Palestinian poet Mosab Abu Toha on all he’s lost in Gaza and hopes for his homeland

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• Amna Nawaz:

  Award-winning Gazan poet Mosab Abu Toha lost his home, some of his friends and family members in the last two months.

  On November 19, he himself was detained by Israeli forces on his way to the Rafah border as he tried to evacuate Gaza with his family, and was released only after international outrage. He's now in Cairo with his wife and three kids and joined me earlier to talk about what he left behind and what the future holds for his homeland.

  Mosab, welcome to the "NewsHour."

  Thank you so much for joining us.

• Mosab Abu Toha, Award-Winning Gazan Poet:

  Thank you, Amna, for having me.

• Amna Nawaz:

  Take us back, if you can, to November 19. Your son is an American citizen, so you and your family were trying to evacuate, headed down to the Rafah border. You were stopped by Israeli forces. What did they tell you about why you were detained?

• Mosab Abu Toha:

  Well, I was taking the Salah al-Din Street, the street that should have been safe passage for people to evacuate from the northern part of Gaza to the southern part of the Gaza Strip.

  And on the way, there was a line, and there's Israeli soldiers. There was an Israeli soldier calling people by description. So when it came to me, he said: "The young man with a black pack — backpack and with a red-haired boy, put the boy down and drop all your things and come join the line. There were about six snipers aiming at me."

  So I put the boy down, I dropped everything, and then I joined the line of the people. And then I was undressed in front of a jeep behind a wall. Everything was confiscated from me, including my — all of the passports. And then I was blindfolded and handcuffed. Later, I knew that I was taken to Be'er Sheva about two hours away from Gaza, and without knowing anything, without having the blindfold or the handcuffs removed.

  So, we spent — I spent personally about 50 hours without seeing anything, without being able to remove — to move my hands.

• Amna Nawaz:

  Mosab, you were taken, we know, to a detention center in Southern Israel, as you say. You were kept there for two days.

  What was that treatment like? And, at any point, did anyone say why you were being held?

• Mosab Abu Toha:

  Well, they first accused me of being a Hamas activist. I was beaten very hard.

  I was slapped across the face. I asked them if they have any proof. And he slapped me across the face. He said: "You give me proof that you are not Hamas." Then they didn't have any evidence. I asked them if they have a photograph, a video, a satellite, anything that shows that that's what they are saying is correct.

  But it turned out to be that they were just taking me. And they knew who I was, because my son was — is an American citizen, and we are his family. So the names that were listed on the Rafah Border Crossing were cleared by the Israelis. They were just taking me to just treat me as bad as they could.

• Amna Nawaz:

  Mosab, were you alone during this whole time?

• Mosab Abu Toha:

  No.

  So, when I was taken, there was about — I mean, in the line before we were undressed, et cetera, there were about at least 70 to 100 people. And then, when we were taken to Be'er Sheva, in that detention center, there were about 116 people.

  And then, the next day, on Monday, I mean, I heard that there were new people. And the soldiers next door were making fun of the detainees. They were asking them to repeat Arabic children's songs. My wife told me that she used my phone, which she kept with her.

  She used my phone to contact my friends, friends from CNN, friends from "The New Yorker," The Washington Post, The New York Times. Every one of them wrote about my kidnap, and they asked for my safe release. And I would like here to thank everyone who helped me get out as soon as possible.

  And I ask everyone in the world to work very hard to get everyone out.

• Amna Nawaz:

  Mosab, we are speaking today as the home you left behind is virtually unrecognizable. And it's now at the grim milestone of over 20,000 people killed.

  What is it like for you to hear that number?

• Mosab Abu Toha:

  I can't believe what I see. I can't believe what I hear.

  So I'm now here in Cairo, unable to do anything to protect my family. And the fact that I was unable to do anything while I was in Gaza, and now I'm also again helpless to do anything to help and support my family in Gaza, is very, very devastating.

  It's really very hard. With each step I took outside of Gaza, I knew that I was kilometers away from my family in Gaza.

• Amna Nawaz:

  I know you have lost dear friends and neighbors in this war so far. You posted a video of you reading part of a poem by one of those friends, a man named Refaat Alareer, a very famous poet and essayist.

  The poem is called: "If I Must Die." Here's a clip of you reading part of that poem.

• Mosab Abu Toha:

  "If I must die, you must live to tell my story, to sell my things. If I must die, let it bring hope. Let it be a tale."

• Amna Nawaz:

  So, Mosab, Gaza's storytellers are among those who are dying, poets and essayists and photographers and journalists.

  What's the impact of that?

• Mosab Abu Toha:

  Well, the impact that Israel wants to see is that no one talks about Gaza, neither they are Gazans or international journalists.

  They want to kill people in Gaza, and they don't want the people to describe what happened. So they want just to bury the story and bury the people with it, which is, I think, the worst crime that could happen in history.

• Amna Nawaz:

  As you know, Israeli officials, and I have to say, Israelis I have spoken with say they cannot go back to the way life was before October 7, having lived through those October 7 Hamas attacks, and they want to see Hamas gone.

  How does this end? What do you see ahead?

• Mosab Abu Toha:

  I think they can be true about saying that, but I would like to say to them and to the whole world that we have been unable to live at all.

  I mean, in Gaza, in the West Bank, Palestinians in the diaspora, they have been unable to live at all. We need to live a decent life, just like the one they are trying to have after killing us.

• Amna Nawaz:

  I know, when you left, you were fleeing with really just what you could carry. And I wonder what it is you brought with you.

• Mosab Abu Toha:

  Well, I brought my wife with me, my three children, and a copy of my poetry collection, one — only one copy. I lost every book that I was trying to compile on my bookshelves.

  Every time I traveled to the United States — I went there three times. Every time I went, I went — I came back to Gaza with dozens of English books, especially ones signed by friends, author friends. But now, when I got out of Gaza, I only had one copy of my book, which I — which was published last year in San Francisco.

  And I only got out only with my clothes.

• Amna Nawaz:

  You're in Cairo now. What's next for you and your family? Where will you go?

• Mosab Abu Toha:

  Well, I have three options. One is going to the United States, which is something that I'm not willing to do right now, because my family and also my wife's family are still in mortal danger.

  Any moment, we can hear about something bad from them, just like I learned today about the death of, like, a very close friend of mine who used to be a farmer and a very excellent soccer player. The second option is being here in Cairo for a job opportunity. And the third one, which I hope will happen soon, is returning to Gaza and reuniting with my family.

  And, hopefully, we are not going to miss any one of them.

• Amna Nawaz:

  Mosab Abu Toha, joining us tonight from Cairo.

  Mosab, thank you so much for your time. We're thinking about you and your family. Please stay safe.

• Mosab Abu Toha:

  Thank you so much for having me.