Translation: Lorenzo Cremonesi in Gaza
Translated from the Hebrew: If Only You Had Been There:
A foreign correspondent’s story of Gaza
Written by: Nadav Eyal (for Israel’s daily newpaper “Maariv”)
Lorenzo Cremonesi, who writes for the Italian daily paper Corriere della Sera, can easily be mistaken for someone suffering from a secret death wish. He is not one to steer clear of any deadly war he wants to cover, with his typical Italian eagerness. His paper sends him on special missions and Cremonesi dives into the conflict with some zest, to bring out the story.
This week he arrived at Tel Aviv University, to take part in a conference about media coverage of the war in Gaza. Unlike most of the journalists present in the room, Cremonsi was actually in Gaza during the war. He gained access into the Strip in defiance of Israel’s policy. The story he told, published in part in Israel, is quite remarkable.
“I got to the other side of the border where ambulances were waiting,” he recounts, “Ambulances in Gaza function like a cab service during war…