Published: 16 July 2025
Last updated: 21 July 2025
Over the past few days, the Gaza Youth Committee has succeeded in attracting the attention of all Israelis, with young people from Gaza appearing in front of tents and destroyed areas holding photos of several Israeli children killed by Hamas on October 7, 2023.
It is important that these messages come out of Gaza, carried by brave young men who declare their commitment to peace on behalf of the large number of Palestinians who completely reject the killing, because they are the people who suffer most through the loss of their dearest children.
We know that a large part of the world knows nothing about Gaza except to see its citizens as terrorists or victims of Israeli military operations. We were not surprised when we saw a lot of comments on Israeli social media sites that questioned the Committee’s intentions and downplayed our actions.
Our pain does not blind us to the suffering of others, and we are against the killing of children, whether Palestinian or Israeli.
We were very happy when we found our photos throughout the accounts of the families of Israeli hostages and a large number of our partners on the Left, Right and all of Israeli society, who know us well, trust us and know that we have been risking our lives for years.
We have been arrested, assaulted, and our equipment confiscated from Hamas many times before the war – and now we have been harmed daily by Israeli operations that pose a threat to the lives of our family, friends and team members.
Live together, die together
The Israeli army has now killed more than 60,000 people in Gaza, wounded hundreds of thousands and destroyed our future – but it will not be able to eliminate our humanity and our rights.
Comments5
Ian Light21 July at 12:02 am
The Israeli Palestinian War is a Tribal War over Land and Religion but it is a great relief to hear that there are still Humane People on both sides of the Conflict.
Fortunately in Israel they can still march in the thousands and tens of thousands to end the war and have all hostages released .
Possible is Generations of Truce allowing the hate mass murder mass atrocities viscous cycle to end and a Security Humanitarian State to be Established .
Raphael Dascalu20 July at 01:03 am
Dear Rami, I virtually never comment on articles, but I want to thank you for your bravery in refusing to dehumanise either Palestinians or Israelis even during a time of such extreme suffering for your people and loved ones, and for allowing yourself to envision a better world. I wish you strength and endurance in maintaining your path, and I hope that we may soon see days of peace, rebuilding, and healing after all of this destruction. Baaraka Allahu fiik.
Miriam Feldheim20 July at 12:09 am
Simon, you forgot to mention that on the Israeli side it is the Jewish extremists who are holding everyone hostage. Just as we need to leave no room for Hamas, we also need to leave no room for Jewish extremists.
Simon Krite17 July at 07:21 pm
Dear Rami,
Your letter is among the bravest and most humane things I’ve read throughout this painful, bitter war.
It takes extraordinary moral courage, especially in a place suffocating under Hamas rule, where dissent is met with torture or worse to speak the truth so clearly, and still believe in reconciliation. You’ve done something few can manage honouring your own people’s unimaginable suffering without denying or downplaying the pain of others. You’ve reminded us what shared humanity looks like, even in the ruins of Gaza.
Your words will not fall on deaf ears. They cut through the noise because they are not trying to manipulate, not trying to justify violence, not playing the tired political games. Instead, they simply ask us all to care. To stop choosing sides between victims. And to look at the future with open eyes.
So I write to you with nothing but respect and support.
You’ve made it plain that peace is not just about borders and governments. It’s about removing the forces that keep the people hostage in every sense. In Gaza, that force is Hamas. You’ve said it yourselves: they do not represent you, they do not protect you, and they trade in the lives and hopes of Palestinians for their own ideological gain.
So I ask this, with the same sincerity I hear in your voice:
How can peace be made without first eliminating Hamas? And how can Hamas be eliminated without sacrificing the very people who want them gone?
It is a hard question. But if people like you are asking it openly, bravely, with your lives on the line then the rest of us must answer. Not with slogans or hashtags or rage, but with clear eyes and a will to act.
Your movement, your voice, gives reason to hope. And from one human being to another, I stand with you.
Warmly,
Simon
Jack Frisch17 July at 08:26 am
There will be some in our community who will believe this piece is a Hamas set-up to sow division in the community. Between the “realists” who will think the piece is a mis-disinformation set-up, the “naive” who will take it as gospel, the “perplexed” who don’t know what to believe and the “weary” who will just want to hide inside a protective shell and adjust to whatever will be. The hard-nosed realists will malign TJI I as “naive”. I personally consider myself as wavering between perplexed and weary, having in the past been a “realist” accused of sometimes being “naive”. Such is the state of our world today.