Two Palestinians who fled Gaza during the genocide share their resurrected stories on The Stream today.
The decision to stay and risk losing their homes and loved ones is agonizing for the Palestinians who have managed to leave. Many more have no escape plan and are desperate to escape. What happens to those who actually make it out, then? How do they continue to live after such traumatic experiences while worrying about the people and families they have lost as the war heats up? Do they ever actually heal, though?
They are unable to identify their true purpose. Donald Trump, the US president, criticized Israel-Iran ceasefire violations in an extraordinary four-letter outburst. Trump said he would make an effort to stop further planned attacks by directing the bulk of his anger toward Israel.
Iran is portrayed as a hateful nation by Donald Trump, who claims that Iranians even chant “death to America” there. But does the Iranian obsession with American tragedy mean anything else, or both? It is explained by Soraya Lennie.
Ramallah, occupied West Bank – Early on a recent Sunday morning, Saher figured he had a rare opportunity. Expecting Israeli forces to be distracted by the fallout from Iranian rocket attacks, he started to climb Israel’s separation wall.
He needed about 15 minutes to get to the other side. But as he climbed, an Israeli patrol suddenly appeared.
“I panicked, let go of the rope, and fell.”
He dropped from the top of the wall – a concrete barrier, in some places 8 metres (26 feet) high, which cuts through the occupied West Bank. Saher fell 4 metres (13 ft).
“For a moment, I thought I had died,” the 26-year-old recalled. “I heard voices in Hebrew. Then pain started creeping through my body.”
A Palestinian ambulance crew eventually transported Saber to Ramallah Hospital, where he was diagnosed with multiple rib fractures and fitted with a brace.
The Palestinian construction worker was trying to cross into Israel to reach his job in the city of Rishon LeZion. He spoke to Al Jazeera on condition of anonymity, fearing reprisal for trying to enter Israel without permission.
Before Israel’s war on Gaza began following the October 7 attack on Israel, about 390,000 Palestinian workers relied on jobs in Israeli territory. But after the war started, Israeli authorities revoked their work permits and forced them to leave. As the war drags on, and amid Israeli military actions in the occupied West Bank, some Palestinians – mostly in the construction and hospitality sectors – have been risking their lives to get back to Israel for temporary work.
With crossing points closed and fewer smugglers willing to take people by car since October 2023, many have had only one perilous option left: to scale the wall. That option has now become deadlier, as Israel employed tighter security amid its conflict with Iran and the escalating regional tensions. The wall is now heavily monitored by drones, sensors and military patrols.
A Palestinian man sits in the sun in an alley, a day after a large-scale Israeli military raid in the old town of Nablus city [John Wessels/AFP]
‘Two fires’
With unemployment in the occupied West Bank at critical levels, desperation is pushing people to climb the wall.
“Oh God, let me die and relieve me of this torment,” said Ahed Rizk, 29, as he lay on a bed in Ramallah Hospital. The recently married construction worker was in anguish, and not only physically: He is now unable to provide for his family.
Rizk, who is from a village near Ramallah, lost the use of both legs after falling from the separation wall during an attempt to enter Israel in mid-June. One of his legs is now paralysed; the other was shattered by the fall.
He underwent a six-hour surgery after falling from a height of about 5 metres (16 ft). The rope he had been climbing snapped under his 140kg (309-pound) weight.
“This wasn’t my first time entering for work,” he said. “But it was the most dangerous. I used to go with smugglers and pay a fee, but when the war started, chaos spread. There were no vehicles and soldiers were everywhere.
“I knew I was caught between two fires,” he added, referring to the risk of being killed while trying to enter Israel and the hardship of not being able to work to support his family.
Rizk said dozens of workers had been gathered near the wall between the town of ar-Ram and occupied East Jerusalem. Without a ladder tall enough to reach the top of the wall, they used a shorter ladder and a rope tied to the other side. But as Rizk climbed, the rope broke.
“I landed on another young man who was climbing. He had bruises. I lost both legs. The others went to work. My cousin ran when the [Israeli] army approached. I was left alone.”
A Palestinian man climbs the separation wall at the town of ar-Ram to try to cross into Jerusalem on September 15, 2024 [Mahmoud Illean/AP Photo]
‘No choice’
Shaher Saad, the secretary-general of the Palestinian General Federation of Trade Unions (PGFTU), says Palestinians have been forced to attempt dangerous crossings for years.
“Decades of high unemployment have left thousands with no choice,” he told Al Jazeera.
But since the war in Gaza began, crossings have grown deadlier, Saad said. Palestinians have been shot by Israeli forces or fallen to their deaths.
At least 35 Palestinian workers have died attempting to cross into Israel for work in 2025, Saad said. It is unclear how many of those were shot and how many died as a result of falling.
Saad attributes the deaths to Israel’s tightened restrictions, which prevent workers from accessing authorised avenues to employment.
Conditions in Israeli work sites are often poor, he added. “Most sites lack basic safety standards. Workers aren’t given protective gear. Some injuries are also due to the lack of awareness about safety procedures.”
A Palestinian man raises his hands as Israeli soldiers aim their weapons during a raid in Nablus on June 10 [Raneen Sawafta/Reuters]
Deepening social marginalisation
Israel’s strategy through restrictions on movement and military actions is to exacerbate inequality between Israelis and Palestinians, said Sari Orabi, a Ramallah-based independent political analyst and researcher.
“It imposes restrictions on movement and access to resources, forcing civilians to choose between hunger and physical danger,” Orabi told Al Jazeera.
“This policy of geographic division and military control deepens social marginalisation and increases dependence on aid. It fosters a state of helplessness and poverty.”
In the village of Ni’lin, west of Ramallah, Otham al-Khawaja, a 37-year-old father of three, described how, as he tried to climb the wall in March, Israeli forces opened fire. The tiler by trade fell, breaking both of his legs, but believes he would have been shot had he not fallen.
He had scaled the wall several times before that because he feared not being able to provide for his family. “Fear sometimes clouds judgement,” he reflected.
Al-Khawaja underwent surgery to insert metal rods into his legs. After three months of treatment, he was able to walk again, though not like before.
“God wrote me a new life,” he said, grateful to have survived.
“You will never appreciate life until you face death. Then you learn to accept whatever comes your way.”
Safiyya Vorajee has spoken to Married At First sight star, Paul C Brunson, about a past abusive relationship in which she claims she was physically assaulted and manipulated
Safiyya Vorajee has bravely spoken out about a toxic ex – who she met before Ashley Cain(Image: We Need To Talk/Youtube)
Safiyya Vorajee has bravely spoken out about a toxic ex – who she met before Ashley Cain – on Paul C Brunson’s We Need to Talk podcast. Safiyya, 37, who tragically lost the daughter she shared with Ashely – Azaylia – to leukaemia when she was eight months old in 2021, said she was initially “love bombed” by her ex, who she stayed with for four years, until things took a very serious turn.
Telling Paul she ‘really wanted to be in a relationship’ before her ex began ‘constantly criticising her’, Safiyya said: “I’m like: ‘Oh my god like, yes, I found this guy.’ But then he started chipping away at me mentally without me even noticing. I just thought everything I was doing was wrong.”
Safiyya Vorajee has spoken to Married At First sight star, Paul C Brunson, about a past abusive relationship(Image: We Need To Talk/Youtube)
Holding back tears, the dental nurse then shockingly claimed that her ex “whacked” her in the face after a disagreement in the car. Safiyya continued: “We were driving in the car, obviously I can’t remember what the conversation was about or disagreement was about, but then he just whacked me straight in the face and then I stopped the car he opened the car and pushed me out the car jumped into the driver’s seat and then I was just left and he drove off with my car.”
Despite Safiyya’s mum “begging” her not to go back to her ex after she found out about the violent incident, Safiyya admitted she returned and stayed with the man for four years.
Explaining that he told her how sorry he was and that he loved her, Safiyya said it wasn’t until she was approached by another woman, who told her that she too was seeing the man, that she found the strength to leave.
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She shared: “I didn’t go mad at her. I didn’t do anything. I said to her: “Will you do me one favour? I’ve been in the worst place of my life for the last four years please can you come with me to my house and say this in front of him because no matter what you send to me what you give me he will manipulate me and tell me it’s me going crazy.”
Paul asked Safiyya why she stayed in the relationship for so long(Image: We Need To Talk/Youtube)
After pretending not to recognise the woman, Safiyya’s ex “smashed all the kitchen cupboards” Safiyya said after she left the house, with the woman, who she “took safely back to her car.”
However, Safiyya returned to the house as she continued: “As soon as that door opened I literally thought he was coming to come and attack me in fact he was the opposite he’d sat there and told me it was because I work too much and he didn’t have anybody to spend time with and I was like ‘Wow wow’, I am not buying this anymore.”
Safiyya ended up calling the Samaritans where she said she talked to a volunteer for two hours before finally leaving the home she shared with her ex, getting an injunction against him and giving a statement to the police for her “protection”.
When asked why she thought she stayed in the relationship for so long, the candid star heartbreakingly concluded: “I thought control meant love and the crazy thing about it is, I just can’t believe that’s what I thought love was.”
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* For confidential support, call the 24-hour National Domestic Abuse Freephone Helpline on 0808 2000 247 or visit womensaid.co.uk
If you or your family have lost a friend or family member through fatal domestic abuse, AAFDA (Advocacy After Fatal Domestic Abuse) can offer specialist and expert support and advocacy. For more info visit www.aafda.org.uk
Some schools and staff housing in Katsina State’s Funtua District have been destroyed by a devastating windstorm.
The severe windstorm that struck the affected area on Sunday afternoon caused significant damage to the facilities of numerous educational institutions.
The Katsina State Ministry of Basic and Secondary Education expressed the government’s sincere condolences to the affected schools, staff, and families in a statement.
Read more about the police’s kidnapping attempt in Katsina and the rescue of four abducted people.
The Katsina State Ministry of Basic and Secondary Education releases a statement that reads, “With deep sorrow and complete submission to the will of Allah, the severe storm that struck the Funtua Senatorial zone on June 22, 2025,” in part.
“The storm caused significant damage to the facilities of numerous educational institutions in the affected area,” according to the statement.
The ministry’s commissioner, Zainab Musawa, prayed for divine intervention to ease the suffering of those affected, despite the claim that it is assessing the extent of the damage and will provide updates on measures taken.
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Musawa assured them of the ministry’s assistance during a difficult time. She also urged school administrators to keep up with educational activities while stressing the value of keeping students engaged and academically stable despite hardship.
The Commissioner is confident that the Ministry will continue to support the people who have been affected by the Commissioner’s prayer for divine intervention to ease their suffering.
The Honorable Commissioner, Hajiya Zainab Musa Musawa, demands from school management to ensure that ongoing educational activities are carried out, stressing the importance of maintaining student attendance and continuity of study despite hardship.
