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?No one inside Gaza is calling this a ceasefire,? says Arwa Damon, former CNN correspondent and the founder of INARA, a nonprofit organization that supports children impacted by war. She says ongoing Israeli restrictions on medical evacuation are essentially a death sentence for many people, including children. ?They are either going to end up with permanent injury or they are going to die.?

NERMEEN SHAIKH: This is Democracy Now!, democracynow.org. I?m Nermeen Shaikh, with Amy Goodman.

We end today?s show in Gaza, where the partial reopening of the southern Rafah crossing with Egypt has been marred by chaos as Israel enforces strict restrictions on Palestinians. Over the first four days of the crossing?s reopening, only 36 Palestinians in need of medical treatment were allowed to leave for Egypt, according to U.N. data. This comes amidst rising skepticism over the implementation of the second phase of the so-called ceasefire brokered by the Trump administration, which Israel has repeatedly violated with near-daily attacks across Gaza.

AMY GOODMAN: For more, we?re joined by Arwa Damon, award-winning journalist, former CNN correspondent. She?s the founder of INARA, a nonprofit organization that supports children impacted from war, joining us from Istanbul, Turkey.

If you can tell us what?s happening? We hear that the Rafah border is partially open. We hear about the enormous medical need of children and others getting out of Gaza for treatment. And also, who?s coming in? Can you talk about the workers for INARA, your organization, Arwa?

ARWA DAMON: Look, first of all, no one inside Gaza is calling this a ceasefire, not even the children. We support a number of makeshift educational tents. And the kids, and in this case, it was a group of girls, seventh graders, they were talking to our team about how difficult it was just to get to the tent, how it shuts down when the rains are too intense because the tent floods. They don?t have anything to really sit on, so they?re on the cold ground. And it?s really a struggle for them. And so, our program coordinator, Yousra, was asking them, ?Why do you bother to come to school?? And they said, ?Because when the war is over, that?s when we will make our dreams come true.? And this launched a conversation about what their perspective was right now. And they were talking about how, for them, the war hasn?t ended and that they still go around every single day with that fear that they could be bombed, that they?re still struggling to get sufficient, you know, nutrition.

And so, when we talk about the Rafah border, you know, partially reopening, in theory, we were supposed to be seeing 50 patients, off of a medical evacuation list that is close to 20,000, being permitted to leave every single day, along with two relatives. What we saw in total, as you just mentioned there, for the entirety of the first week, was just 37 patients leaving. Even if we were to take that number — and no one?s really sure how that was exactly agreed upon — of 50, it would still take over a year to get everybody out. And we have to keep in mind that, you know, these aren?t people that are just signing up to a list to be able to leave Gaza. These are people, children, people of all ages, who have such a debilitating injury that if they don?t get treatment outside of the Gaza Strip, because Gaza?s hospital system has been entirely decimated, they are either going to end up with permanent injury or they are going to die. In a period of just roughly seven months last year, more than a thousand people died while they were waiting for medical evacuation.

Now, when it comes to who?s being allowed in, there is a list also of roughly 25,000 to 30,000 people, people who signed up to be permitted to go back in. The numbers being let in, as far as we are aware, are even less than those that are being let out. And you hear testimony from some of them where they?re talking about how they weren?t permitted to bring their belongings in with them, how they were very aggressively interrogated, how they were blindfolded to be able to move through certain parts that, you know, presumably, maybe Israel considers to be sensitive.

Now, specifically when it comes to our team, our team is all actually based in Gaza and from Gaza. We, and I, myself, I?ve been denied entry by Israel for over a year right now, something that we?re trying to appeal through the Israeli courts process. But for all organizations, it?s becoming more and more difficult to operate because of these new regulations and restrictions that Israel has put into place.

NERMEEN SHAIKH: Arwa, in addition to this, you know, catastrophic medical situation, there is also an increasing problem with the sewage system in Gaza. If you could explain what the sanitation system is like and the problems that it?s producing?

ARWA DAMON: I mean, look, we need to think about, you know, the two-and-a-half-plus years of this Israeli bombardment of the Gaza Strip that has utterly decimated almost all of Gaza?s infrastructure, and that includes sewage infrastructure. And so, all of these people who were displaced had to basically dig toilets. And when it rains, these holes overflow. And so, when it rains in Gaza, when we see those images of flooding, that?s not just rainwater. That is sewage water. And it carries with it, obviously, any number of diseases.

Now, couple that with the fact that access to water to be able to bathe with, access to hygiene kits, soap, is also very challenging and heavily restricted. There?s no way to mitigate against the spread of disease. Now add that the fact that there?s not sufficient medication to be able to deal with some of these diseases that are emerging.

And while I?m on the topic of medication, because we do talk a lot about the impact on children, it?s also worth talking about the impact on the elderly, the elderly who have heart conditions or diabetes. They are quite often unable to access the medications that they need. And I was talking to another friend of mine whose father is with her, who is quite ill, and she doesn?t know what she?s going to do if, you know, he has a crisis at any point of time in the day, because, again, it?s Gaza. You can?t just walk out and hail a cab and get to a functioning hospital.

And so, when you do talk to people inside, they really don?t feel as if, one, you know, it?s a ceasefire; two, that anything has really genuinely improved on the ground; or that anything has happened that is allowing them that just brief second of respite.

AMY GOODMAN: Arwa, we have less than a minute. What do you think the intention here is of the Trump administration, as his envoys — his son-in-law Jared Kushner, Steve Witkoff — say they?re moving, negotiating into a second phase? What do you think? Where does that leave Palestinians?

ARWA DAMON: You know, I think it would take someone with magical powers to try to predict what President Trump and what this administration?s intentions, thoughts and sort of, you know, psychology and logic actually is. But if we look at what has happened so far, it most certainly does not seem as if any of the plans that are being spoken about or suggested actually have the Palestinian population of Gaza?s best interests at heart. And that is a terrifying prospect. People still expect to be forcibly displaced once again. People are terrified that they might eventually be pushed out of Gaza altogether.

AMY GOODMAN: Arwa Damon, I want to thank you for being with us, award-winning journalist, former CNN correspondent, founder of INARA, a nonprofit organization that supports children impacted by war. She has been banned from going back to Gaza.

I want to encourage people to come out to our February 23rd Democracy Now! 30th anniversary celebration at the historic Riverside Church in New York. Guests will include Angela Davis and Naomi Klein, the Nobel Prize laureate Maria Ressa, Michael Stipe, the jazz legend Wynton Marsalis, the Palestinian poet Mosab Abu Toha, Hurray for the Riff Raff and more. You can go to democracynow.org to get information and tickets. Back to you, Nermeen.

NERMEEN SHAIKH: That does it for the show. I?m Nermeen Shaikh, with Amy Goodman in Los Angeles.

Join Amy Goodman, Juan González, Nermeen Shaikh, special guests and the entire Democracy Now! family to celebrate 30 years of global independent news in NYC on Monday, February 23, 2026