Children of the homeland. Aqraba, southern Nablus, Palestine.

Western voices now celebrating a ‘ceasefire’ as though they are architects of peace conveniently ignore months of enabling. They funded and armed a regime with the means to commit atrocities, stood by as destruction unfolded, and spent their efforts justifying the indefensible.

After two years, they are still standing. Still existing. Still breathing. Despite the genocide, despite the vows and desires of those who wished to erase them, Gazans remain rooted in their land, deeper than any missile could reach, deeper than death itself.

Europe financed and excused the killing of Gazans. And yet Gaza endured. It reshaped the world by refusing to vanish..

Deep scars have been carved into what was once a small, radiant paradise. This ceasefire is only a pause in the unraveling, a faint exhale after months of unimaginable cruelty and dehumanisation. The world betrayed Gaza. The Arabs betrayed Gaza..

The stray animals that wandered between the stalls are no more. The woman calling her son from the balcony is no more. The old men sipping coffee under the tree that shielded them from the sun are no more. So much is no more. Gaza has become a vast grave of bodies and memories..

And when the bombing stops, the real battle begins. War shapes the body to endure, but the soul breaks when the noise dissolves. In the silence, people begin to count the absences. The beloved faces they once saw are no more. The street vendor who sold figs & grapes is no more..

A survivor searches for the grave of a loved one, but the earth has been leveled flat. There is no place left to mourn. Because Israel bulldozed the cemetery..

A weary cat stands upon a mound of ruins, in the neighborhood where it once leapt from roof to roof. It stares into the dust, unable to recognise what was once its home. Because Israel destroyed it..

The family that once gathered every Thursday evening, where the grandfather held the little ones and the cousins laughed beneath the soft hum of conversation, is gone. Because Israel exterminated them..

The wind drifts through shattered walls, unable to carry the call to prayer from the mosque, silenced for months. Because Israel destroyed it. The journalist who was meant to announce the ceasefire is gone. Because Israel murdered him..

The morning chorus of children singing the national anthem before school has vanished. Because Israel destroyed the classrooms and murdered the students..

When the streets are declared “safe,” a father will walk them alone, his footsteps echoing through the silence of an emptied world. Because Israel murdered them. When people cry out in relief, the orphans will have no one to embrace. Because Israel murdered them..

When the sound of bombs, bullets, and fighter jets finally fades, if only for a breath of time, a mother still cannot hear the voices of her children running toward her in joy. Because Israel murdered them..

For every action there is a reaction, and with each measure of force the counter-reaction unfolds, patient and inevitable.

They may have weakened organised resistance, but they have only sharpened the reasons to resist. When will they understand, that it is impossible to destroy an idea, or an organisation, as long as the will to refuse occupation and oppression endures..

We have learned which politicians, journalists, and scholars stand on the wrong side of history, and which regimes, cynical and filthy, stand beside the killers. And yet here we are, two years on, back at the place where this began many years ago..

Gaza has been driven toward ruin, Geneva’s protections trampled, and the language of law and decency stripped away as civilians and cities alike are leveled. The world has recoiled; hypocrisies have been exposed so the decent may know whom to shun..

One conclusion, which could have been drawn months ago, is plain: this entire military campaign — read as genocide — on Gaza has yielded nothing of ‘value’, only self-destruction. A few assassinated leaders, but as we all know, when one head falls, another rises..

They moved from a vow of annihilation to bargaining with the very men they had sworn to vanquish, to calling for backup from Trump, who thundered, “accept my offer or we will fully destroy you,” and then back to negotiations..