2023-10-17 14:10:00
CNN journalist details family’s desperate flight south from Gaza City
CNN journalist Ibrahim Dahman recounts his family’s escape through Gaza, in this screenshot taken from a video. (Photo: Ibrahim Dahman/CNN)
Ibrahim Dahman and his family entered the hotel room and looked out at the blue Mediterranean. His two young children were excited to see a pool under the window, but this was no vacation.
“But they don’t attack…they don’t attack hotels, right?” Dahman’s 11-year-old son, Zaid, asked nervously as the family took the elevator down shortly following.
Exchanging an apprehensive look with his wife of 30 years, Rasha, Dahman replied: “They don’t attack hotels, no.” A kind white lie from a father trying to reassure his children when the explosions, once distant, seemed to be getting closer.
Born and raised in Gaza, the 36-year-old CNN journalist has become accustomed to war with Israel. Palestinians have seen Israeli strikes hit the area on several occasions in the years since Israeli forces withdrew from the territory in 2005, often in response to rocket fire by Hamas. Fighting frequently breaks out between Israel and Palestinian factions in Gaza, including the militant groups Hamas and Islamic Jihad.
But for Dahman, this time is different. Although he wants to continue his work telling the stories of the people of Gaza, he now faces the reality of keeping his family safe at the same time.
Hundreds of thousands of civilians, including Dahman and his family, have been caught up in the escalating crisis. Unlike across the border in Israel, in Gaza there are no warning sirens, bomb shelters or a high-tech defense system, the Iron Dome, to intercept projectiles.
Ibrahim Dahman, with his wife Rasha and their two sons, Zaid, 11, and Khalil, 7. (Photo: Ibrahim Dahman/CNN)
Dahman has not stopped working since he was awakened by “the sounds of continuous rocket fire” from Gaza when Hamas launched its initial attack just over a week ago, signaling the beginning of what US President Joe Biden has been described as the largest massacre of Jews in a single day since the Holocaust.
After filming the rockets whistling in the sky above his house, he immediately headed to the CNN office.
Located in the Al Rimal neighborhood of Gaza City, the office has been a safe haven of sorts for Dahman. It was in this area that he began his journalistic career in 2005, when he covered the Israeli withdrawal from the coastal enclave.
The office building is located in what Dahman called a “beautiful and exclusive neighborhood where all the press offices and foreign and international institutions are located.” The neighborhood was considered one of the “quiet areas.”
But this Monday, things were not so calm.
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