The idea of losing #Gaza forever has driven people here to madness. They would rather die than be torn from it. They would rather be killed “literally on Gaza’s land” than see our city turned into nothing more than a memory. We are the ones who know this city best. We are its people, its children, its lovers, its rightful keepers. We have carried its stones in our hands, breathed its sea breeze, felt both its tenderness and its harshness. We have lived its beauty, its longing, its wounds. No one belongs to Gaza more than we do. So leave us, just leave it to us. Let us be the ones to grieve it. Let us be the ones to weep for its martyrs. But leave us here, just leave us here.

Dear friends of Refaat Alareer around the world, I want to share with you that after a long and painful search we have finally found Dr. Refaat Alareer’s body, which had been buried in a makeshift cemetery. Today, we moved him, along with his brother Salah, his sister Asma and other 4 of his relatives, to Ibn Marwan Cemetery near Al-Shujaiya, the neighborhood where he was born, lived, and now rests eternally. Please keep him in your prayers, and may his family and friends find strength and peace.