Day 390: Steadfastness amid grief and loss

“It was exactly this time last year that I sent my usual message to my family on our WhatsApp group asking if they were all okay. I had no idea this would be my last message to them. Until today, no one has responded. It has been a year since Israel dropped a bomb on my family home, murdering 21 of my closest relatives.”

Ahmed Alnaouq, who wrote these words in The New Arab earlier this month, lost his father, two brothers, three sisters, 14 nieces and nephews and a cousin in that Israeli massacre on 22 October 2023.

Alnaouq joined us on this week’s Livestream to talk about his family, how he has coped since that terrible day, and how he finds the strength to continue his work and advocacy for Palestine in the face of intense grief and ceaseless worry for those still trying to survive the genocide.

“What happened to me and what happened to my family gave my life a purpose,” Alnaouq told me and Ali Abunimah.

“I have always fought for Palestinians. I have always spoken for the Palestinians, but now this purpose is very, very, very clear. It’s very determined. I will not do anything in my life except for talking for the Palestinians and speaking about my family,” he explained.

Alnaouq is the co-founder and director of We Are Not Numbers, a youth-led Palestinian non-profit writing project in the Gaza Strip that was co-founded by Dr. Refaat Alareer. He also hosts a podcast with Palestine Deep Dive, and is the advocacy officer for Euro-Med Human Rights Monitor.

“If we are silent, then we are cowards. And I don’t want to be a cowardly person,” he added.

“The last thing I want is to give Israel the pleasure to kill us, and we are silent. I will never be silent, because if I am silent, then I am complicit; then I have betrayed my family.”

Fierce resistance

In his report, Jon Elmer covered the latest resistance news from the battle in Jabaliya in northern Gaza. He detailed the various attacks from Palestinian fighters in defense of the north.

“The resistance is so fierce that the Israelis are not coming back and taking their bulldozers,” he said, referring to videos of a burned-out wreckage of an Israeli bulldozer that was destroyed by Palestinian fighters.

“That bulldozer is going to stay in Jabaliya for the next generation to look at, because Israel doesn’t leave trophies like this behind.”

Elmer also analyzed resistance operations in the northern occupied West Bank and Hizballah’s ongoing defense of southern Lebanon.

At the beginning of the program, I delivered a brief news summary of the latest catastrophes across Gaza, focusing on the complete siege on the north which is continuing for the fourth week.

I also reported on the latest bombing attacks against multiple areas across Lebanon, including in the ancient city of Tyre (Sour).

In our discussion segment, Ali, Jon, Asa Winstanley and I talked about other major political developments including Israel’s declaration that it has “achieved” its stated war goals in Lebanon; the appointment of Naim Qassem as Hizballah’s new secretary general following the assassination of Sayed Hasan Nasrallah last month; Israel’s strikes on Iran and its renewed attacks on UNRWA, the UN agency for Palestine refugees.

We also discussed next week’s US presidential elections.

Tamara Nassar produced and directed the program and The Electronic Intifada’s Maureen Clare Murphy contributed writing and production. Michael F. Brown contributed pre-production assistance and Eli Gerzon contributed post-production assistance.

You can watch the program on YouTube, Rumble or Twitter/X, or you can listen to it on your preferred podcast platform.

Past episodes of The Electronic Intifada livestream can be viewed on our YouTube channel.