06/27/24 06/27/24 [captioning made possible by democracy now!] amy: from new york, this is democracy now! >> to the people of kenya who have said loudly that they want nothing to do with 2024, i

concede and therefore i will not -- amy: kenyan president william ruto says he will not sign a tax bill amidst the youth uprising and police crackdown that killed at least 23 people. he called protesters treasonouss and now they're calling for his rig nation -- his resignation. then gaza is the deadliest place on earth for journalists. a new collaborative project investigates the targeting of palestinian journalists. >> so many have been killed. we joined forces to make sure there is no information blackout. >> bombing buildings, direct strikes. >> supposed to protect us. now it harms us. amy: the gaza project. we will speak with one of the lead journalists who worked on the investigation and we will go to gaza to speak with

palestinian reporter shrouq aila . her husband was killed in an israeli airstrike in october. then an attempted coup in bolivia. >> it feels us with courage, bravery. bolivia deserves a democracy. amy: we will go to bolivia to get the latest. all that and more, coming up. welcome to democracy now!, democracynow.org, the war and peace report. i'm amy goodman. kenyan president william ruto has scrapped an unpopular tax bill following a mass nationwide uprising tuesday when soldiers and police fired live rounds, rubber bullets, tear gas at thousands of protesters who stormed kenya's parliament in nairobi. at least 23 people were killed and dozens more injured.

on wednesday, president ruto said he had heard the message of the protesters and had reversed his support for the tax hikes. >> the country witnessed widespread expression of dissatisfaction. regrettably, resulting in the loss of life, destruction of property. amy: president ruto called the loss of life very unfortunate and sent condolences to the families of those killed. earlier today, police and security forces fired tear gas and rubber-coated bullets at protesters in nairobi after organizers called for fresh demonstrations to continue to demand ruto's resignation. this is lorna dias, a member of kenya's human rights commission, she spoke after president ruto called protesters treasonous. >> it is not treasonous. it is ruto's acts that are treasonous. there's nothing that justifies the use of life bullets on protesters. but this regime position snipers

to shoot and kill unarmed protesters. amy: we will have the latest on the youth uprising in kenya after headlines. bolivia's president said wednesday he had survived an attempted military coup after bolivia's former army chief deployed soldiers and tanks to government buildings, including the presidential palace. in a dramatic showdown captured on live television, president luis arce confronted the rogue military commander demanding he stand down and withdraw his forces. after armored vehicles pulled back from the presidential palace, arce addressed thousands who rallied against the attempted coup. >> it fills us with bravery, courage to keep resisting, to keep resisting any coup attempt. bolivia deserves its democracy, which has been won in the

streets and with blood brothers and sisters. the people involved in the coup wanted to surprise as who have reacted also the people have mobilized against this coup attempt. thank you for the bolivian people. amy: living authorities arrested the general, along with an alleged co-conspirator, the navy chief, as he was being arrested zuniga told reporters the apparent coup have been organized by arce himself to boost his approval ratings. we will have more on the attempted coup in bolivia later in the broadcast. israeli warplanes and artillery fire have pummeled densely-populated areas of gaza city's sabra and shujaiya neighborhoods in a surprise attack that forced tens of thousands of palestinians to flee their homes while israeli ground forces were seen advancing. al jazeera reports at least eight people were killed with many more missing and believed

to be buried under rubble. in southern gaza, there are reports of civilian deaths in khan younis after israel's military struck a school housing displaced people. meanwhile, reuters reports a palestinian girl died of malnutrition in kamal adwan hospital late wednesday, becoming the fourth documented case of child in gaza dying of starvation or dehydration this week alone. the u.n. warns nearly all of gaza's 2.3 million residents are going hungry, with a half a million facing catastrophic levels of acute food insecurity. the israel prison service has significantly reduced food rations provided to palestinian prisoners to the point of starvation, with many prisoners reportedly losing dozens of kilograms of body mass. that's according to the israeli newspaper haaretz, which reports israeli officials actively concealed information about israel's failure to adequately feed prisoners as required by international law. in a letter to israel's high court of justice, far-right israeli national security minister itamar ben-gvir argued in favor of cutting rations to

prisoners, calling the policy a deterrence. meanwhile, israel's cabinet has advanced a bill that seeks to permanently ban the al jazeera media network from operating inside israel. in pakistan, doctors are warning of an epidemic of heat stroke as a searing summer heatwave continues to push temperatures as high as 120 degrees fahrenheit. in karachi, home to some 15 million people, hospitals have treated thousands of heatstroke victims this week, with one charity reporting 450 people have died in the past four days alone. residents say the heatwave has been made far worse by rolling blackouts as an aging electric grid fails to keep up with demand. >> this is due to climate change that is happening all around the world. they have taken steps to deal with it elsewhere but here the government has not taken any effective measures. we are suffering from power outages every day.

amy: in the united states, the supreme court has rejected a lawsuit alleging the federal government overstepped its authority when it put pressure on social media companies to moderate misinformation around covid-19 and the 2020 election. on wednesday, justices ruled 6-3 that the plaintiffs -- a pair of republican attorneys general and several social media users -- lacked standing to pursue the case, ruling there was no evidence the biden administration's actions had caused them harm. meanwhile, bloomberg reports justices are poised to allow abortions in medical emergencies in idaho. that's according to a draft copy of an opinion that was briefly posted on the supreme court's website, apparently by accident. if the 6-to-3 decision remains unchanged, it will reinstate a lower court order that had ensured idaho hospitals could perform emergency abortions to protect the health of pregnant people. the decision, however, does not resolve the core issues raised in the case. in a concurring opinion, justice ketanji brown jackson wrote -- "today's decision is not a victory for pregnant patients in

idaho. it is delay. while this court dawdles and the country waits, pregnant people experiencing emergency medical conditions remain in a precarious position, as their doctors are kept in the dark about what the law requires. the court had a chance to bring clarity and certainty to this tragic situation, and we have squandered it." president biden and former president donald trump are set to square off this evening in the first presidential debate of the 2024 election season. the event will be hosted by cnn. no other presidential candidates will be allowed to participate. the debate will feature no audience and each candidate's microphone will be muted except when it's their turn to speak. tune in to democracy now! friday will we bring you highlights of the debate and analysis. the state of texas has carried out an execution for the second time this year. on wednesday evening, prison officials in huntsville injected 41-year-old ramiro gonzales with

a lethal dose of the drug pentobarbital and pronounced him dead 24 minutes later. ramiro gonzales had been on death row since his conviction for a 2001 rape and murder he committed when he was just 18 years old. the u.s. surgeon general has declared gun violence a public health crisis. dr. vivek murthy made the declaration in a video statement released tuesday following years of pressure by gun control activists. >> gun violence has now become the leading cause of death among children and teens. that wasn't true a decade ago or two decades ago. i am issuing this advisory because i want people to understand the urgency of addressing gun violence, the importance of seeing it as a public health issue. and if we see it in that way, if we apply a public health approach to that violence, we can do what we do with cigarettes and car accident related debts, which is ultimately to make people savor, reduce the toll on their health, and ultimately improve people's well-being.

amy: the national institutes of health reports that last year, nearly 43,000 people died in the united states from gun related injuries. a u.s. federal judge has sentenced former honduran president juan orlando hernández to 45 years in prison on drug trafficking charges. prosecutors successfully argued hernández ruled honduras as a narco-state as he accepted millions of dollars in bribes from cocaine traffickers in exchange for protection. before his presidential term ended in 2022, hernández was a longtime u.s. ally who received unconditional backing during his eight-year rule despite mounting reports of serious human rights violations and accusations of corruption and drug trafficking. and brazil's supreme court has decriminalized the possession of small amounts of cannabis for personal use. although sales of marijuana remain illegal, advocates say decriminalization could slow the pace of mass incarceration in brazil where more than 200,000 people remain behind bars on drug charges. and those are some of the headlines. this is democracy now, democracynow.org, the war and peace report.

i am amy goodman. nermeen: and i'm nermeen sheikh. welcome to all of our listeners and viewers from around the country and around the world. we begin today's show in kenya, where police have put up roadblocks and fired tear gas at protesters calling for president william ruto to resign. demonstrations are contending even after ruto made a dramatic reversal wednesday and said he would not sign a tax bill that had prompted a mass nationwide uprising. this came after at least 23 people were killed and dozens more injured tuesday when police fired live rounds, rubber bullets, and tear gas at protesters who stormed kenya's parliament. ruto spoke in a televised address wednesday. >> the country witnessed widespread expression of dissatisfaction with the bill that passed. regrettably, resulting in the loss of life, destruction of operating, and degradation of constitutional institutions. nermeen: he called protesters

"." treasonous." this is a member of kenya's human rights commission. >> it is not protesters who are treasonous. it is ruto's acts that are treasonous. there's nothing that justifies the use of live bullets on protesters. but this regime position snipers to shoot and kill unarmed protesters. amy: for more, we're joined in kenya by a person who has asked for anonymity. i know this is very difficult for you. can you explain what is happening. we reported yesterday on kenya, more than 22 people dead, then ruto changes his mind and says he will withdraw the tax bill yet the protests are continuing. talk about the danger you feel. >> what we're seeing today and

has been happening for at least lack week is continued abductions, what are considered local organizers. it appears the government is trying to get to the bottom of who was organizing these protests without realizing this was a youth-led and people-led movement and that is why a lot of us are online trying to call for the abductions to stop and for them to be returned. we saw yesterday several high courts order the police to make sure anyone who is arrested and detained cannot be held in communicative under article 49 of the kenyan constitution. that is why we are speaking anonymously for fear of being abducted myself. nermeen: what is happening so far as you know to the activists who have been detained and imprisoned? is there a way for you to find out, especially after people have set according to article 49 they can't be detained like this?

>> at this time, many are not speaking out about what happened to them. we know this morning and activist who appeared on tv a few days ago was found in a forest drug and apparently taken to hospital for treatment. what we're seeing on the streets right now is a heavy police presence. the kenyan defense forces have been deemed unconstitutional. the call for the forces to deploy cannot happen without approval of the national assembly. although we see the president saying in his remarks yesterday adhering to the law and constitution, what we're seeing on the ground is much more different. we are expecting a decision from the high court. sued the government for this decision they made. nermeen: we would also like to bring in a guest from the second

and via, -- lusaka, zambia, mamka anyona, an international finance and development expert from kenya. welcome back to democracy now! if you could talk about the root causes and what exactly kenya's debt situation is? >> thank you so much for bringing me to the show. i salute my colleague speaking from the other side and braving -- which the president declined to sign. this finding steel -- this finance deal is because the country has been in debt distress for quite a while now.

that has required -- the imf stepping in as there has been -- went in economy is brought to their knees -- the level of unemployment is incredibly high. the level of poverty is rising. [indiscernible] it got like a step too far. especially kenyans who have gone to school and are sitting at home without jobs. incredibly engaged in the political process because of this particular situation. the debt the government is trying to deal with is a

challenge. we have about $80 million worth of debt and the number keeps changing because the currency is quite weak at this time. a lot of the debt we have is denominated in dollars. amy: you're talking $18 billion? $80 billion? >> about $82 billion, yes. for an economy of about -- this is almost 100% gdp that we have in debt. our greatest debt at the moment is the world bank. a lot of what we owe -- domestic debt that is held by a lot of bondholders. over the last 15 years, the leadership took out a lot of

debt for infrastructure projects. we had a new railway. we had -- we have had roads, airports have been upgraded. but then we have to say there is a lot of -- there has been a lot of mismanagement. such that the infrastructure we're getting is not at the cost would expected to be. there's a lot of what you call budget corruption where the cost of -- the cost is inflated. there is a lot of mismanagement of funds. part of the reason why kenyans are on the streets is not just because they don't understand the debt needs to be repaid, a lot of kenyans -- there was not proper public dissi participati.

their reports about this debt never even made it to the country due to corruption. with a former president on record saying we are losing at least $20 million a day to corruption. the president himself was saying this. the combination of the stress kenyans are feeling, the situation that requires evermore tightening of the belt and then kenyans being aware that public finances being managed and then, obviously, as was stated on the show yesterday, living a very opulent life that does not match the social presentation you would expect from a country suffering so much. it has all ended up creating this tinderbox. amy: i want to ask our guest to

his anonymous in nairobi right now, the #rutomustgo. do you think these protests will continue unless the president is out? can you talk about the allegations against him and his wife, among others? >> i completely agree with my colleague around the fact there's quite a bit of budgeted corruption. as much as we are talking about the finance bill, there is the appropriations bill which is a new conversation young people are having online which allocates hundreds of millions of shillings to the offices of the wife of the president and vice president. these are unelected and unconstitutional offices that are tax payer money should not be going toward. young people say our taxes cannot be your wife's allows. which expresses the frustration around us needing to tighten our belts, meanwhile, we see the wife of the office of the state being awarded millions of shillings in taxpayer money.

#rutomustgo --initially -- we've seen in organic move saint it is not just enough to eject the finance bill, which the president does not have the power. the conversation that we are having is there is a bigger issue beyond just the finance bill and there is a big push to not only have fresh elections but also have the parliament dissolved. what we have seen over the last two weeks is we do not have a representative democracy. the members of parliament that we elected have said to us over and over again we hear your voices, we do not care about your voices. we will do what we think is in the best interest of the president. not ordinary kenyans. the movement to then find the tools to then call for accountability as well as see the president leave office, i

don't believe that pressure is going to leave at any point. we have also seen already violence -- today i are reports of people already shot in various counties across the country. we expect there might be more deaths today as young people are saying, you cannot kill us all. even though you meet us with violence, we're going to insist this country belongs to the people of kenya and especially to the young people. 80% of our population is under the age of 35. if we're not going to listen to the was of young people, then we have no country. amy: we want to thank you both for being with us. we will continue to follow this story in kenya. i want to thank the writer and activist joining us from nairobi who asked to remain anonymous out of her fear of safety. and we want to thank mamka anyona, speaking to us from

zambia. she is an international finance and development expert. when we come back, the gaza project. the new collaboration involving 13 news organizations investigates the targeting of palestinian journalists. stay with us. ♪ [music break]

amy: this is democracy now!, democracynow.org, the war and peace report. i'm amy goodman with nermeen shaikh. nermeen: gaza is the deadliest place on earth for journalists. by far. according to the committee to protect journalists, over 100 palestinian journalists have been killed in gaza since october. the palestinian journalists syndicate puts the figure even higher at 140 journalists and media workers killed since the start of the war. according to the group, the deaths represent 10% of all journalists in gaza. now a new collaborative investigation called the gaza

project by the nonprofit group forbidden stories brings together 50 journalists from 13 different news organizations to investigate the targeting of journalists in gaza and the west bank. amy: according to the findings of the gaza project, at least 40 journalists and media workers in gaza were killed while at home. at least 14 journalists were wearing press vests at the moment they were killed, injured, or allegedly targeted. at least 18 journalists were killed, injured, or allegedly targeted by drones and six buildings housing media offices were completely or partially destroyed. for more, we are joined by hoda osman. she is the executive editor for arab reporters for investigative journalism, which was a partner organization in the gaza project. hoda osman is also the president of the arab and middle eastern journalists association. she is based in new york but today is joining us from amman. thank you for being with us. we know there is a delay in this

broadcast. can you start off by talking about the scope of the project and your major findings? >> thank you very much for having me here today to speak about this important project. we started talking about this months ago. it was a shock to all of us that the scale of the killings of the journalists in gaza was beyond any imagination. by any standards, it is unprecedented. world war ii, vietnam, the iraq war, nothing like this has happened to journalists before. the crisis is not just for palestinian journalists or arab journalists, but for journalists worldwide, the journalist community. to be honest, we were not seeing the outcry for the sort of reaction that this crisis

deserves. i have to give credit to forbidden stories, the nonprofit based in paris whose should is to complete stories for journalists who cannot complete either because they have been killed or censorship or detained. they brought us together to work on this project. 50 journalists, 13 organizations. in the beginning when we started, really all we had was this huge and tragic number, over 100 journalists killed. we started from there. we wanted to investigate these killings. we started off by dividing the cases amongst us to look into every case and look into which investigations could come out of this project. i can speak about some of the main findings, which included -- i feel like one of them, the main result is collectively having worked on this for so many months and all of us together to sort of push back against the claim the -- the israeli lane that journalists

have not been targeted enter show to the different investigations we used -- i think over 20 articles have been published by different organizations -- that there is a systematic attack on journalists in gaza and the west bank, too. we have two stories out of the west bank, including a story about a specific attack in tv crew in the west bank. collectively, just by looking at all of the investigations together, you can clearly see this is not just -- or the notion because of the scale of the destruction and the war in gaza, that this is just a natural result. when you look at these investigations, you will come to this conclusion. i am happy to speak about some of the specific findings and stories that we have worked on if you would like me to. nermeen: yes, we would like you to speak about some of the specific stories. maybe you could begin with the

directed attacks against the afp office, which you wrote about at length. and also explain how all of these different -- you have some of the leading media organizations in the world who were involved in this from la monde tudor schlegel. speak about what happened at the afp office. >> let me start by how we all work together. forbidden stories was critical in managing this project. you can imagine 50 journalists in several different countries. supporting this is definitely a challenge. but we all work on all the stories. once -- after the initial stage of doing some research about the different cases, once we identified leads we are going to follow, we created these subgroups and anyone interested

in one of these leads would join the group. then we did what we referred to as radical sharing. everybody was just radically sharing whatever they were doing. i was doing interviews. someone else was doing forensic visual analysis. someone had access to documents. everybody shared everything. without that -- i would not have been able to do it alone. my organization would not have been able to do it alone. the other organizations would not have been able to do it by themselves as well. let me speak about one of our major findings. on november 2, the afp offices in gaza -- there was an explosion there. the result was a huge gaping hole that you can see from the outside but also on the inside, a lot of damage. afp regularly, is a common practice for foreign offices in gaza, sent there location to the israeli military you tell them

is a media office and not to be targeted. when asked about what happened, initially the israeli army said they did not recognize anything had happened and then they said maybe it was the result of debris. there was the condemnations and request for investigations but then nothing really happen. then we started looking into this. what we had really to work on this was the live footage from the camera that was stationed in the afp office. when the staff left in october after the evacuation orders, they left an unmanned camera connected to solar power. these explosions were caught on camera on the life feed. we were able to identify four strikes. through analysis that was done by two organizations, which was confirmed by an analysis done by

an organization specializing in investigations and by six weapons experts, we were able to determine this was direct firing by an israeli tank from around three kilometers away. we identify the specific area the firing happened from and we were able to get satellite imagery that shows two days before and the day after, there were tanks in the area. while we are looking at this, i came across a story of a journalist to have been injured. i noticed he was injured november 2 in an attack on a local media company called the post in -- palestine media group. then we found out they were on the same street in the tallest building and gaza on the 16th floor. we found out what time this other attack had happened and turns out it happened about an hour before the afp attacks.

i remember this moment. we were in a virtual meeting with the afp -- the afp team was working with us on this story. we were checking the range of time. let's check the live feed and found it was caught live on camera. there were two attacks on two buildings, four strikes on afp, at least one we know of on the offices of png and this other building. the difference between the two is at the pmg offices, there were four people, including two journalists, and one got badly injured in his leg. this was one of our main findings. the israeli military -- we approached the military for response before we publish. in its response, it still insisted there was no targeting of the office. nermeen: could you also speak kind two of the critical stories you covered were the attacks on

the press house palestine. explain what press house did, the services it did fruit journalists, and what happened. >> one of our other major stories -- and this when we work closely with the guardian on -- was about press house. it is a very unique and special organization in gaza that was considered by many as a second home to journalists. it provided a lot of training and workshops to journalists. it was created by man in 2013. journalists would go there to attend workshops, attend discussions. it was also considered a place like any foreign dignitary that would visit gaza would definitely go to visit press house. we heard a lot about the

breakfasts they held in their garden. the pictures from before when you see them and you look at them, it is quite disheartening to see what happened. after the unrwa, press house had -- war, they sent out a message to the journalists saying we have protective gear. you can come to press house and you can start getting it. they started giving the journalists the protective gear and opened up their offices. they had strong internet. they were connected to solar power. journalists started working from press house the first few days. in the evacuation orders happened in october. some left to the south and some stayed in gaza city. they did not want to close press house and wanted to continue serving the journalists. within two weeks, from november

6-13, three press house staff, journalists, were killed. on november 6, a man was killed in his home with his family. and another was killed in the home of his in-laws when a missile hits the building. his son was injured. he took his son outside, randy taken to the hospital and then hamad himself was killed, supposedly -- november 19, another insisted to stay in gaza city, decided he was going to go south and meet up with this family who had already left gaza city. he took a route that was designated clearly by the israel i military as a safe route to head south. there were maps and distributed and were on facebook and they had this route in yellow, clearly saying you can take this to the south.

he was in the car and he was killed when there was an explosion. we think it was a tank shell. he was killed that day. in addition to the three, a huge loss -- you speak to anyone in gaza and you mentioned wael al-dahdouh and press house and the day he was killed -- i remember speaking to several journalists on that day and the shock -- the loss was insurmountable. we also managed to speak to a witness who stayed in press house my former financial director and a good friend of him. he had to flee his home and stayed in the building that housed press house for a few weeks. during his stay, an israeli tank stood directly in front of press house and fired at press house. they were fortunately not harmed. this person and his family.

the following day they left and a few days later, press house was completely demolished. you can see the pictures. it is quite sad to see the pictures of this lively, buzzing place with the journalists then and now you see it is just like rubble. amy: hoda osman, i wanted -- give at this crucial story that appeared in the guardian that was headlined "the grey zone: how idf you used some journalists and gaza as legitimate targets." if you can explain briefly? >> the news organization does the media organization that lost the most was al-aqsa which is considered to be affiliated with hamas. davis, the reporter on the story, looked into this and spoke to a spokesperson from the israeli military who said, yes, we consider people who work for this media organization as

terrace and legitimate targets. but after the publication of the story, the israeli military said this spokesperson does not represent our views and that is not our view but the fact is, the majority of the journalists who have been killed are journalists who have worked for this media organization that is affiliated with hamas. nermeen: toward the end of your report, you talk about the journalists who have survived so far and what conditions are. if you could explain what you found out from then, the people they lost, the number of times they have been displaced? >> thank you. a lot of the time the attention is on this huge number but it is important to pay attention also to the journalists who are still there. we did a survey of over 200 journalists that responded. it is tragic.

98% have been displaced. many have lost family members. many have lost family members. their homes have been destroyed. they have lost -- half of them have lost their jobs. a lot of them lost their jobs because they lost equipment they used to report. it is really bad for the journalists who are there. right now especially when no foreign journalists are being allowed into gaza to assist and to help with reporting. we depend fully on these journalists who are reporting the story but they are the story themselves. amy: you right at the interview article in the intercept, " roshdi sarraj, a journalist who ran an independent media company that did work for the bbc and le monde, wrote on facebook he intended to defy an israeli army order to evacuate gaza city. he said, we will not leave and

if we leave, we will go to the sky and only to the sky, he wrote in his post. nine days later, he was killed by an israeli airstrike on his home. i want thank you, hoda osman, for joining us, executive editor for arab reporters for investigative journalism, a partner organization in the gaza project. also the president of the arab and middle eastern journalists association. joining us from jordan. we're going to turn now to our next guest in gaza. nermeen: as we continue to look at the targeting of journalists in gaza, the deadliest place on earth for journalists, we go now directly to gaza to speak with a palestinian journalist who is at the heart of this story. shrouq aila is an independent journalist and producer in gaza. her husband roshdi sarraj was also a journalist who founded the local production company ain media. amy: on the morning of october

22, shrouq and roshdi were at their home in gaza city, along with their 11 month old baby girl when an israeli airstrike hit their building. roshdi was killed in the attack. in the months since, shrouq has continued to work as a journalist and runs ain media herself. like so many other families in gaza, she has also been forcibly displaced several times. shrouq is joining us now from outside al-aqsa hospital in deir al-balah. you have now taken over after his death. can you talk about what happened to your husband and what you're doing on the ground there in gaza as you try to continue his work? and explain what is happening there every day. i think we may have lost -- we are testing an image of shrouq. she seems to have lost our

signal. we're going to go to a break and then hopefully we will have her back when we come back. this is democracy now!, democracynow.org, the war and peace report. i'm amy goodman with nermeen shaikh. committed to bringing a voice is not just about because of it from gaza and sometimes we have difficulty connecting. stay with us. ♪ [music break]

amy: "llorando se fue" by los kjarkas. this is democracy now!, democracynow.org, the war and peace report. i'm amy goodman with nermeen shaikh. in a moment we're going to bolivia where it attempted coup has just been subverted. but we are attempting to stay in gaza for a minute to speak with our guest on the ground shrouq aila who is an independent journalist and producer. her husband the journalist

, roshdi sarraj, was killed in an israeli airstrike in october. he ran ain media, which aila now heads. aila, if you can talk about what happened to your husband and what ain media is, the organization you now head, and how you try to cover gaza every day from the ground. we're speaking to you in front of a hospital in gaza. >> i can hear you now. amy: tell us what happened to your husband and what is ain media that he has headed and you now head? fo>> when the genocide started october 7, we were traveling

with our daughter. at the time she was 10 months old. we were traveling for a work trip outside of palestine. when the genocide hit the gaza strip, we decided to immediately cancel everything and return to the gaza strip. when it comes to war in your outside -- not being with her family and not joining and doing the duty of the reality on the ground. the second take of this genocide we arrived. our house -- it is better to be in lower floors. nonstop shaking of houses because of the heavy rockets.

we decided to go to his family house and roshdi decided to go and document alone. why? because in the first day, october 7, the israeli army launched several rockets on the north of the gaza strip and hit our team. one got killed, two are missing so far. we're not able to know whether they are under the rubble where they are kidnapped in israeli jails. hopefully, it is the second option. at least having them alive for such a sign. losing two members from ain media.

so he decided to go alone. we decided to stay home with our little baby. to be frank, i never decided to -- when you decide to be a journalist, it is the sentence for life. after being able to do the documents every day, like on sunday, october 22, 2023, directly after two weeks of the genocide, going to do documenting inside the ambulance. at that time i was hesitating about him leaving to do the documentation inside the ambulance because of the attacks.

a lot of medics got killed, the health workers. i was concerned for him to try not to be in the ambulance and it a in the hospital watching over the -- we had that discussion and he decided just to go. i said, no, first you have to ask your family about going in an ambulance. then after we finally decided it was fine to go do his duty inside the ambulance and heartbreak in terms of going through risky areas to rescue, so we decided he can just go.

roshdi decided he would not leave the house before we have breakfast together. he gathered all of his family members and insisted at that time to have breakfast together. he really insisted to have breakfast. maybe he had this since it would be the last breakfast and he wanted to leave us a memory. so once we started to have bright rest at 11:00 a.m., we hear a massive explosion. like to close to the house. this explosion actually made the table move. we rushed to the ground floor. when it comes to close, it is

better to just go for the ground floor. i know it is not a safe area in the since you're not controlling your feed because you're just nonstop running terrified. we rushed to the ground floor. as we stood together, we were nine members at that time, i was holding hands. our baby was 11 months old. i was holding his hand and -- we are feeling things are falling. i was super afraid.

for seconds, roshdi moved from being by my side. after two seconds, i was trying to get it back -- everything went into dust. in just a second, everything went into dust. at that moment, i got low sugar pressure. when you are attacked, you will never hear the explosion because of the air pressure. so the first thing -- i was not able to see anything, just dust. then i started to smell the gunpowder.

the concrete and the dust. i tried to wave my hand searching for my husband. i wasn't able to find him. 10 minutes later, i felt there something very heavy on my legs. i tried to search, what is that? i could not just move my legs. unfortunately, it was roshdi. he got hit in his head. it was a crack in his head that i could see at that moment the brain from inside. i tried to hold -- i called the ambulance and they said, and firstly, we coming to the area

because it is under heavy attack and it is not stopping for 20 minutes. i called my brothers because he is a doctor. i described to him the injury. he told me, you cannot to anything for him. trying to walk and go to the hospital. so we carried roshdi. we walked to the hospital. it took almost 15 minutes until we arrived on foot to the hospital. he did not make it. he left us. he left us. but he didn't just leave us come he left a reality that israel has been deliberately targeting journalists in the gaza strip. amy: shrouq aila, we want to thank you so much for being with

us. i'm so sorry you had to share that painful story. our deepest condolences on the death of your husband. shrouq is an independent journalist who has taken over ain media media, which her husband journalist roshdi sarraj, was killed in an israeli airstrike in october. we thank you so much for joining us from deir al-balah in front of al-aqsa hospital. we are going to end today talking for a moment about what happened in bolivia where thousands filled the streets of the r's to confront military forces that try to carry out a coup against the democratically elected president luis are say. hours after the coup failed, the bolivian authorities arrested the rogue military commander generals anita and his alleged co-conspirator arnaz. the president has sworn in new heads of the army, navy, and air

force. we will speak online with our guest who is in bolivia kathryn ledebur, director of the anyona network. we wish a very happy birthday to jon randolph! we have a job opening at democracy now! we are currently accepting applications for a director of development. learn more and apply at democracynow.org. democracy now! is looking for feedback from people who appreciate the closed captioning. e-mail your comments to outreach@democracynow.org or mail them to democracy now! p.o. box 693 new york, new york 10013. [captioning made possible by democracy now!]