Writing for survival: Gaza creator dares to hope in opposition to the percentages

[ad_1] It began out small, very small, in a vacant lot subsequent to her home in Al-Zawayda, a as soon as sleepy, agricultural city not removed from Deir al-Balah in central Gaza. That’s the place Palestinian creator Safaa Al-Nabaheen determined to carry a workshop for kids to assist them construct tales, dream, and let their imaginations soar above the loss of life and destruction round them.

In early 2024, simply months after Israel launched its newest struggle following the October 7, 2023, Hamas assault, Gaza’s inhabitants was already on the transfer. The Israeli military had began issuing evacuation orders, sparking a course of that might displace 1.9 million out of Gaza’s 2.2 million inhabitants by the top of the 12 months.

Cities and cities in central and southern Gaza have been beginning to flood with refugees from the north, the loss of life toll was rising and as despair spiralled with each bombardment, Nabaheen got here up with an concept.

“As a author and novelist, I might provide coaching workshops for kids and adolescents on the artwork of short-story writing, educating them find out how to channel their interior worlds by means of narrative,” stated the 31-year-old Palestinian creator.

However when she began to place her plan into motion, she had a revelation. “In my first session with them, I found that a few of them had aged 20 years,” she recounted. “Once I requested a toddler about his childhood or his desires, his solely reply was that his concern at this time was filling water containers, gathering firewood for his mom to prepare dinner no matter meals was left, and praying it wouldn’t rain so their tents would not drown.”

Not one to surrender, Nabaheen persevered along with her programme – and steadily, the children began to reply. “It was a quite simple starting; our gatherings value nothing greater than my voice, some concepts for leisure, and inventing new video games for them. It was a really small tent on the fringe of the land, the place kids sat on mats with a mountain of hope of their hearts,” she defined.

Greater than a 12 months later, Nabaheen is confronting her personal “mountain”, but it surely’s of despair, not hope. On October 13, 2025, President Donald Trump introduced a ceasefire at a summit in Egypt attended by leaders from round 30 nations. Towards a banner proclaiming, “Peace within the Center East”, the US president signed “The Trump Declaration for Enduring Peace and Prosperity” and referred to as it “an incredible day for peace within the Center East”.

US President Donald Trump and Egypt's President Abdel Fattah al-Sisi signal paperwork at a summit on Gaza in Sharm el-Sheikh on October 13, 2025. © Saul Loeb, AFP Final month, US particular envoy Steve Witkoff introduced the beginning of the second part of the ceasefire deal. However whereas emergency provides have saved famine at bay in Gaza, the loss of life toll from Israeli fireplace retains mounting. Earlier this week, the Gaza well being ministry stated 586 Palestinians have been killed for the reason that begin of the ceasefire, bringing the struggle’s cumulative toll to greater than 72,000.

For Nabaheen, the ceasefire has modified nothing. “It's a lie. In actuality, the struggle has not stopped. It has solely stopped within the media to quiet public opinion,” she maintained. “The [Israeli] strikes proceed. We live in an unprecedented state of chaos. There was a slight breakthrough relating to meals and water, however the basic state of affairs stays dire.”

Learn extra No meals, no shelter, no cash: the day by day battle for survival in Gaza

Israel nonetheless doesn't enable overseas journalists impartial entry into Gaza. Communication with the surface world stays a problem with frequent web cuts. FRANCE 24’s interviews with Nabaheen have been carried out by way of emails, messages and calls. Throughout one interview on a messaging app, a large blast went off seemingly near her bed room. Nabaheen flinched momentarily, regarded towards the window and insisted on persevering with.

The drive to get her story – and herself – out of Gaza retains her going nowadays. However with each mountain of hardship, river of loss and valley of despair, the journey simply retains getting tougher. From bombardments to paperwork, the challenges have at instances appeared insurmountable. By means of all of it, she has saved working – and writing for survival.

Increasing networks outdoors, a loss at residence From a “easy” begin in early 2024, Nabaheen’s workshops, which she referred to as The Artistic Refuge Challenge, started to develop, attracting extra kids as Gaza’s faculties remained shut.

“At first, the periods targeted on psychological assist and recreation. Then, I started integrating them into the world of desires – educating them find out how to specific every part they really feel by means of writing. I began implementing small actions, comparable to performing a radio information broadcast, a brief theatrical play, studying folks tales that encourage expression, or forming a choir for our outdated Palestinian songs. I then began saying my small camp by way of Fb,” she stated.

Safaa Al-Nabaheen (in pink scarf) conducts a artistic workshop for Gaza's kids in the course of the struggle. © Handout Because the challenge grew, Nabaheen began on the lookout for sponsors and making use of for worldwide funding. She was managing the challenge alone and wanted assist, which was tough to safe for the reason that struggle was at its peak.

Then tragedy struck her household.

Her brother, Mohammed, was killed on July 13, 2024, in an Israeli drone strike whereas amassing wooden outdoor.

“Shedding my brother was not simple,” stated Nabaheen, utilizing an understatement to maintain her feelings in examine. “I attempted to maintain myself busy on the time, doing my college research regardless of the not possible circumstances, by way of the web – which was not often accessible.”

Horror from the ocean After halting The Artistic Refuge Challenge for six months following Mohammed’s loss of life, issues began choosing up once more. The Goethe-Institut, a German NGO, had expressed curiosity in funding her little programme, and Nabaheen was busy doing the paperwork to make it occur.

By September 2024, the carnage in Gaza was unfolding at a ferocious tempo, with the loss of life toll surging previous 40,000. Every day headlines famous Israeli assaults in Khan Younis, Gaza Metropolis, Rafah, Deir al-Balah, Mawasi, Jabaliya … names of cities, cities and camps that might grow to be acquainted to worldwide audiences.

However the outdoors world again then was nonetheless unaware of the extent of Israel’s use of quadcopters and drones to spy and kill in each nook of the besieged enclave. Gazans although didn't have that luxurious.

On September 15, 2024, the horror got here residence from the ocean for Nabaheen.

That night time, her second brother, Saeb, had gone fishing. A father of three younger kids, Saeb had ignored the household’s warning that “the ocean is harmful”.

The UN would affirm their prognosis the following 12 months, when a report famous that Israel’s “systematic” assaults had killed 200 civilian fishers as of December 2024. They have been focused “typically with out warning, whereas fishing utilizing paddling boats posing no discernible threats” to the Israeli Naval Forces, the UN concluded.

Regardless of the household’s pleas, Saeb took to “the damaging sea” in a determined bid to offer for his children because the financial state of affairs deteriorated, costs soared and meals shares plummeted.

Whereas he was fishing, an Israeli quadcopter noticed and pursued Saeb, defined his sister. “It chased him within the water, and as he tried to swim away, it fired bullets all over the place into his physique. He tried to flee,” she stated, including that the quadcopter continued to comply with Saeb as he ran to the shore after which headed in direction of a principal avenue. “Individuals have been shouting to him that his loss of life was inevitable and to recite the Shahada [the Islamic creed], as they noticed his blood gushing from each a part of him. Then, one other plane pursued him and focused his head with a projectile. He fell to the bottom, stained with the sand of the ocean … he as soon as informed me, "I'm a son of the ocean; if I depart it, I die,”… but the ocean didn't take care of him,” she stated sadly.

Heat tent in ‘stunning colors’ The day Saeb died additionally occurred to be the day that Nabaheen signed a contract with the Goethe-Institut for her workshop challenge – and it was throughout her college last exams.

“Regardless of the not possible state of affairs, I used to be decided to finish each my research and my challenge concurrently. 5 days later, I went to work on the camp. I constructed a big tent embellished with essentially the most stunning colors and footage. With the funding, I had some sources, so I ready a heat tent that embraced all of them,” she recounted.

Kids stage a efficiency at a workshop in central Gaza. © Handout There have been 50 kids, aged eight to fifteen, within the challenge. Along with her new funding, Nabaheen enlarged the programmes, including theatre rehearsals and stagings. “In reality, I used to be affected by the pangs of loss as one suffers labour pains … I had no alternative however to immerse myself in them and my research,” she confessed.

The challenge lasted three months, with conferences three days every week. On the ultimate day, “all of us collapsed in tears,” she stated. “There I used to be, falling aside and weeping similar to them. The challenge used to occupy me fully.”

By that point, many of the children in her workshop began returning to their houses in northern Gaza. With out initiatives to plan, organise and occupy her days, Nabaheen as soon as once more turned to writing.

Her first novel in Arabic was revealed in 2021 and obtained an award in Lebanon earlier than the struggle. She took up writing once more, engaged on her second novel, “The Thriller of the Forgotten Lady”, additionally in Arabic, with a mission: to “deliberately” keep away from writing concerning the struggle “as a result of I wasn't able to face the bitter actuality”.

She has since written her third novel, “Disowned”, which was revealed in Egypt and lately showcased on the Cairo Worldwide E book Honest. A set of poems, “When Ash Blossoms”, adopted, and she or he has completed her fourth novel, “Letters Not But Delivered”.

Admitted within the West, blocked in Gaza Writing has lengthy been a coping mechanism and resilience booster for Nabaheen. The issue, for the younger Palestinian author although, are the forces past her management.

For the previous few months, Nabaheen has been making an attempt to go away Gaza to pursue a lifetime of the thoughts, freed from the terrors of on a regular basis life within the besieged enclave. However the course of has trapped her in a cycle of hope adopted by crashing bureaucratic despair.

An Italian college forwarded her software for a author’s residency to a basis. However then she obtained no response. A world fund for artists and cultural actors in danger supported her “extremely”. However in the course of the last choice, “they rejected me the second they realised I used to be from Gaza,” Nabaheen recounted.

She managed to get a conditional admission right into a UK college for the following semester, however the situations included funding and assessments, which in flip require a visa. A writing fellowship at a US college got here by means of, as soon as once more with assist from a number of US-based writers. However the course of goes nowhere for the reason that US authorities doesn't evacuate Palestinians.

On February 2, the Rafah crossing partially opened underneath the US-brokered ceasefire deal to chaotic scenes. Round 20,000 Gazans want pressing medical therapy overseas, however on the primary day, Israel allowed simply 5 sufferers to go away. Earlier this week, Ali Shaath, head of the Nationwide Committee for the Administration of Gaza, which is charged with overseeing day-to-day affairs in Gaza, informed Egyptian media that the state of affairs at Rafah was beginning to enhance.

Whereas emergency medical sufferers wrestle to make it out, Gazans who've admission into Western faculties and establishments, are painfully conscious that they don't seem to be on the precedence checklist. As deadlines for the following semester loom, they're watching seats and scholarships slip away.

Learn extra Gazan college students sure for Canada stay trapped in administrative limbo

For Nabaheen, it’s been a heartbreaking course of. “I can't discover the phrases to explain the size of injustice and frustration I'm enduring,” she stated helplessly. After spending years working with Gaza’s kids to assist them dream of a future past the urgent worries of survival, her personal classes are proving to be a problem.

However she isn't one to surrender. “I’m not dropping hope. I'll by no means lose hope, really,” she stated. “I is aware of that there are such a lot of folks caught in so many tough locations like Gaza. I’ll hold occurring. Writing is my option to go ahead.”