Four Months in Gaza
The Documentary Podcast
BBC
4.3 • 2.7K Ratings
🗓️ 31 December 2025
⏱️ 27 minutes
🧾️ Download transcript
Summary
A raw and intimate perspective on the terror, anger, and hope of living through war.
As bombs hit ever closer to her home in central Gaza, Hanya Aljamal spots her elderly neighbour tending to his garden. “He's been raking the earth,” she says, “prepping the soil for new seeds. Given everything that's already happening, it's quite interesting seeing him do that right now. I mean, if grandpa thinks it's a good time to put seeds in, then I don't know, maybe there's hope.”
In audio diaries sent from her balcony over four months, Hanya sees impromptu volleyball matches, flying shrapnel, and a hastily constructed tent village as Israel expands its military action. But after she questions whether she will live to see the end of the conflict, a fragile peace is finally agreed and Hanya’s personal situation changes dramatically.
This episode of The Documentary comes to you from Assignment, investigations and journeys into the heart of global events.
Transcript
Click on a timestamp to play from that location
| 0:00.0 | BBC Sounds, Music, radio, podcasts. |
| 0:05.5 | I'm Simon Mabin and you're listening to the documentary from the BBC World Service. |
| 0:11.0 | For assignment, this is four months in Gaza. |
| 0:27.2 | So, cheer hearing is basically a celebration because there might be possibly a ceasefire. |
| 0:30.1 | This is Hanya al-Jammal. |
| 0:35.0 | She's a 28-year-old Palestinian who lives in Gaza and works for an aid charity. |
| 0:39.1 | It's July 7th, 2025. |
| 0:44.1 | The weather is hot, very much so. |
| 0:46.2 | The other day, someone said, |
| 0:50.6 | I don't know how the sky knows it's July already. |
| 0:58.8 | All the ceasefire conversations are flaring up feelings of hope that are quite torturous in terms of whenever you get a news that it might be happening for sure you feel happy you're relieved |
| 1:05.0 | or both and then you realize there's another news that says the entire opposite |
| 1:10.3 | Hanya's been recording the sounds around her and audio diaries for me there's another news that says the entire opposite. |
| 1:15.5 | Hanya's been recording the sounds around her and audio diaries for me since June, |
| 1:20.8 | when she sent daily entries over the course of a week for a documentary called One Week in Gaza. |
| 1:26.2 | Foreign journalists like me are banned by Israel from reporting freely from Gaza. |
| 1:31.3 | So Hanya's diaries are a way of hearing what it's really like living through the war there. |
| 1:37.1 | Sorry, I need to clarify what the noise is. |
| 1:41.7 | There is a couple of guys playing volleyball. |
| 1:47.0 | It's very innovative. So there's no no net there's a single line that is literally tied to one of the things that are poking out of the |
| 1:54.0 | blown up building that is next to the guys playing but they seem to be having lots of fun, as you might be hearing. |
| 2:04.9 | Hanya's been forced to move five times by the war |
... |
Please login to see the full transcript.
Disclaimer: The podcast and artwork embedded on this page are from BBC, and are the property of its owner and not affiliated with or endorsed by Tapesearch.
Generated transcripts are the property of BBC and are distributed freely under the Fair Use doctrine. Transcripts generated by Tapesearch are not guaranteed to be accurate.
Copyright © Tapesearch 2026.