You can close this page. You can switch tabs, scroll to something lighter, and move on with your day. That choice is always available to you.
For the people whose stories you just read, there is no closing the page.
This is the distance between reading and living, and it is the risk we face with every story told.
The Risk of Passing Through
There is a real danger that stories like these become something we scroll past. A moment of sadness. A quiet "this is awful," and then the next headline. Even when intentions are good, humanity can dissolve in repetition. Numbers replace people. Suffering stops registering as real.
Gaza Living Story was created to resist this, not as breaking news, not as tragedy stripped of context, and not as anonymous suffering. These are stories told by Palestinians themselves, in their own words, about their past, their present, and their future.
We speak deliberately about the future. Imagining a future is one way people refuse to give up.
What Gets Missed
There is a common assumption, especially outside Palestine, that displacement can be understood through images alone. A tent becomes a symbol. Displacement becomes a category.
But living in a tent means navigating a cost of living that never pauses: constant calculation about where to find water, how to stay warm, how to find privacy, how to protect children from seeing too much. These are not the details people consider when they see a photograph. For those living it, these details shape every hour.
I saw this gap firsthand. One of my colleagues spoke to his mother about someone on our team. A person she heard about, who her son works with every day. She cried. Not because she had just learned that Gaza is suffering; she already knew that from the news. She cried because she could picture a human being connected to someone she loves. She could see him not as a statistic, but as someone's colleague. Someone's friend.
This is what happens when information becomes personal.
What Stories Do
When stories are not told, people disappear. Not only physically, but morally. They become easier to ignore, easier to reduce, easier to move past.
Storytelling is not about creating sympathy. It is about refusing erasure. If a story is not told, it cannot be cited, shared, or brought into conversations about policy, accountability, or the future of Gaza. It simply vanishes.
One of our hopes for Gaza Living Story is that it becomes a reference point. In discussions about Gaza's future, people should not speak only in abstractions or impose solutions from the outside. This map - filled with voices and lived experience - should stand as evidence of what Palestinians want, need, and imagine, in their own words.
What You Can Do
We often hear the same question from people outside Palestine: What can I do? How can I support better?
There is no single answer, and there should not be. Expectations differ depending on where you are, what power you hold, and what access you have. But doing nothing is not neutral. Passivity has consequences.
Support can mean staying engaged when it is uncomfortable. Sharing stories responsibly. Questioning the language used in media coverage – who is centred, who is erased, which words are repeated until they lose meaning. It can mean contacting representatives, challenging narratives, or refusing to accept biased framing as neutral.
It can also mean direct action. There are organisations doing this work, and they need different things from different people.
If you can give your time or skills:
Volunteers for Palestine connects charities and non-profit organisations with people who can support projects through time and effort.
The Amal Initiative offers opportunities to mentor Palestinians, support English-language learning, and connect displaced students with university scholarships.
If you can give financially:
UNRWA provides education, healthcare, food assistance, and emergency shelter to Palestinian refugees across Gaza, the West Bank, Lebanon, Syria, and Jordan.
The Palestine Children's Relief Fund delivers medical care and humanitarian aid to children across the Middle East, including surgical missions, mental health programmes, and pediatric cancer treatment.
If you can offer professional access:
If you want to help Palestinians access job opportunities, freelance work, or professional networks, you can reach out directly. Many are actively seeking work. I can help connect you with Palestinians looking for opportunities.
If you want to support Palestinian-led structures:
There are cooperatives supporting farmers, artisans, and workers; mutual aid networks operating in Gaza and the West Bank; community-led associations organising local resources; diaspora-backed initiatives channelling support directly to Palestinian communities; and social enterprises rooted in justice, cultural preservation, education, and land stewardship.
You can read more here: https://buildpalestine.com/blog/2025/12/23/how-buildpalestine-is-pioneering-a-solidarity-economy-model-in-palestine/
The Truth We Know
We should not have to convince the world to care. It is not fair that people must explain their lives in order to be seen as human. We know this.
But while we live in this reality, we choose to speak anyway. We choose to document. We choose to connect. And we choose to ask something of those who are reading.
These stories are not here to be consumed and forgotten. They are here to create connection, responsibility, and action. What you do with them is up to you.
But once you have read them, you are no longer outside the story.
Stories should not end with empathy alone. They should move us toward responsibility.
This article was written by Lina on behalf of Mohammed.
As part of this collaboration, Momus Media supported the production of this piece and its wider publication. The original version was published in Dutch by Momus Media, while this platform makes the article available in English and Arabic to reach broader audiences.
You can read the original Dutch publication here
Watch this short video where I share my quick thoughts on this article