Everything You Need to Know - PALESTINE

Voices from Palestine | The Martyrs of Gaza

[UPDATE - 22 November 2023] - I wrote this section a while ago but unfortunately Wattpad Guidelines doesn't allow photograph portraits. Instead, I will try to link their photographs in the comments. I ask that you take the time to view them. Please be especially kind and respectful.

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Hi friends,

I spent a while trying to figure out how to begin this. But it's upsetting and I don't really have words. There aren't any words to convey the grief on this scale. And honestly, I draw a blank trying to find the right things to say. But I think it's important to remember that out of the eleven thousand and growing toll of persons killed, that each one was a person with a life and a story. And interests, and relationships, and dreams, and drama, likes and dislikes. Potential. Desires and passions. Intelligence. To minimize them down to just a number in a death toll isn't fair. Not when they've already had so much stolen from them. And with each "number" as well there are people whom they've left behind. A family who will grieve them— but for some, there is not even a family left. Entire bloodlines have been wiped out. Whole lineages— gone. Leaving only their friends behind to remember them. It's difficult to even fathom, but this is reality. 

"Martyr. In Arabic, we refer to each of those killed at the hands of the oppressor as a "Shaheed" [شهيد] or "martyr," its literal translation meaning "witness". Martyrs are witnesses to the crimes through which they were killed. This term is used across the Arab world by communities engaged in liberatory struggles. As the oppressor continues to try and silence our people, we remember our martyrs as witnesses to the injustices they suffered. Every Palestinian civilian killed by the Zionist regime is a martyr. Every colonized and oppressed person murdered in the struggle for freedom is a martyr. We honor each and every one of them."

There is an account on X (formerly Twitter) which is honoring the martyrs of Gaza. All eleven thousand of them. I implore you all to follow and support it. It's called GazaMartyrs. Link is in the comments, here → 

They also have their Paypal linked in the description so if you'd like to donate and support them, by all means, please do if you can. 

I don't have the means to list every martyr, nor do I want take any focus away from supporting GazaMartyrs, so please check them out on X and Instagram. I talked briefly with the person who runs their X account and they gave me permission to share the stories and photos from some of the martyrs of Gaza. Here are a few who have been on my mind this morning. All descriptions and photographs are from GazaMartys.

 If you're religious, I ask that you keep the friends and families of these individuals in your prayers. If you're not religious, allow yourself to be reminded of the humanity of those whom much of the world is attempting to dehumanize, even in death. Remember their faces, their names, and their stories.

love,

Astoria <3

[14 November 2023]

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Ayah Yasser Al-Muqaid

Date of Martyrdom : 15 October 2023"

Ayah, a software engineering graduate, competed for a job at the university. Ayah was spontaneous, loving life, and delicate."My little sister and my friend since childhood," her brother Abdulrahman said. Ayah got engaged two months before the war, eagerly preparing for her wedding.  Her ring is the only thing left, identified when they searched for her under the rubble. Today is Ayah's birthday, and her brother Abdulrahman commemorates her and wishes her a happy birthday. Ayah was martyred in an Israeli airstrike on their home on October 15, 2023.