Middle East crisis — explained NPR npr.org by Aya Batrawy August 16, 2024 Abu Bakr Bashir contributed reporting from London
DOHA, Qatar — A Hamas leader says they will give up governing Gaza but won’t lay down arms
Extracts:
October 7, 2023 operation and objectives
Basem Naim, a leader in Hamas’ politburo, says the October 7 operation which Hamas dubbed Al-Aqsa Flood, had several objectives, including to kidnap Israeli soldiers in exchange for Palestinian prisoners serving long terms
Palestinian detainees from Gaza say they are facing abuse in Israeli prisons
Thousands more Palestinians have been detained throughout the war, however Forty-four detainees from Gaza have died in Israeli military custody since the beginning of the war, according to a document the military provided to Physicians for Human Rights Israel and reviewed by NPR
Naim says Israel’s image as a nation representing “Western values of human rights and democracy” has been shattered by the war. He says the war also showed Israel’s reliance on the United States, including in shooting down Iranian aerial strikes in April 2024
“I think yes, we have achieved a lot” he says before adding: “It is very costly. It is very expensive”
The German-educated surgeon, who once served as a minister of health and of youth and sports in Gaza, says Israeli airstrikes earlier this year killed his mother and grandchildren in Gaza
“Anyone who has chosen this way of life, he is aware that he might pay some prices” he says “And I'm not more precious than all these children, including my children, my mother who has been killed”
Unlike other Hamas leaders long in exile in Qatar, Naim had always been in Gaza
He left Gaza shortly before the October attack for a meeting in Turkey, unaware of the operation’s timing, he says Had he known? he says, he wouldn’t have left Gaza City, where his wife and children are struggling on their own
