LEILA FADEL, HOST:
Palestinians call it the Nakba - Arabic for catastrophe. Israelis call it their war of independence. But 78 years after the creation of Israel, Palestinians say their mass expulsion, flight and killings have continued. NPR's Anas Baba in Gaza spoke with a man who survived it all.
ATTIA AL-TEEBY: (Non-English language spoken).
ANAS BABA, BYLINE: Attia al-Teeby (ph) has eight children and nearly a hundred grandchildren and great-grandchildren. He says he is a Palestinian, the son of Palestinians and that his entire life has been defined by this. At 90, he is one of the oldest living people in Gaza today, but he says this is hardly a life.
AL-TEEBY: (Non-English language spoken).
BABA: He says, "at this moment, we are neither dead nor alive. That life has been taken from us."
NPR met al-Teeby in a tent in Gaza City with a single wooden bed. His home was destroyed in an Israeli airstrike. He survived the bombings and starvation, but he was injured and hospitals lacked supplies. Doctors had to amputate him at the knee. But al-Teeby remembers better days, before the conflict began nearly 80 years ago. At 12 years old, everything changed. Word spread of raids and killing in Palestinian villages that year of 1948.
AL-TEEBY: (Non-English language spoken).
BABA: His family, like hundreds of thousands of other Palestinians, fled their village to Gaza. An Israeli drone buzzes overhead as the 90-year-old says he hasn't felt safe his entire life since.
AL-TEEBY: (Non-English language spoken).
BABA: More than 72,000 Palestinians have been killed in Israeli attacks in Gaza following Hamas' deadly attacks on Israel in 2023 that killed around 1,200 people, according to authorities on both sides.
AL-TEEBY: (Non-English language spoken).
BABA: Al-Teeby says it's been one catastrophe - or Nakba - after another, but that this land will always remain home.
Anas Baba, NPR News, Gaza. Transcript provided by NPR, Copyright NPR.
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