🔵 “I’m trying to breathe clean air.” — Journalist Hamza Salha’s First Weeks in Safety
After two years trapped in Gaza through Israel’s genocide, Drop Site contributor Hamza Salha has finally reached safety in Ireland on a journalism scholarship. Displaced repeatedly from Jabalia, buried once beneath rubble, and forced to bury his grandfather inside their besieged home, Hamza has lived through what he calls “hellish survival.” Many of his friends and colleagues were killed, including fellow writer Yousef Dawas, a gifted photographer.
Now studying at the University of Limerick, Hamza speaks of the “survivor’s guilt” he carries, and says he’s still mentally in Gaza: “I’m trying to heal myself… to breathe clean air, drink clean water.” In his reporting for Drop Site News, Hamza wrote through bombardment and starvation — typing on his father’s phone under the rain, using a hotspot among the rubble.
The new Palestine Deep Dive doc follows Hamza as he begins life in exile, reflecting on loss, dehumanization, weapons tech used in Israel’s war, and the meaning of survival. The full 30-minute documentary is available on YouTube at the link in reply. A short excerpt is below.
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NEW | Buried Under Rubble: Surviving Genocide in Gaza (Short Doc)

@edwardmsalha | @OmarAzizFilm
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