All language subtitles for One Day in Gaza 2019_track3_[und]

This programme contains scenes which
some viewers may find upsetting.

Thank you.

It is time to officially
recognise Jerusalem

as the capital of Israel.

To move the American Embassy
from Tel Aviv to Jerusalem.

Jerusalem, claimed by
both Palestinians and Israelis

as their capital.

A fierce international backlash
to what the President is proposing.

His decision could plunge the
region back into a fire with no end.

After President Trump's
controversial decision to recognise

Jerusalem as the capital of Israel,

the Middle East braced itself
for violence.

We had three-and-a-half years
of quiet, and then that happened.

I thought, that's it, that's
another war starting that day.

But in the Palestinian Gaza Strip,
a grassroots movement planned

a different response -
mass peaceful demonstrations.

Weekly protests at Gaza's unofficial
border with Israel would culminate

in a massive demonstration
on the day of the embassy opening,

the 14th of May 2018.

That day would end with at least
60 Palestinians dead or dying,

and almost 3,000 injured.

Using footage from the Israeli Army,
Hamas, journalists

and the protesters themselves,
this is the story of that day.

Allahu Akbar!

Our brave soldiers are protecting
the borders of Israel

as we speak today.
We salute you all.

How did Gaza's plan
for a peaceful demonstration

result in one of the worst days
of violence in a generation?

Remember this moment.
This is history.

On the morning of
the 14th of May 2018,

thousands of Palestinians
began arriving

at Gaza's unofficial border.

The 14th of May was also
the 70th anniversary

of the founding of Israel.

These weekly protests had been named
The Great March Of Return.

They'd become a lightning rod
for years of frustration.

In 2006, Hamas was elected
to power in Gaza,

and then expelled its rivals.

In response, Israel tightened
its economic blockade on the region,

citing security concerns,
for strictly controlling

all movement of goods and people
in and out of the Gaza Strip.

Today, the economy is in free fall.

More than half of Gaza's two million
inhabitants live in poverty

and rely on aid.

And they're prevented
from leaving what is

one of the most densely populated
regions on Earth.

Most demonstrators stayed
far away from the fence

and protested peacefully.

But in the days leading
up to the 14th of May,

others had declared
that they intended to break Israel's

blockade of Gaza by cutting
through the fence and confronting

Israeli soldiers.

The Israel Defence Forces, or IDF,
were preparing for an invasion.

Just 2km away,
on the other side of the fence,

Israeli grandmother Adele Raemer
was recording a video

for Facebook Live.

OK, it's really early
in the morning.

I'm just taking my morning walk,
and I see that there's a lot

of soldiers here,
which there usually aren't.

And I look over into our fields,

and I can see a huge plume of smoke

coming from a little bit
north of us in Gaza.

Something's going on already.

Yeah, it was scary.
The Great March Of Return.

They... That's what they said
they were going to do.

The Great March Of Return.

So that's what I was
expecting that could happen,

that they could, in the thousands,
walk...

..and just knock down the fence.

Everybody's on edge.

We've been assured by the army
that everything is under control.

But we and they are
ready for everything.

Gaza is ruled by Hamas,

seen in the West
as a terrorist organisation.

They reject Israel's right to exist,
and have a history of suicide

bombings and rocket attacks
against the Jewish state.

Israel has fought three major
conflicts with Hamas,

and it believed that these were
no longer peaceful protests

but a violent attack on Israel.

In the run-up to the 14th of May,
there'd been many confrontations

at the fence.

Women would often take the lead.

At previous protests,
some people had even crossed

the fence and entered Israel.

The fence is monitored
by an all-female team of Israeli

intelligence officers based
in a secret control centre

in southern Israel.

The officers in the War Room
are in direct communication

with forces on the ground,
and will alert them to anything

they regard as suspicious.

Since early morning,
Israeli forces had taken up position

behind the security fence
separating Israel from Gaza.

They'd also laid
an extra coil of barbed wire

to act as a deterrent.

About 300 metres away
is Jakar Street, a Palestinian road

that runs parallel to the fence.

Israel regards the area between
Jakar Street and the fence

as a military no-go zone.

70% of people in Gaza
are descendants of refugees -

Palestinians who fled or were forced
to flee their land when Israel

was created in 1948 and captured
territory in the war of '67.

Palestinians across the Middle East
have long held that they have

a legal right of return
to what they see as their homeland.

But for most Israelis,
the arrival of millions

of Palestinians would threaten
their country's identity

as a Jewish state,
and pose an existential threat.

GUNFIRE

GUNFIRE

GUNFIRE

That day, the IDF would be
using live ammunition.

GUNFIRE

Despite the risk of gunfire,
hundreds of Palestinians

were still determined to cross
Jakar Street and head for the fence.

Among them were Wisal Khalil
and her brother Mohammed.

Wisal was a regular at the protests

and had tried to cut the fence
at least once.

That morning, Wisal had prayed
by the Israeli fence,

hung a flag on it, then returned
to talk to her friend.

GUNSHOT

WOMAN SCREAMS

A single gunshot hit
Wisal in the head,

killing her instantly.

At 14, Wisal was one
of the youngest people

to be killed that day.

Defending our civilians
is non-negotiable.

That is our mission.
That's what we are deployed to do,

that's what we are trained
and equipped to do.

What about Wisal Sheikh Khalil,
the 14-year-old?

How come she was shot in the head?

We've had numerous
situations where...

..people have been hit
without being the intended target

of that specific bullet.

It's a very unfortunate situation,
something that we would surely...

That we surely wouldn't
want to have happened.

One of the leading,
let's say, line of thought,

or assessment, working assumption,
would be that it was stray bullets

that hit a target
and then changed direction.

How often do you think
that happened?

According to the preliminary
information we have at hand now,

that probably has happened
a few times.

How many is a few?
Difficult to say.

In the hour after Wisal was killed,
more and more people were crossing

Jakar Street and getting
closer to the fence.

Behind the crowd,
two brothers had arrived

to join the protest.

Ayman and his brother Abdelsalam
are both descendants of refugees.

In 1948, their father
had fled the city of Ashdod,

in what is now Israel.

Today, it is almost
impossible for them to visit.

Suddenly, the crowd surged forward.

A rumour was spreading

that protesters were about
to breach the fence.

For Ayman and his brother,
this was a rare chance

to step beyond the Gaza Strip.

The people at the front
were filming on their phones,

believing they were about to be part
of an historic event.

But as the crowd swelled,
Israeli forces released a barrage

of tear gas.

They then opened fire
with live ammunition.

In the chaos, Ayman and his brother
had been separated.

Abdelsalam had also
been shot in the head.

He died in hospital later that day.

Abdelsalam wasn't the first brother
that Ayman had lost in the conflict.

16 years earlier,
another brother, Ahmed,

had been killed by Israeli forces

while taking part
in a military operation

with Al-Qassam Brigades,
the military wing of Hamas.

Ayman says
that neither he nor Abdelsalam

had any involvement
with armed groups.

But for the IDF,
the whole protest was regarded

as a Hamas operation.

Trump's announcement
that he would move the US Embassy

to Jerusalem had been the catalyst
for peaceful protest at the fence.

Organised by a grassroots movement,

at first they weren't aligned
with any political or armed groups.

As the protest grew more popular,
leaders of groups like Hamas

and Islamic Jihad,
both regarded by Israel

as terrorist organisations,
started touring the sights

and rallying the crowds.

Over time, these leaders began
to exert increasing control

over what was now known
as The Great March Of Return.

I know for a fact that most of
the people in Gaza are not Hamas,

like, militant Hamas.

Having said that, when the Hamas
get up at their rallies,

they say, "We're going to
go into Israel, pull out...

"rip out their hearts."

I mean, this is rhetoric
that you can't just ignore.

Given that Israel regards you
as a terrorist organisation,

why couldn't Hamas have just
stayed out of all of this?

I mean, why not just let
the people do their thing?

As noon prayers came
to an end on the 14th of May,

a new wave of people
flowed out of the mosques

to join the protests at the border.

It was fast becoming one of
the biggest public demonstrations

in Gaza for a generation.

Despite the rising death toll,

people were still
being urged to come.

We had intelligence
a few days prior to the 14th

that Hamas were planning
to breach the fence

by a rather simple, but what would
seem an effective plan.

The first wave would be civilians,
using civilians as cover

in order for a second wave of
trained operatives to reach inside

and then, hopefully,
from their point of view,

take one of the soldiers with them

and drag them back
to the Gaza Strip.

Across Gaza, buses were provided
by Hamas and others

to transport demonstrators to the
protest sites on the border.

Aintisar was told
that her bus was heading

for Gaza's main protest site,

but in fact, protest organisers
were taking her somewhere else.

They brought her to
an unofficial site near a graveyard,

with little cover
and no medical facility.

It was also right next to
a Hamas military training area.

As hundreds more people arrived,

four paramedics were dispatched
to the area.

By chance, one of them
was Aintisar's son, Moussa.

Moussa was a paramedic in Gaza's
civil defence force,

part of the Hamas Ministry
of the Interior.

With no field hospitals in the area,

he was one of the only medics
in a crowd of hundreds.

24-year-old Bader had also
been bussed in that day.

He'd never attended
a protest before.

Eyewitnesses say
at least two armed Palestinians

stood aside from the crowd and
began firing on Israeli soldiers.

GUNSHOTS

The IDF have provided this infrared

video footage that they say

show shots being fired
at Israeli soldiers

and IEDs being detonated.

It was all being monitored
from the IDF War Room

a few miles away.

GUNFIRE, CROWD SHOUTING

The IDF fired back for 40 minutes.

Moussa was one of only four medics
treating the wounded.

Whilst he was treating
three casualties,

and wearing a paramedic's vest,
he was shot through the chest.

With his mother by his side,
he lay bleeding for over 25 minutes

before his colleagues
were able to evacuate him.

At the hospital,
he was declared dead on arrival.

SHE SOBS

21 people were killed
at the graveyard that afternoon.

At least eight of them were alleged
members of al-Qassam Brigades,

the military wing of Hamas.

Two of them were children.

No Israelis were hurt.

The Hamas leadership denies
they sanctioned a military operation

that day, but admits
that Palestinians opened fire.

What did happen at the graveyard?

The guidance to the soldiers
by commanders on the ground

was, "Be proportionate,
be precise, be professional.

"Remember that you're defending
civilians behind you,

"but also remember that
you're to use your weapons

"only when necessary,
and only in a situation

"where we don't have any other means

"of stopping somebody
from posing a threat."

We defended our civilians
and we upheld our sovereignty,

and we denied Hamas
any significant military claim.

The injured were being evacuated
to the hospitals in the cities.

But by mid-afternoon,
they were overwhelmed.

The Ministry of Health
called on citizens to give blood

and declared a medical emergency.

Jamie McGoldrick from the UN
had been monitoring the situation

from his office in Gaza City.

Reports from the various news
outlets were saying,

50 people, 30 people.
The number was growing,

and we could see at some point

it was starting to mount
quite significantly,

and we knew there was
a delay in that as well.

It was that point in time
we realised that we had to go there

and see if there was any support
further that we could do and give.

You couldn't drive in cos they'd cut
this area up into the triage area.

So this flow was appearing
in bigger numbers,

people who are tending to wounded,

tending to people being
brought in on stretchers.

The more severely wounded were taken
inside to the emergency area,

and it was getting log jammed.

The doctors were running
around because they had never seen

this number in this way.

Allahu Akbar! Allahu Akbar!

Patients were everywhere.

They were in the corridors.
They were in the outpatient clinics,

in the paediatric ward,
in the gynaecology ward,

lying everywhere.

We tried to stop bleeding
for some patients in the corridors.

Patients were shouting
on the other side.

Patients were standing in queues
to enter the OT rooms

to have their operation done,
life-saving operations.

Some of them died waiting there.

And you're not speaking about
ten patients, 20 patients.

You are speaking
about 1,000 patients at one day

having live gunshot injuries,

with a hospital with
a capacity of three beds

and another hospital with six beds,
and another hospital with five beds.

In total, 40 beds
with 1,000 injuries.

That's...

You do the calculation.

Doctors would discover that, over
a period of eight hours that day,

the IDF shot over
1,000 Palestinians,

an average of one person
every 30 seconds.

Most of these people
were shot in the leg.

Bones turned to dust.

It's like an epidemic
or an outbreak of gunshots.

When you say an outbreak of disease,
it's an outbreak of gunshots.

It's...unusual.

At 3:30, Gaza's Health Ministry
reported that 37 Palestinians

had been killed
and over 1,700 injured.

So far, not a single protester
had crossed into Israel.

The crowds rallied for a final push.

Allahu Akbar!

So it was allowed to shoot someone

to prevent them from coming
to the fence? Is that right?

As a result of being shot,

Bashir's leg was amputated
above the knee.

According to Gaza's
Ministry of Health,

he's one of 17 people to lose
a limb after being injured

on May the 14th.

As four o'clock approached,
crowds and dignitaries gathered

in Jerusalem for the official
opening ceremony

of the new US Embassy.

NEWS REPORT: If ever there was
a vision of two distinct realities

when it comes to this conflict,
it is here today

over the official recognition
of Israel's capital...

NEWS REPORT: Here in the embassy
compound, the Israelis are jubilant.

NEWS REPORT: And for
this joyous celebration,

a high-powered American delegation,
nearly the entire Israeli cabinet.

There was a sense of the gravitas
of the moment.

There was a solemnity to it,
almost a religious cast to it.

For myself, as a Jew, you know,
waiting basically for this moment

for 2,000 years,

as an Israeli waiting
for this moment for 70 years,

having basically fought for
this moment, not just in the army,

but fought for this moment
in diplomacy,

er, it was a moment of
great fulfilment for me.

There was a sense of
being in the moment of history.

CROWD CHEERS AND APPLAUDS

On behalf of the 45th President
of the United States of America,

we welcome you officially
and for the first time

to the Embassy of the United States
here in Jerusalem,

the capital of Israel. Thank you.

CROWD APPLAUDS AND CHEERS

I went over to interview
at a bank of cameras representing

the international media
and found myself being interviewed

not so much about the ceremony

but rather about what was
happening in Gaza.

We're told 25 people now dead.

How does that impact
what's happening today?

It's not going to impact in any way
the jubilation you see

going on behind us. We've waited for
this moment for many, many years.

The narrative was going to go
out there that while Israel

was celebrating this event,
Israeli soldiers were accused

of firing wantonly
and indiscriminately

at peaceful demonstrators.

No Hamas, no attempt
to break through the border,

no sense that our people
were in danger of imminent massacre.

And it began to sink in
that the ceremony,

the inauguration ceremony,
would be marshalled

as evidence against us.

It is now my great honour
to call upon the Prime Minister

of the state of Israel,
Benjamin Netanyahu.

Dear friends, the embassy
of the most powerful nation

on Earth, our greatest ally,
the United States of America,

today, its embassy opened here.

We are in Jerusalem,
and we are here to stay.

We are here in Jerusalem
protected by the brave soldiers

of the army of Israel.

Our brave soldiers are protecting
the borders of Israel

as we speak today.

We salute them all, all of you!

What a glorious day.

Remember this moment.

This is history.

With the death toll still rising,

Hamas and the protest organisers
called an end

to the day's demonstrations.

By the end of the 14th of May 2018,

at least 60 Palestinians
were dead or dying,

and over 2,700 were injured.

One Israeli was hurt.

Hamas later claimed more than
50 of the dead as their own.

You have 60,000 people there.

Around 60 get killed.

52 of them are Hamas.

That is actually the Israeli army
exercising tremendous restraint

in the face of a dire
security threat.

The paramedic Moussa Abu Hassanein

was one of the dead
claimed by Hamas.

Palestinians say that,
like most of the dead,

he had nothing to do
with the organisation's armed wing

and was posing no threat to Israel
when he was shot.

Civilians who participated
in these riots

paid an unfortunate price.

And what's really sad
is that it doesn't seem as if Hamas

has changed its strategy or is
thinking of doing anything else.

We did not understand.

Israel didn't
understand this enough -

that the protester,
that the rioter in Gaza,

is the new missile.

If they're shot, rioters are shot,
they inflame public opinion

in the world much better
than rocket fire does.

And this was proof of it.