MARY LOUISE KELLY, HOST:
This week, as we mark two years since the October 7 attacks that led to war in Gaza, we're reaching out to some of the people we heard from in the early days of that war.
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QASSEM ALI: Hello.
KELLY: Among them, a man named Qassem Ali.
ALI: Thank you.
KELLY: I'm glad to speak with you again.
ALI: Yeah. Oh, thank you a lot.
KELLY: Ali grew up in a village called Beit Hanoun in Gaza. The morning the war began, he was in the garden on the roof of his family home.
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ALI: You know, I love gardening. So I have nice garden roof. And, you know, I look up, I hear the missiles going, you know?
KELLY: The missiles, yeah.
ALI: Former journalist, and I pick up the mobile phone and started filming.
KELLY: Started filming. As you heard there, he's a journalist and an American citizen. Two years ago, his eyewitness account was critical to helping us understand what was happening in Gaza as bombs started falling. When he and I last spoke, he had just evacuated from Gaza through the Rafah Crossing to Egypt. So when I called today, I asked, where are you now?
ALI: I am in London.
KELLY: In London.
ALI: And now living in Central London. Looks like very luxury life. And go to the pub afternoon, and everything is fine around me.
KELLY: But there are daily reminders of the journey he has been on since October 2023. He says he still carries his documents around with him in the same bag that he used to flee Gaza, and he was wearing the same trousers - a pair of Levis. And since he left his elderly mother in Beit Hanoun, she's died. I asked Qassem Ali, tell me about her.
ALI: My mother is very center in my life, so always close to me. You know, uneducated woman. Educate seven children - minimum - to master degree, without husband.
KELLY: Ali says he tried two years ago to help his mother evacuate too. But when I asked him what happened, he sighed.
ALI: Yeah. And I came to the states, and for a couple of months, I tried to get her out. I couldn't. So I decide to go back to Egypt to try to help her to get out at least to Egypt.
KELLY: I see.
ALI: And I couldn't. And situation is - get worse with the whole situation in Gaza.
KELLY: She lived her final days in Gaza...
ALI: Yes.
KELLY: ...Your mother?
ALI: Yes. I had to find a grave for her because a lot of people loved her. You know, she was very known in the town.
KELLY: Yeah.
ALI: She - to find the grave in this time, you don't believe it. It's like - like, this happen without seeing her, without seeing goodbye with her. And actually, her - that's another disaster.
KELLY: Another disaster.
I also asked, what happened to his family's house, the one he grew up in?
ALI: Wiped out - Beit Hanoun wiped out, my friend, wiped out, wiped out. More than tsunami wiped out - nothing there. Seven-floored buildings wiped out, wiped out - nothing, nothing, nothing. I - sent me pictures. Nothing is there. In all of my town, nothing there. And they took it. Why? Why?
KELLY: It was here that Qassem Ali pointed out he is both Gazan and American. His siblings and his son live in Texas, and his voice started to rise again.
ALI: And I didn't find anybody to protect me or to protect my property - unbelievable to see how. And they're talking about me. When I hear the news, you're talking about my property, my farm, my land, my family, and nobody talking to me.
KELLY: Do you believe you'll go back? Do you have hope you'll see it again?
ALI: Of course. I'm going back soon from London to there. I want to protect what I have inherited in my village for my grandson in Texas. Then if he want to sell it, he will sell it. But that's my duty in life as a human being.
KELLY: I asked him, two years into a war that has ravaged his homeland, what would he want Americans to know about Gaza, about Gazans?
ALI: I'm asking the people to see us - see us as a human being with dignity - not with mercy. What we are looking for - freedom - freedom as a human and consider us as a human being. When you hear bombing is hurting us as a human being, see us. And we want to live in peace. I like New York. I like - I was in Vermont. I was in Texas. I was anywhere. I enjoy it. But my home is Beit Hanoun, Gaza. I don't exchange it with anything.
KELLY: That's Qassem Ali, one of the many people we're checking back with this week after two full years of war in Gaza. Transcript provided by NPR, Copyright NPR.
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