Dirty water and airstrikes: CNN producer documents life for displaced Gazans in Khan Younis

CNN airs footage compiled by its Gaza-based producer Ibrahim Dahman who has been documenting his family’s experience trying to flee the fighting in Gaza.

Dahman and his family left Gaza City for Khan Younis following Israel’s directive for Gazans to evacuate the northern part of the Gaza Strip.

“‘Are we going to die today?’ That’s what my son has asked me since we fled Gaza City,” Dahman recalls.

“Life in Khan Younis is difficult. We’re staying with at least 150 other displaced families from the north, eating the bare minimum to survive,” he says, narrating footage of children sleeping on the floor of an unfurnished room.

“We spend our time watching airstrikes and filling the water tank. It’s like drinking toilet water — Our children drink toilet water,” he says.

Fuel is needed to power the desalination plants in Gaza, but Israel has not allowed any in, saying it will be diverted by Hamas, which has already stolen it from the UN.

CNN journalist Ibrahim Dahman documenting the latest from the ground in Gaza: pic.twitter.com/M7gcQxnKDI

— CNN This Morning with Audie Cornish (@CNNThisMorning) October 24, 2023

He says he tried to reach the Rafah crossing to escape to Egypt over the weekend, along with hundreds of other foreign passport holders, but was turned away. According to the US, Hamas has stopped Gazans holding foreign passports from being able to use the crossing.

“We made our way back, avoiding the chaos, hoping that tomorrow will be better than today,” he says.

Dahman shows footage he took of an Israeli airstrike at a distance in which he asks his young son if he is afraid. The little boy says he is not. “But I can see the fear in his eyes — the same that’s in mine.”