On the morning of Oct. 24, 2023, an Israeli missile struck my father’s house in Rafah City in the southernmost part of Gaza, then designated a “safe zone” by the Israeli military. The missile exploded only 5 ft. from where I sat with my children. 

The attack killed my 13-year old son Abdullah and six others; my 10-year-old niece Joud, my stepmother Intisar, my aunt Fatima, my aunt Khariyya, my cousin Fawziyya, and our neighbor Hamad. It also seriously injured 10 of us, including myself and two of my other three children. Only my son Abdelrahman was spared; he was out of the house in a long line waiting to buy bread.  

The conditions Israel has inflicted upon us have made our lives unbearable, something their leaders seem proud of. We die from every possible form of death. We die from airstrikes, from hunger, from disease. We die in anguish from the world’s complicity in our genocide. 

As we enter the second year of this war, Israeli generals have said they wish to completely empty the north of the Gaza Strip of its residents. They appear to be implementing this plan already, ordering all civilians in the north to flee south in this endless cycle of displacement. 

Israel has consistently dehumanized my people and turned Gaza into a killing field with the help of its powerful friends. Most of the world’s public rejects these policies. But as long as Western governments continue to support Israel with weapons and political cover, there will be no respite. 

My Year Under Fire as a Peace Activist in Gaza by Ahmed Abu Artema, TIME, Oct 12, 2024

The winner of this year’s Nobel Peace Prize broke down in tears upon accepting the award, telling the crowd that pro-Palestine activists deserved to win instead.

This year’s prize was won by Nihon Hidankyo, a group of Hiroshima survivors campaigning to rid the world of nuclear weapons.
Hidankyo Mimako, the group’s co-chair gave an emotional acceptance speech at a news conference today, saying he never dreamed they would win and thought ‘those fighting hard for peace in Gaza deserve it’.
Mr Hidankyo added: ‘The images of children In Gaza covered in blood, held by their parents remind me of Japan 80 years ago,’ referring to the US atomic bomb that fell on Hiroshima in 1945.

He said that most people today wanted peace in the world, ‘but politicians insist on waging war, saying, “We won’t stop until we win.”

Man sobs after winning Nobel Peace Prize and says it should have gone to Gaza activists. Story by Sara Odeen-Isbister, Metro, 10/13/2024

Exactly one year ago today, we wrote to you with a warning: “Israel is planning on carrying out a genocide in Gaza.” 

Palestinians have said for 75 years that the Nakba of 1948 never ended. It has continued for 75 years, every single day. In the crowded refugee camps of Gaza, the alleyways of Jerusalem, the hills of Haifa, and the corners of Jenin. 

But today feels different. As millions of Palestinians in the West Bank, Jerusalem, ‘48, and across the diaspora watch their people in Gaza be expelled en masse while Israel destroys their homes and slaughters those who remain, the only words that people can muster, is “it’s happening again.” 

A second Nakba. 

One year later, we write again as witnesses of this second Nakba — 365 days in which Israel has announced, committed and celebrated a genocide against the Palestinian people. 

PI Briefing | No. 39 | A year of genocide. Liberation is the only path to peace. Progressive International, 10/13/2024