Aya Batraoui
speaker
1,564 appearances
188 recordings
2 series
first heard Nov 2024
last heard 4d ago
Aya Batraoui’s voice in public audio — every appearance, attributed to the second.
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recordings per month · last 12 monthsRecordings per month over the last 12 months — 151 in all, peaking in Sep 2026 with 37.
Appearances
But sometimes Eya didn't hear from Anas for days. Was the phone line down because they've run out of fuel to keep their telecoms operating or something was struck? He had to use an eSIM or was there like 3G or 4G available?
I can't remember exactly when I came across it on Instagram, but this is like a collage by this group called Gaza Poets. And it sort of spoke to me so much because it's how I felt. It just says in big black letters in the middle, Gaza is being bombed. And all these tiny little words around it saying things like, I eat breakfast while Gaza is being bombed. I read a book while Gaza is being bombed.
I laugh at a joke while Gaza is being bombed. I go to the gym while Gaza is being bombed. I fall asleep while Gaza is being bombed. Reporting was actually like a really important way to release some of that pressure that was building up.
It's war. It's war, but it's also a war that was happening so quick and so fast, and one that had... the full, full backing of the United States. And also there are certain numbers that certainly have defied the history books, like Oxfam reports that more women and children were killed in one year of war in Gaza than in any other war in decades.
The Committee to Protect Journalists says more journalists were killed in Gaza than any war on record. Same with healthcare workers, civil defense rescue workers, like the list goes on and on. I really had to think, how do you tell the story of Gaza?
It was live streamed every day on like every platform. TikTok, Instagram, Facebook, Telegram, WhatsApp. People saw. And had access to see everything.
Like, why are my kids able to just bike, stub their toe, cry for an hour and get ice cream? And like, all these other kids are like, dying these very slow, painful deaths under the rubble. There's such a disconnect. That for me was a moment where I felt like, I don't know if I can keep doing this. I don't have the luxury to tap out. Like, you have to keep going. You have to keep reporting.
This is what you do. You have to keep documenting. It became our only way to cope with a feeling of helplessness. Because every single aspect of this conflict has been under dispute or questioned, starting with death tolls, the number of dead, who died, how they died, why they died, even just the number of aid trucks going in. You'd think that's a pretty straightforward thing to count. It's not.
And a lot of times it would just be venting frustrations, just like being there for each other as colleagues. Reassuring each other that what they did mattered. And then there's also just the element of like, how are you? How are you? You know, what did you eat for breakfast? Did you get food today? Did you sleep well?
How do you feel?
Wait, I want you, I want you to just, like, you said the sea is on your left, the Mediterranean, the coast.
Can you just, like, take a big breath of, like, the fresh sea air for me?
Good morning, Michelle.
So this letter was delivered by a senior Emirati official from Abu Dhabi who traveled to Tehran and met with Iran's foreign minister yesterday. But before it was even read by Iran's supreme leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei had this to say.
So he's speaking to university students yesterday in televised remarks, saying the U.S. is trying to deceive global public opinion with this letter and that Iran is not ready to negotiate. And referring to Trump, he says this is the same person who tore up and threw out a signed agreement. Now, he's talking about Trump's decision in his first term as president to withdraw the U.S.
from a nuclear deal that was reached under President Obama and included China, Russia and European countries. That deal put caps on Iran's nuclear program in exchange for lifting sanctions.
And he warned Iran can defend itself against threats.
Well, despite Khamenei's sharp words, Michelle, Iran's mission to the United Nations struck a different tone, saying in a post on X that if the objective of negotiations is to address concerns about the potential of nuclear weapons, these discussions may be subject to consideration, but that Iran would not dismantle its peaceful nuclear program.
And it's important to note here, Iran's position has been that its nuclear program is for peaceful energy purposes and that it's not interested in building a nuclear weapon. That said, since Trump scuttled the nuclear deal in 2018, Iran has been increasing its stockpile of enriched uranium, according to U.N. inspectors. But also, you know, the U.S.
and Israel, which has hit nuclear targets in Iran before, they're not the only countries involved here. The U.K., France and Germany have continued talks with Iran about its nuclear program. And tomorrow, China, Russia and Iran are meeting in Beijing to discuss Iran's nuclear program and the sanctions that are crippling its economy.
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