It has been confirmed that a Palestinian poet who conveyed the horrors of the Gaza Strip was killed in an Israeli military airstrike.
According to Reuters on the 10th (local time), Gaza poet and novelist Rifat Alarier (44) was killed in an Israeli airstrike in Gaza City, the central city of northern Gaza, on the 6th.
A former professor of English literature at the Islamic University of Gaza, Alarier has told the story of Gaza through poetry and novels, and also founded the non-profit We Are Not Numbers, which connects young Palestinian writers with mentors.
Additionally, as the war between Israel and Hamas broke out, he recorded and conveyed the horrors of the Gaza Strip in English on X (old Twitter).
In his last post on the 4th, he said, “We are surrounded by layers of gunpowder and cement,” and “The building is shaking, and debris and debris are hitting the walls and scattering onto the street.”
Upon his death, Mosab Abu Toha, a poet from the Gaza Strip, said, “I am heartbroken that my friend and colleague, Alarier, was murdered along with his family,” and added, “I do not want to believe in his death.”
Jehad Abusalim, a student of Alarier’s, said he was “a mentor and friend who truly cared for his students even outside of the classroom.”
Meanwhile, Alarier also caused controversy with his remarks in support of Hamas.
When Hamas attacked Israel on October 7, Alarier told the BBC that it was a “legal and moral” act and compared it to the Jewish resistance to Nazi Germany during World War II.
“This is the same as the Warsaw Ghetto uprising,” he said. “It is the Gaza ghetto uprising against 100 years of European and Zionist colonialism and occupation.”
The Warsaw Ghetto Uprising was an uprising that took place in Warsaw, Poland, in April 1943 in protest against the deportation of Jews to concentration camps, during which approximately 14,000 Jews died.
“It is incredible to call the Hamas attack the Warsaw Ghetto Uprising,” said Dr. David Silverklan, a historian at the Yad Vashem Holocaust Museum. “There is no comparison at all.”
At that time, about 1,200 people in Israel were killed and about 240 were taken hostage due to Hamas’ attack. In the Gaza Strip, more than 18,000 people were killed in Israeli airstrikes.
Source: Donga
Mark Jones is a world traveler and journalist for News Rebeat. With a curious mind and a love of adventure, Mark brings a unique perspective to the latest global events and provides in-depth and thought-provoking coverage of the world at large.