Gaza Civil Defense crews on frontline, with Jon Elmer

You are watching and listening to the electronic inifat. I am John Elmer. This is the resistance report for day 846 of Israel's genocide and day 112 of the fraud ceasefire during which 492 Palestinians have been killed, 1356 wounded in well over,300 violations and civil defense teams have been uh able to recover 715 of the 10,000 bodies uh buried in the rubble. Just before we get to uh the civil defense, I just want to update that the last soldier uh the body of the last Israeli um that was in Gaza was returned this week. Norah covered it in the news. Um this is the first time since 2014 that there are no Israelis inside of Gaza. Uh, Sri Alud spokesperson Abu Hamza said, "Based on updated information that we have obtained three weeks ago, we handed over the mediators to the mediators the coordinates of the body of the prisoner uh who was a police uh special forces uh officer. Uh but the enemy deliberately stalled in the coordination and the search of the operations. And according to Shabbach uh Israel's internal security service um that led along with the IDF that led this operation over the weekend they launched the search of the uh cemetery where the police officer was buried. Um, in the process of that they uh exumed 250 bodies and tested them, but they destroyed the graves and and dug up the bodies of 700 uh people, Palestinians in total from that uh cemetery in the Tufa neighborhood in eastern Gaza City. And these numbers are Israeli numbers. They wanted people to know how many bodies they dug up. They said they brought 20 dentists and dozens of doctors to identify the bodies. Um and they updated that number of the number of graves they robbed uh throughout the operation. Um up to 700 is the last number that they have given. Um, and even Israel, according to military sources, they believe that um they think that Islamic Jihad didn't know that that was a soldier that they buried, that he was buried um uh that he was brought back u during the battle of October 7th and he was buried right away. um and Islamic jihad apparently didn't know he was a fighter which explains the um the time it took because as we know from this handover um the files of the prisoners were very much um the file was very much in hand. Casam knew um where to find people that were missing um even from other groups but as we know the last few were Islamic jihad captures uh Kuds uh captured those soldiers. So that is a mark to end the first stage of the ceasefire agreement. Um but of course that ceasefire agreement is not worth the paper that it is printed on. So we will move on from there and get into the civil defense crews. Um we'll go to the first slide here. This is from before the war. Um, we can we're looking at a photograph taken at a parade that marks um and honors the civil defense teams uh once a year. So, this was just a few months before October 7th. And this is a parade through Gaza City. And you can see there's only three firet trucks. They have a significant shortage of um resources. And that is something that of course all of Gaza has had for the past two decades during the siege. Um the siege impacts um the civil defense crews, the rescue crews. These are fire crews, uh medical crews, rescue crews. Um they do lots of training um for the population. They are, for example, in these days of storms, they're going around uh and digging canals through the tent camps to move the water from the flooded tents. just really on the front lines in every single aspect of uh Palestinian society. Um but they don't have enough resources. They don't have enough trucks going into the war. Didn't have enough trucks. And then Israel targets them as if they are legitimate targets, which we know this is the same as the medical um the medical and the education services. Um this is what part of the genocide was was dismantling all of these uh civil society organizations um that take care of the population. Um they were bombed, they were killed by tank shelling, they were fired on. Um from drones um but there was also field executions. um their crew that were bound um were found in Rafa last March. Um along with 15 um total of 15 Red Crescent civil defense crews and an UNRA um official were killed and buried in shallow graves. Um the civil defense reports that 142 of their personnel, their pre-war number was 800 to 900 personnel. 142 of those personnel were killed in the line of duty. Um, and additionally 352 staff members suffered severe or permanent injuries such as amputations which have removed them from the service. So 50% um of their personnel killed or severely wounded. They took on volunteers throughout the war of people joining. um civil defense says that they're currently operating at 5 to 7% of its pre-war capacity and has lost 85 to 90% of its heavy equipment and machinery. All 17 civil defense centers were completely destroyed during the war and 61 of 72 vehicles. So, total genocide um aimed at the people who you saw on TV for the last two years digging with their hands um to rescue people from underneath the rubble. We'll take a look at the next slide here because civil defense um they put out field reports um and they put out field reports um uh on their channel and they this this week's number was 348 uh missions that took place between Thursday, January the 8th um and the following week. Um 14 firefighting missions, 169 rescue incidents, 91 ambulance missions, and 71 other missions. So, what I've done here today is I've gone through about seven months of civil defense field reports and selected some of the operations um to show how critical these crews are. And of course, I could just show endless uh massacre scenes. Um but we'll try to we tried to keep that limited. But just remember that for the 70,000 plus people killed at least um you had civil defense crews on the ground in virtually every single one of those situations operating without vehicles without proper tools. Um this first slide number two uh shows I think the scenes that we um have come to know um these crew members rushing into the b rushing into the bombed out house. This one uh worker is pointing to the mattress. He's identified that there's a mattress there and he's saying be careful. Um this is the kind of work that they do. They know that there's a boy and a girl missing after this bombing. And so when they identify that mattress, they're careful in that area. And also at the same time, these crews are putting out the fire, they're the fire crews as well. So they immediately respond um and are the front lines um of this battle in every way imaginable. And this video I cut, but um they ended up pulling bodies from the rubble. here they talk about sometimes it takes them 12 hours, sometimes more to get the bodies out of the rubble. Um, and they're dealing with situations that are completely different than anywhere else in the world. In a recovery situation, you would have lighting um all over it. You would have trucks, cranes lifting people into different positions. You'd have different types of diggers that could gently uh move uh areas that uh require uh a soft touch, but also have heavy front-end loaders that could deal with the heavy concrete to get it out of the way. And we can look at the next one. The next slide shows um essentially what they've been doing since the war ended, which is um dealing with all of the rubble all over Gaza. This is in the Nusarat camp um from in early December. But this is a kind of footage that you're seeing that you'd see um happening all over Gaza each day cutting literally rebar piece by piece. And that rebar will be then taken out um extracted, restraightened um and used again. And the same with the concrete. They'll grind down as they have in previous wars, grind down the concrete, uh turn it back into gravel, and use it again. Um, and you can see they're using a front-end loader here to get height. Um, just very, uh, I think resourceful is the word um, that you're going to be seeing in all of these slides. um constantly uh dealing with each and every piece of rubble throughout Gaza because uh Gaza has been rebuilding for at least the last 115 days, but they were doing it during the war as well. Um but for the last 115 days while the international community discusses what weighs uh forward at the um civil military coordination center in southern Israel um just a few miles from the Gaza border inside um without AI um you know dystopian drawings you have people on the ground rebuilding their society uh day in and day out. But we can maybe look at the next one because knocking down these walls is uh a crucial part of it. Each individual one of these uh uprights is dangerous and they have to be removed. And you see them here um using the saws to cut um broken um extensions from the building, knocking out walls that are half destroyed. And these houses, if they're um they're using bolt cutters here, handheld bolt cutters to cut the rebar. Um and if the houses are structurally um in shape, people will immediately move back in and be living in these places. Life um carries on. Um as Norah was reporting, people graduating, people still going to the university, um still doing their master's work. Um you can see a a guy on the ground here holding they're holding a rope so that the uh the piece falls off in a safe manner. Um they've been doing this they have a lot of experience at this two decades of all the wars in Gaza um have given them uh experience in how to execute these operations. But really we're watching that was in communis. We're watching them do it by hand. Um and this next one is really remarkable. This, I think, cuts right to the uh heart of the civil defense. Um, I mean, they're heroes in Gazin society. There's no question about it. We're looking at uh one of the civil defense workers here. He's been tied by a rope to the crane hook, and the crane hook is dangling him over to pull out um the dangerous pieces on this building. And they do that by roping him up because their cherry pickers are destroyed. Their trucks um with extended ladders are destroyed. And so they just did it directly by tying him to the crane. And there he is up dropping all of these key um pieces of destroyed material. There's a picture of him uh from a side angle that you can see him hanging on the crane. Uh, and the next one we gave him a uh a bit of a zoom in there that you can see him working on the edge of the crane. We watched him be tied at the beginning of that. Um, and you can see him there working and see him there working again dangling uh in the Gaza sky. So just remarkable work and and a lot of times that you see these the the the people around the kids are all around cheering them on which is always a sign uh that you know um they have a shine in society is when the kids are all following their activities uh and cheering them on. So there's just a zoom in um of that guy up on the top of the top of the building lifted up through a crane hook. Um, this next one has audio in it because I want to show you uh the way they use this all. So, they've got the saws all there on the end of a whatever that was 15t long metal pole. They they tie the um the trigger for the saw down and then they use this extended pole. Um I think resourceful doesn't even really encapsulate how um how creative um this work is and and how effective they do it. And you can see they're using the human safety belt here where one guy holds the other guy. Uh bolt cutters again just using primitive uh tools. The next one also shows Okay, here. Let's watch it again because it's this is just remarkable. Putting the saw on the end of that pole so that they can reach to uh grab that piece off that needs to be separated. Knocking out these walls. The kids all cheer in the background on these. And you can see them there on the waterfront um in Gaza taking down. You see the guy in the back is holding on to um the guy holding the saw of the human safety belt. Uh we'll see that in the next one as well. There's so there were so many videos like this of them hanging off the sides of buildings and you can see them use each other as their safety belt lacking even the most basic uh materials which Israel blocks. These are things that are all waiting on the other side of the border to come across and Israel's blocked them blocked them all throughout the war. And see there's the human safety belt. They hold each other while they're reaching out over the edge of the buildings. Um all of these things could have come in. They're all waiting at the border. They're all um blocked by Israel all throughout the war. And a part of the uh fraudulent ceasefire that we're living through right now um is that there's not enough fuel. And the that fuel is necessary for these crews. It's necessary for the hospitals. it's necessary for um opening the roads. Um the fuel is needed for every part of reconstruction and that's why Israel blocks um the fuel from coming in. Um and it has a devastating impact again. Um and we look at the next one. This is the the very difficult part of their job that they have done. Number 10 here. Um digging up mass graves that Israel uh made all throughout Gaza and particularly in the hospital. um uh courtyards um and they go through them, they pull out each body, they bury them individually. Um they are the ones who take up the process of uh receiving the Israeli uh murdered, tortured, and dismembered Palestinians that have been returned to Gaza. Um and trying to link them up with their families is done by Civil Defense, too. And um as I said off the beginning of the show um they themselves have been put in mass graves in March 2025. Civil defense themselves um were buried by the Israelis in a mass grave. Uh headline from the Guardian evidence of execution style killings of Palestinian aid workers by Israeli forces. Doctor said forensic consultants say multiple bullets were fired from short range on bound rescue workers. Um the Eurommed uh human rights organization said following the total destruction of the workers vehicles, the majority of the bodies were subsequently interned in a deep pit that was then filled with sand. These horrifying scenes serve as further evidence of Israel's ongoing genocide in Gaza is a major crime and a serious breach of international law. Of course, I think that goes without saying. Um but these guys uh handle the most difficult work. Um the next slide shows they're also firefighters um which is a a critical um and something that's in short supply now. We know that throughout the war Israel targeted civil defense uh parking lots and destroyed all the heavy machinery in a single night in some cases of the entire um of the entire station. Um so there's a real shortage of these fire hoses. This is in Berge camp in u this was from last week. Um, and they also do this number 12 we're on now is um they do these first aid um clinics uh tutorials um where they go around and they show people um this is for teachers in schools um showing them how to um deal with emergencies, how to set the bodies um in proper position and teaching people how to uh carry out the basic uh safety functions in their society. They go through the schools and do this. Um they train them in the schools. Um the head of the training department uh at one school emphasized the continuity of such courses and activities which in turn enhance citizens awareness. For her part, the school principal Wafa Shabir praised the constructive role of the civil defense in enhancing awareness among students and teaching staff and commended the civil defense's significant efforts during the war. So, the teacher is saluting um that work as well. And on the uh 2-year anniversary of the genocide, civil defense spokesman uh Mahmud Bassel uh gave a statement that I think really cuts to uh the core of the disposition of the civil defense crews. They said, "After two years of continuous Israeli war on the Gaza Strip, we extend a salute to of reverence and respect to our steadfast Palestinian people who face the machine of war and destruction with unyielding patience and unbreakable faith. Despite the killing, despite the starvation and displacement and suffocating siege that has affected all aspects of life, we in the civil defense apparatus affirm our great pride in our heroic knights who since the first hours of the war have been working day and night facing the horrors of bombing and the fires of aggression um to save lives, to recover bodies, and to cure secure the lives of civilians despite the lack of resources and severity of the dangers involved. We extend greetings and thanks and appreciation to all of our partners in the field, providers of humanitarian services in all sectors who stood side by side with us and continued their work in the darkest circumstances in the most difficult moments. This war, which has affected every home and every family in the Gaza Strip, will not diminish our resolve, nor will it weaken our will to continue performing our humanitarian mission in loyalty to the blood of our martyrs and in loyalty to our people who serve a dignified and h who deserve a dignified life. Finally, we affirm that the civil defense will remain at the forefront of performing its humanitarian and national duty with full integrity and its voice will remain speaking on behalf of the people of Gaza until this tragedy ends and peace is brought to all corners of our wounded homeland. That was Mahmud Bassel on October 7th, 2025. So, this has been the resistance report for day 846 of Israel's genocide in Gaza.