ROB SCHMITZ, HOST:
A year ago, NPR Gaza producer Anas Baba and I reported a story about Nimer Sadi al-Nimer, an 11-year-old boy who had been shot five times by the Israeli military while he and his father were gathering food dropped by parachute outside Gaza City. Israeli soldiers took Nimer across the border into Israel, where doctors performed two surgeries on him, saving his life before returning Nimer to a refugee camp in the southern Gaza city of Rafah. That's where Anas Baba found Nimer a year ago. He was in a makeshift tent with his grandmother and uncle, crying out in pain from his wounds, as you can hear in our report from April of 2024.
(SOUNDBITE OF ARCHIVED NPR BROADCAST)
NIMER SADI AL-NIMER: (Speaking Arabic, crying).
SCHMITZ: Nimer is in pain. It comes in waves. He's just had surgery on his stomach, back, legs and hand to remove bullets. Each left long incision wounds lined with stitches and dried pus. Flies are drawn to them. When he takes too deep of a breath, his skinny frame convulses uncontrollably like an electric shock shooting through him. He cries out for drugs that will numb the pain, but there are none here.
NIMER: (Speaking Arabic, crying).
SCHMITZ: After this story aired a year ago, we lost track of Nimer. We didn't know if he was alive or dead. But this past week, Anas Baba found Nimer, who is now 12, thankfully alive but still suffering from his wounds and the toll of the war in Gaza. Anas joins me now from Gaza. Hello, Anas, how are you?
ANAS BABA, BYLINE: Hello, Rob.
SCHMITZ: Anas, I want you to tell me about Nimer. Where is he now, and how is he doing?
BABA: Nimer now, he's in Al Bureij camp, central Gaza, at his grandmother's house and has finally reunited with his mother and his family. He's suffering. He wears a knee brace and drags his right leg, unable to control it after nerve damage. He cannot stand for long periods. But he's alive, and that's a miracle by itself.
SCHMITZ: Yeah. That is a miracle, given what Gaza has gone through in this past year. Here's a portion of your interview with Nimer, about the lasting impact of his gunshot wounds a year ago.
NIMER: (Speaking Arabic).
SCHMITZ: And Nimer is telling you here that after he had a surgical procedure to deaden his nerve endings, he still cannot run. He cannot play soccer or even walk very far. He says he still has an electric shock feeling when he accidentally bumps his leg and that it often makes him cry. He's saying here that he mostly stays inside. When he does go outside, he says he sees his friends playing and running and he feels jealous. He says, "I'm afraid they'll make fun of me for not being able to run."
Anas, that is really sad to hear that. I remember Nimer's favorite sport is soccer. I remember Lionel Messi is his hero. So this must be particularly tough on him. It's been a year since you last saw Nimer. And I understand that he's been in and out of makeshift field hospitals there in Gaza, constantly on the move, trying to evade Israeli missile attacks. How did he manage to survive the past year?
BABA: So despite his injuries, Nimer endured the horrors of being trapped in a field hospital in Rafah. At that time, there was an ongoing Israeli military operation. And that poor child, he witnessed an airstrike at the gate of the hospital zone. And he spent a month under the immense danger. And afterwards, Nimer and Zakaria, his uncle, finally managed to leave the field hospital, OK? And they began the journey of displacement, which took them 12 times from a place to another. They moved to a house where an Israeli hostages extract mission took place, killing 250 person just to extract three Israeli hostages. And afterward, they moved to a tent. And finally, they returned to Gaza City and settled at their own grandmother house.
SCHMITZ: Anas, did you just say that he was at a house where a hostage extraction took place by the Israeli military?
BABA: Yes. Once he evacuated from Rafah, they rented a house in Al Nuseirat camp - OK? - next to the extraction operation mission for the Israelis to extract three Israeli hostages.
SCHMITZ: My gosh. And, Anas, we should mention here, the Israeli Defense Forces maintained at the time that less than 100 Gazans were killed in its hostage extraction operation. And he saw that, and he managed to survive that.
BABA: He managed to survive that with his uncle, yes.
SCHMITZ: I'm reminded here that when you found Nimer last year in that refugee tent in Rafah, he hadn't seen his parents since he was shot and nearly killed. Tell me about how he was able to be reunited with them.
BABA: For such child - OK? - returning to Gaza is a miracle. He needs someone to carry him all the way because there was no route for cars at that time. Every single person who wants to return to Gaza City means that you need to walk at least for eight miles. So a healthy grown-up man - OK? - will feel tired, OK? Just imagine a child that he's - after one year of being shot from the Israelis is going to take that journey. He told me that he, like, asked his own uncle to carry him all the way. And he was carried on his uncle's, like, back for all the way - to find out that his own, like, mother, father and the siblings are waiting for him at the other end.
SCHMITZ: So, Anas, let's go to your interview with Nimer about the moment he was reunited with his family.
NIMER: ((Speaking Arabic).
SCHMITZ: And Nimer is saying here that the joy he felt when he saw his mother, father and family again was beyond words. He says everyone was crying, and he hugged his mother tightly, not letting go. His entire extended family was there, too. Here's where Nimer's story takes a bit of a turn. Anas, you've learned that Nimer's parents have since divorced. Tell me about that.
BABA: Yes. Unfortunately, Rob, this war, despite all of the killing - 46,000 people who got killed - it's also affected the social fabric of Gaza, OK? The unemployment, at the same time, the war, the displacement, living in tents, made - the parenthood is a little bit, like, hard, especially that you say as a parent, just, like, imagining the suffering that Nimer went through. So, you know, after 16 months, there was one problem - that after three months of Nimer being pushed away to the south, we talked to him, and other media outlets talked to him. And after three months, his own family house got bombed by the Israelis. And the family blamed Nimer and his mama because Nimer talked to the news.
SCHMITZ: So what you're saying here is that his family was saying, look, we were targeted because, Nimer, you spoke to the media, including our outlet, NPR. And that was their belief of what happened, that they were targeted for this. Is that what you're saying?
BABA: Yes. That's correct. We didn't have any, like - let's say, we didn't have any confirmation that that was the - like, the purpose of the target. But at that time of war - OK? - even the families, themselves, turned around on each other because everyone wants to live, Rob. Me, myself, I was a Gaza journalist, and 160 journalists got killed during this war. And I was prevented from renting a house or even parking in front of any other family house because they were seeing me as a moving missile, that the Israelis going to kill them (ph).
SCHMITZ: Right.
BABA: So every single person in Gaza was always being aware about his own life.
SCHMITZ: Wow. Anas, we should mention here, the human rights organization Mezan confirmed the details of this attack on the residents of the Nimer family. In a text to NPR, the Israel Defense Forces wrote, quote, "the IDF follows international law and takes feasible precautions to mitigate civilian harm." Anas, I think this illuminates at least the perception among people in Gaza, whether true or not, that media coverage can endanger the lives of citizens, and it can lead to stress for families after family members speak to journalists, as we've seen in Nimer's case.
BABA: Yes. That's totally correct and, even talking to the media outlets here in Gaza, started to be spreading between people here, that, no, I don't want to be photographed. I don't want to be, like, saying any word outside to the media because I may just, like, put myself in danger.
SCHMITZ: Anas, were people hurt or killed in that attack on the Nimer residence?
BABA: Unfortunately, yes. We do have four casualties. Three of them are women, and one of them is Nimer grandfather himself.
SCHMITZ: Wow. You know, there are many lessons that we can all learn from Nimer's story. You asked Nimer what lessons about life he's learned from the past year of trying to survive in Gaza. And here's what he said.
NIMER: (Speaking Arabic).
SCHMITZ: "I learned," said Nimer, "that extreme hunger makes people do things they never thought they would ever do." Nimer says he, for example, ran to a very dangerous place just to find food. He says another lesson he's learned is that even if they shoot at us, whether we're young or old, we should never give up. Anas, you also asked Nimer about his future, his dreams and if he sees a future for Gaza, and his answer was darker.
NIMER: (Speaking Arabic).
SCHMITZ: And Nimer is saying here, there is no future. Gaza will never have a future. He goes on to say that he has dreams just like everyone else, but that the Israeli military has destroyed all of their dreams. He says nobody in his family has been untouched by this war. Anas, I think it's worth reminding our listeners that we are listening to the words of a 12-year-old child. What's going to happen to children like Nimer in the future?
BABA: The children like Nimer and Nimer, himself, are going to face the future that's totally dark. We can say that they witnessed multiple shades of war, which is the hunger and, at the same time, displacement and the killing for most of the population here. We're talking about the new generation that's going to come here that also wants to revenge and not believing in peace, as they should be.
SCHMITZ: The last thing I wanted to ask you, Anas, you know, because Nimer is still a child, I wanted you to ask him about his thoughts on school. You know, Nimer has not been to school since October of 2023. Here's what he told you.
NIMER: (Speaking Arabic).
SCHMITZ: And he's saying here "I miss school so much. I miss my friends. I miss learning. I miss writing. I just want to see my friends again and to play with them again, but the war continues." "What," he asks, "can we do?" Anas, I want to thank you for all of your reporting from Gaza. You've brought us so many stories like this one, and they're very, very important for all of us to hear. Thank you, Anas.
BABA: Thank you, Rob.
SCHMITZ: That's NPR Gaza producer Anas Baba joining us from Gaza.
(SOUNDBITE OF MUSIC) Transcript provided by NPR, Copyright NPR.
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