In Rafah, Yousef is out of options and faces his toughest move yet. Prologue: Since the beginning of the war in Gaza, Yousef Hammash has decided where to go next and when. In Rafah, he is out of options and faces his toughest move yet. (5 minutes) Act One: Yousef does not even want to think about leaving Gaza. (18 minutes) Act Two: The actual price — in cash — of getting out of Gaza. (31 minutes) Reporter Chana Joffe-Walt talks to reporters from the Organized Crime and Corruption Reporting Project and Mada Masr.
Since the beginning of the war in Gaza, Yusuf Hamash has been a master of good timing and good luck.
We did a story about him a few months ago.
Let me remind you for a minute who he is and how capably he got his family from place to place.
Hamas attacked Israel on October 7.
Yusuf fled his home on October 8 because he was afraid that Jabalya, where he was from, was going to be bombed.
And the next day, October 9th, Jabalya was bombed.
As the war moved, he moved a second time down south to a city called Khan Younis.
Then Israel dropped leaflets from the sky telling everybody to evacuate Khan Yunis immediately get to safety.
Further south in Rafah, Yusuf packed up the car that day.
His wife Manal, his kids, his mom, and made his third move.
And this is around the time that he started having conversations with one of our producers here, Hana Jaffe Walt.
He told Chana that he knew his sisters who were in Chaim.
Yunus needed also to go to Rafah.
And he kept wheedling, arguing, pleading, making promises, wearing them down.
And they still did not move until an airstrike hit the building next to them.
Terrifying, right?
Yusuf raced to where they were.
And as soon as they saw each other, Yusuf and his sisters shared their relief by being exactly how they always are with each other.
The first thing I said today when I met them, there is no discussion.
We are leaving.