Life during wartime: Bani in Gaza

‘Entire days without food’: Fighting hunger in Gaza | Israel-Palestine conflict | Al Jazeera

Banias, 8, wears a teddy bear sweater as she takes a selfie in Israel's extermination zone: Gaza

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Reporter Chana Joffe-Walt

(Episode 849) Dec. 13, 2024: "The Narrator" is Banias, an 8-year-old kid living in Gaza, Palestine, under Israeli rule as it operates a genocide to exterminate her, her family, and all the Muslims around her.

• AUDIO: The Narrator

She has a story to tell — many stories, in fact. Prologue: While on the phone with reporter Maram Hamaid in Gaza, Jewish producer Chana Joffe-Walt gets interrupted by Maram’s daughter –– Banias, 8, who grabs the phone from her mother and starts telling the audience (or anyone who will listen) about her life.

• Song: “Barbie” by Aqua
• Chana Joffe-Walt (@chanajoffewalt)/X

The narrator arrives. Chana Joffe-Walt talks by phone with a little girl in a war zone as Israel's genocide rages on. Banias in Gaza talks about her life –– her friends, the games she plays, the things she cares about, everything but the war (because she's trying to forget the horror) going on around her.

• Part 2: Banias talks about the war (20 mins)
• Chana Joffe-Walt, ThisAmericanLife.org (npr.org); Shauna Schwartz, Sheldon S., CC Liu (eds.), Wisdom Quarterly