Was Gaza a stable place over the past two decades before the nakba, the catastrophe, of

October 2023?

What’s different about this war—this genocide—is that it has lasted for almost three years

now, and has not stopped for a single day. It has reduced entire cities of ours, such as Rafah,

to rubble. Massive numbers of people have been wounded or killed; many are still missing.

The number of casualties of this insane war remains unknown, but at the time of writing it

has exceeded 200,000 people.

The word ‘death’ and its derivatives have become a part of everyday language, the most

common words used by people in Gaza. The repercussions of all this death are now what

gives life meaning, what makes life real. Our entire society is haunted by these details.

In every conversation between two people, death joins in as the third interlocutor. The word

death, or some variation of it, is present in every sentence uttered by the two.