Gaza .. Three Years of Catastrophe and the Night is Not Fate

Author

Mohamed Joudah

On the third anniversary of our people's second Nakba in Gaza, which coincides with the seventh of October, I do not want to write words of condolence nor repeat phrases of patience that this people has grown weary of hearing.

I want to say it clearly: the night has lasted longer than it should, and it is time for this darkness to end.

Three years of killing, destruction, displacement, hunger, fear, and extermination; three years during which our people have paid a price that cannot be summarized in numbers, images, or reports.

A people ground down by war, exhausted by poverty, and pained by losses, yet despite all this, they did not allow the catastrophe to kill their desire for life.

Yes, Gaza is in pain... but it is not defeated.

Killing may be able to destroy a house, war may be able to uproot a family from its place, and catastrophe may be able to steal years from people's lives, but it cannot confiscate this people's right to live, nor can it extinguish their dream of the future.

From among this rubble, hope will emerge, and from beneath this destruction, new life will be born, and from the heart of this ordeal, our people will begin to write a different chapter in their history.

For no matter how long the night lasts, it will not be fate, and no matter how fierce the storm, Gaza will not remain under the rubble forever.

The sun will surely rise again, and our people will emerge from this catastrophe more determined to live.