For the sake of Palestinians and Israelis: ceasefire now

Nedal Hamdouna, a Palestinian journalist, describes in searing detail the reality of what it means to live in Gaza under attack by the Israel Defense Forces in an exclusive dispatch for The Independent.

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He and his wife have obeyed military evacuation orders seven times since the attacks began in response to the Hamas atrocities of October 2023. “We’ve crisscrossed the length and breadth of Gaza, trying to escape tanks, fighter jets, drones, and bombs,” he writes.

“We didn’t want to move again, but Benjamin Netanyahu has vowed to take full military control of Gaza City. And last week, Israel dropped leaflets from planes telling us that if we didn’t evacuate, we could be killed.”

So he told his three-year-old daughter: “We’re going south to camp in a tent. You can play in the sand.” He writes: “She laughed and got excited for the ‘holiday’, packing her favourite knapsack that has a purple stuffed sheep on the front. ‘To the south!’ she says, doing a little dance.”