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Transcript/Script((PLAYBOOK SLUG: ISRAEL EVACUEES
HEADLINE: Many Israeli Evacuees Afraid to Go Home
TEASER: 200,000 Israelis Living in Limbo
PUBLISHED: 12/7/2023 at 9:23p
BYLINE: Linda Gradstein
DATELINE: Maaleh Hahamisha
VIDEOGRAPHER: Ricki Rosen
PRODUCER:
SCRIPT EDITORS: DLJ, Baragona
VIDEO SOURCES:
PLATFORMS: WEB __ TV _X__ RADIO _X__
TRT: 3:06
VID APPROVED BY: Jepsen
TYPE: TV/R
EDITOR NOTES:
Email edits to lindagradstein@gmail.com and rickirosen1@gmail.com;
PLEASE COPY RICKI ROSEN ON ALL EMAILS.
WEB DESK, PLEASE POST CAMERA CREDIT FOR RICKI ROSEN. ))
((INTRO))
[[About 200,000 Israelis have been evacuated from their homes in communities near the border with Gaza in the south or Lebanon in the north. They’ve been living in hotels and guest houses for two months now, and they have no idea when they’ll be able to go home. Linda Gradstein reports from Maale Hahamisha near Jerusalem.]]
((NARRATOR))
Some of the about 200,000 Israelis evacuated from communities near the borders with Gaza and Lebanon have nowhere to return to, after their homes were bombed or burned by Hamas militants on October 7.
In the meantime, all of the evacuees have been living in limbo in hotels and guest houses all over Israel, including the Yearim ((pronunciation: Ye-Ah-rim)) Hotel at Maale Hahamisha (( Ma’aley Ha Chamisha)) outside of Jerusalem.
They say they don’t know when or if they will feel safe enough to return.
((Radio: Or Amar Ashush is from a community very close to the Gaza border. She says nobody can promise them that another Hamas assault won’t happen))
((Or Amar Ashush, Evacuee)) ((Female (in Hebrew, NEEDS VOICEOVER), VOA))
“We don’t have any place to go back to now. First of all, it’s a closed military area and nobody can promise me that they won’t breach the border again. In our case they came on hang gliders by air, but nobody can promise us that won’t happen again either.”
((Mandatory cg: Israel Defense Forces))
((NARRATOR))
Many fled their homes immediately after the Hamas attack with nothing but the clothes on their backs. Volunteers mobilized to collect and distribute thousands of cartons of clothing, toys and household items for the evacuee centers.
This hotel provides room and three meals a day, as well as health services and recreational activities.
Children have been integrated into local schools and a nursery school has been opened inside the hotel. One of the teachers says the children seem calmer and happier now, two months after the October 7 attack.
((Radio: Ada Brodsky is a nursery school teacher at the hotel))
((Ada Brodsky, Nursery School Teacher)) ((Female (in English), VOA))
“In the beginning they were very frightened – any loud noise would scare them. ///
/// There’s a house here that was built by a volunteer who came, many of the kids would crawl into it and find safe haven. And they would close the windows and doors and put blankets over the windows so the baddies wouldn’t be able to find them.”
((NARRATOR))
About 400 out of the original 550 evacuees from two Gaza border communities remain at the Maale Hahamisha hotel. Some have found alternative housing either renting apartments or moving in with relatives. They say that families living long-term in small hotel rooms is challenging, especially for those already coping with trauma and stress.
((Radio: Shiran Asaraf Michaeli is the evacuee coordinator at the hotel. She says many of them are still traumatized from the events of October 7))
((Shiran Asaraf Michaeli, Evacuee Coordinator in Judean Hills District)) ((Female (in Hebrew, NEEDS VOICEOVER), VOA))
“Coming here are children, fathers and mothers who are not experiencing post-trauma, but are still feeling trauma itself. When there was a missile alert, which doesn’t happen here often, the reaction was so different than the longtime residents here. There is trauma, it exists, and they are living it.”
((NARRATOR))
More than a million Palestinians in Gaza have also been displaced by the fighting which has destroyed their homes. More than 80 percent of Gaza's population of 2.3 million is now crowded into the southern Gaza Strip where they are living in United Nations schools and facilities.
((NARRATOR))
The Israeli evacuees say they are anxious to move back home, even though they recognize that it may take a long time, if ever, to feel safe in their homes again.
(( Linda Gradstein, VOA News, Maale Hahamisha, Israel ))
NetworkVOA
Location (dateline)Maaleh Hahamisha
Embargo DateDecember 8, 2023 03:45 EST
BylineLinda Gradstein
Brand / Language ServiceVoice of America - English
