as humans

and they give them their rights, but for us, they consider us as refugees and they don't give us the basics of our rights. We don't ask anybody for anything, but why you are performing racism towards us, I don't know. This is the first thing. The second thing that if you are considering yourself as humans, please do your best to stop the genocide in Gaza.

Do your best to stop killing. Everything has damage and the whole city has damage. We are now having about 60,000 militants in this war. So these 60,000 are humans. So care about them. They are not numbers. They are humans. They have

a right to live a life. They have a right to die in a peaceful way. Can you imagine yourself, when you die, you are hundreds of pieces. They collect you in a bucket. That's your body. So they have the right to live

a human life and die in a peaceful way. And that's it. Thank you very much. Stop this genocide. Stop this genocide. Stop this genocide. Thank you. Thank you, Hamza. Tarneem? Actually, just my message for all the people around the world. It's been a year. It's been a year seeing and listening for all this news.

Can you just please put yourself, I know nobody around the world can even imagine, but just try to imagine to put yourself in just like the simplest situation in Gaza right now. And imagine, can you afford just staying alive or staying there just for five minutes? Or just after putting yourself in just our place there,

Can you imagine if the same situation is happening for you and for your country? Would the people be silent as the same as they are until now silent about everything is happening? Imagine that this genocide is happening for another country, a big country or other country.

Would the world be silent? No, of course no. They wouldn't even complete one day about all of these things happening. But we complete one year. One year just of suffering, living under genocide. Even we don't have the basics, not the basics like the real in the world. We don't have water or food to eat or to drink. We don't have just...

abyss we don't have a safe place to stay in you just you sleep and you're not sure if you the next day you will wake up you will just wake up and finding your family next to you

My message for you is just imagine yourself in the same place that we have been spending years suffering and just dying in a slowly way. Imagine anything can you do can be a difference. Even sharing a new, even following the news, going outside with a lot of people every week and saying just to stop genocide, this will affect you.

If you say this won't affect, no, you will say this not affect and the other will say so who will say who will care about us? We're a people, we're the same. All of us are a human being. All of us are a human being and all of us have the right just to live in a peaceful way. All of us have the right. We don't ask you for anything. We don't ask you just for literally anything. Just

stop this genocide and let us complete our life like the moment that we were living before the 7th of October and just give us the chance to live as a human being around the world. Give us just the simplest rights of any human and that's it. A special thank you to Caitlin Prest, director of Mermaid Palace and host of The Heart Radiotopia for connecting us with Amar, Hasma and Tarnim.

Caitlin also produced a Gaza monologue series on her podcast, The Heart. Please support that series and Ashtar Theater, a nonprofit theater training Palestinian youth.

Caitlin and Amar, who you heard from today, created a scholarship fund called the Mermaid Haber Scholarship Fund. By contributing to this scholarship fund on GoFundMe, you can support Amar, Hamza, and Darnim complete their respective medical school education and restart their lives outside of Gaza. We hope you can contribute and share the GoFundMe with everyone in your network.

Thank you for listening to another episode of Locatora Radio. Until next time, besitos.

Besitos.

These days, it feels like everyone is talking about how the American dream of homeownership has become out of reach. Well, Rocket is trying to give more of us a chance to own our homes. They're making homeownership simpler and more accessible to more people, turning renters into owners. Rocket believes that everyone deserves a shot at the American dream. So are you ready? Own the dream. Visit rocket.com or call 800-4-ROCKET.

Dreamed of exploring the world? Road Scholar invites you to turn that dream into reality. As a leader in educational travel for adults 50 and older, Road Scholar offers enriching adventures in more than 100 countries and across the United States. With Road Scholar, you're not a tourist. You're an active learner, immersed in inspiring experiences. To learn more, visit roadscholar.org.

From the producers who brought you Princess of South Beach comes a new podcast, The Setup.

The setup follows a lonely museum curator, but when the perfect man walks into his life... Well, I guess I'm saying I like you. You like me? He actually is too good to be true. This is a con. I'm conning you to get the Dilama painting. We can do this together.

Listen to The Setup on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. Hey, y'all. I'm Maria Fernanda Diaz. When You're Invisible is my love letter to the working class people and immigrants who shaped me. Season two shares stories about community and being underestimated. All the greatest changes have happened when a couple of people said, this sucks. Let's do something about it.

We get paid to serve you, but we're made out of the same things. It's rare to have black male teachers. Sometimes I am the testament. Listen to When You're Invisible on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts.

Do you remember what you said the first night I came over here? Ow goes lower? From Blumhouse TV, iHeart Podcasts, and Ember 20 comes an all-new fictional comedy podcast series. Join the flighty Damien Hirst as he unravels the mystery of his vanished boyfriend. I've been spending all my time looking for answers about what happened to Santi. And what's the way to find a missing person? Sleep with everyone he knew, obviously. Listen to The Hookup on the iHeart Radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you listen to your favorite shows.