Israel

Reporting from Israel after October 7 attacks

Tim went to Israel right after the October 7 Hamas attacks to report from the front line for The Free Press, the new US media outfit.

He criss-crossed Israel and the West Bank to deliver powerful, original journalism not being covered elsewhere. His sensitive, first-hand reporting was reached audiences of millions - and was picked up by US and UK national media.

Tim was called to comment on the attack and their implications for other media - including The Times and Fox News.

BBC World Service: From Ukraine to Israel - documentary

Tim presents a BBC World Service radio documentary - From Ukraine to Israel: An exodus for our times

Thousands of Ukrainians are fleeing to Israel – joining a million-plus former Soviets who have already moved to this Middle Eastern nation, with profound consequences for both Israel and the region. Tim Samuels investigates this very modern ‘exodus’ of Jews, once again running from Eastern Europe, a journey so many of their ancestors made before.

He meets Ukrainian refugees in a Tel Aviv immigration hotel trying to start a new life for themselves after fleeing from the horrors of the conflict, but also finding themselves sharing the same facilities as Russians who have left their country too for Israel. The land they are moving to is already home to more than a million citizens from the former USSR– a wave that began in earnest in the 1990s, after decades of being denied the right to leave for Israel.

Samuels meets ‘refusenik’-turned-Israeli politician, Natan Sharansky, to talk about the impact this sudden wave of ex-Soviets had on their new homeland and Middle Eastern politics. And what will be in store for these latest migrants – in a country where ‘Russians’ can still be seen and treated as a distinct tribe. Not far from the hotel housing new arrivals lies the vast, unfinished residency of Roman Abramovich – one of a number of oligarchs with Israeli citizenship. It is unclear if the home will be ever be completed by Abramovich, if action will be taken against the oligarchs, or indeed whether Israel will carry on trying to mediate in the conflict.

It all speaks to the complex and unusual relationship between Ukraine, Russia and this Middle Eastern nation with so many citizens from the former Soviet Union.

BBC documentary - Israel treating Syrians

Hear Tim's BBC Radio 4 documentary about the Israeli hospital treating wounded Syrians...

Tim Samuels' Sleepover: Inside the Israeli Hospital

http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b08j9r62

 

Tim Samuels spends twenty-four hours immersed in an extraordinary medical scene - Israeli doctors tending to Syrians who have been smuggled over the border for life-saving treatment into a country Syria istechnically still at war with.

In the Ziv hospital in the northern Israeli town of Safed, Tim follows two doctors on their rounds as they treat Syrians - both civilians and fighters - who have been seriously wounded in their country's civil war. Unable to get proper medical attention at home, they are amongst several thousand Syrians who have headed to the border and into Israel for treatment. Tim meets a Syrian man shot during conflict; once his leg has been repaired he intends to head back to rejoin the fight.

On the children's ward, a mother who has brought her son for treatment describes how her trip to Israel must remain a secret - or she fears she could be killed when they return. On the Syrian border, Tim sees two badly wounded fighters smuggled into Israel by the IDF as they are rushed to Ziv for emergency attention. 

In the hospital - staffed by Jewish, Muslim and Druze medics - the doctors talk about the psychological toll of treating the war wounded. A hospital social worker describes waking up repeatedly through the night at home to check that his young son wasn't injured. The doctors at Ziv say they hope their work is at least a sliver of humanity in a dark region.

Tim explores what motivations might underpin Israel's assistance to those coming from enemy territory - and how such an unusual situation, even by Middle Eastern standards, has come about.