Aa
  • Read, Watch, Listen
  • TJI Series
  • Community Action
  • Events
  • Zedi
Follow us and continue the conversation
  • LinkedIn
  • Instagram
  • FaceBook
  • X
  • YouTube
Test yourself with the TJI Quiz!

Adjust size of text

Aa

Follow us and continue the conversation

  • LinkedIn
  • Instagram
  • FaceBook
  • X
  • YouTube

Your saved articles

You haven't saved any articles

What are you looking for?

Original reporting, insightful analysis and diverse views, delivered straight to your inbox

  • LinkedIn
  • Instagram
  • FaceBook
  • X
  • YouTube
Your support fuels our mission to inform, entertain and inspire.

The Jewish Independent is bound by the Standards of Practice of the Australian Press Council. If you believe the Standards may have been breached, you may approach The Jewish Independent or make a complaint to the Australian Press Council in writing at www.presscouncil.org.au. The Council may also be contacted on 1800 025 712.

  • Our Story
  • Contact us
  • Our Team
  • Support us
  • Guidelines
  • Pitch your idea
  • Republishing us
  • Community Action
  • Our Awards
  • LinkedIn
  • Instagram
  • FaceBook
  • X
  • YouTube
Aboriginal FlagTorres Strait Islanders Flag

The Jewish Independent acknowledges Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples as the Traditional Owners and Custodians of Country throughout Australia. We pay our respects to Elders past and present, and strive to honour their rich history of storytelling in our work and mission.

© The Jewish Independent 2026All Rights Reserved
Website design and development by Your Creative, MelbourneTerms & ConditionsPrivacy Policy
HomeRead, Watch, ListenIsrael
Israel Hamas WarReflectionIsrael

Voice from Gaza: ‘Asking me if I condemn Hamas is an insult’

I have spent months in Gaza prisons for trying to build bridges with Israelis. Since October 7, I have lost loved ones, all of them peaceful people who dreamed of a better life.
Rami Aman
Print this
MIDEAST PHOTO SET ISRAEL PALESTINIANS GAZA CONFLICT

A doctor at the scene of Al Ahli hospital after an explosion in Gaza City, October 17, 2023. (EPA/Mohammed Saber)

Published: 12 November 2024

Last updated: 12 November 2024

I was talking with my friend Ramez after midnight on October 6 about my plans to visit Gaza at the beginning of November to finalise the licensing of the Gaza Youth Committee with the Palestinian Authority and to implement joint projects between Palestinians in Gaza, the West Bank, and between Palestinians and Israelis.

We also discussed continuing our initiatives to build bridges of communication between them, promoting mutual respect, and continuing our work to build a new generation of Palestinian leadership that actively participates in decision-making and influences it.

While talking to him, I could hear an Israeli drone buzzing in the background, which prompted me to say that I missed its annoying sound, a sound that reminds me of the atmosphere and wars in Gaza. As usual, I woke up early at 8am on the morning of October 7.

I don’t know what led me to open Facebook, something I don't typically do at that hour, only to see live broadcasts and numerous videos, and to read posts about Hamas fighters storming the border by land, sea, and air, infiltrating Israeli homes, army positions, and a music festival attended by hundreds of young people, who were being killed, chased, and brutalised.

What surprised me the most — and I initially thought the videos were fake — were the scenes of dead bodies with people standing around them, as well as scenes of civilians and Israeli soldiers being beaten, kidnapped into Gaza, and assaulted. Hamas leaders were broadcasting speeches, inciting people and giving them the impression that they were minutes away from reaching Tel Aviv.

We know that Hamas has never sought our wellbeing, but rather its own interests, using us all as human shields.

Rami Aman

As someone from Gaza, familiar with Hamas's ideology and the behaviour of the Israeli army, I knew this would spark a deep fear among most Gazans. We know that Hamas neither seeks nor has ever sought our wellbeing, but rather its own interests, using us all as human shields.

This has been the case since their first war with the Israeli army in 2009, where over 1,400 Palestinians were killed, and Hamas declared this a victory, but for me I decided to create Gaza Youth Committee and understood Hamas's vision very well from that time. What happened in 2009 has led them to repeat the same tactics with the Islamic Jihad movement multiple times between 2012 and 2022.

In those moments, I was deeply worried about my friends near the border, the fate of Roni Keidar, her husband, and family, as I had visited them at their home, and also about my friends Eric Yellin, Julia Chaitin, Rosara, Liora, Adele, Avi, Orna, Robi, Mori, Rafi, Ruth, Jaber, Ayman, Vivian, Shayna, and others.

I had shared many moments, meetings, initiatives and calls with them over the past ten years. They always checked on me and contacted my family when I was alone in Hamas prisons. But I knew that if I tried to contact any of them to check on them, they might think I was somehow connected to the attackers.

Many Israelis already believed before October 7 that all Gaza residents supported Hamas. So, I decided to wait a bit, praying and calling for their safety. I reached out to my close journalist friend in Israel, Eugenia, to discuss the situation, how dangerous it was, and to verify the accuracy of the videos circulating on social media.

She didn’t have much information either. I sent her clips from Palestinian social media, telling her that just hours earlier, I had been listening on the phone to the sound of Israeli drones monitoring and filming all of Gaza, as they have done constantly since 2003.

I then started contacting my sisters, friends, colleagues, and Ramez in Gaza, and they all understood that what was coming would be very dangerous. For the first time, I felt the immense pressure of being a Palestinian peace activist, knowing that my family, home, and friends could be subjected to any retaliation by the Israeli army that targets Palestinians indiscriminately.

The early days of the war were bloody, and as the weeks passed, I started some fast initiatives through my global network in Gaza Strip to help some families and friends and began receiving news about the targeting of my friends in Gaza.

I am not like other Palestinians. I have organised protests against Hamas and been subjected to physical and psychological torture.

The hardest news was the killing of the three children of my friend Ramez Al-Souri, the man who was beside me on Gaza border 2018 launching the peace doves with peaceful messages. He was a Christian who had taken refuge with his family in the Greek Orthodox Church. The church was bombed by Israeli planes, killing more than 15 people, including my friends Abdel Nour and Tareq, whom I had met two months earlier in Cairo.

He had been telling me about his plans to settle in Egypt with his wife and two daughters because of his suffering from Hamas, but they were all killed by Israel in that attack, which felt like a personal blow.

I also learned that Hamas fighters had killed my friend Vivian Silver, an Israeli peace activist I knew well. I knew how much she had done for dozens of Palestinian patients, children, women, and students in Gaza, providing financial, medical, and psychological support. She had helped Palestinians in Gaza more than Hamas ever did.

As the war intensified, some Israelis asked me sarcastically if I condemned Hamas's actions. This question was an insult.

As the war intensified, many Israelis began calling for revenge against all the residents of Gaza. Even supposed friends of mine, who work in peace organisations and claim to promote peace in their projects, incited violence against me and others. Some even cursed me in messages and comments, asking me sarcastically if I condemned Hamas's actions.

This question was an insult to my person and my life, especially since I have spent years and many months in Hamas prisons for speaking out and defending Israelis on the ground in Gaza. I wasn’t like others who only speak from outside Gaza. I had organised protests and movements against Hamas and was subjected to physical, psychological, and emotional torture by Hamas interrogators for my defence of my Israeli friends and my continuous opposition to Hamas from within Gaza.

I wasn’t like other Palestinians who were arrested by Hamas and then made cheap deals to get out of prison, only to later make deals with Israelis to secure more money and donations, pretending to criticize Hamas once they were outside Gaza while seeking its favour when they were still inside.

I realise that I represent a large number of Palestinians in Gaza and I know exactly what they want, through hundreds of initiatives, thousands of meetings, and tens of thousands of meetings and activities with sectors of Palestinian society, including women, men, the disabled, the sick, children and youth in the Gaza Strip over the past 25 years.

By the way, the Gaza Youth Committee, which I helped found, has never stopped organising its activities and contacts with the Israelis after or before October 7, and  I am always proud that I have real Israeli peace partners who believe in Palestinian human rights and we work together to build a common generation that respects each other.

October, November, and December were a time of revelation, showing the true faces of many Palestinians and Israelis, especially those working in peace organisations that only foster peace for the sake of personal connections, networking events, and dinners, building relationships at the expense of the real victims — both Israelis and Palestinians — who have been suffering from this war and conflict for decades.

A year after this war, which claimed the lives of more than 1,500 Israelis and over 40,000 Palestinians, with more than 100 Israelis taken hostage and two million Palestinians in Gaza displaced from their homes, and with the war expanding into Lebanon, anyone could be the next victim.

There isn’t a single person in Gaza who hasn’t been affected by the events of October 7. I, along with many Palestinians, have lost loved ones, relatives, families, friends, and children due to Israeli bombing in Gaza and personal agony outside of Gaza.

None of them were fighters or terrorists; they were peaceful people who always dreamed of a better life. I knew them well, and it is from them that I draw my strength and continue on my path, trying to spread peace and always calling on Israelis and Palestinians to talk and maintain these bridges of communication, as they are the key to finding hope and creating a better reality and life for both Israelis and Palestinians everywhere.

RELATED STORIES
Hamas arrests three local activists after Gaza ‘bike for peace’ ride (TJI)
Hamas security forces have arrested three members of the Gaza Youth Committee, including the group’s leader Rami Aman.

Zoom call with Israelis lands a Gaza peace activist in jail (New York Times)
A video chat, intended to build bridges between Israeli and Palestinian strangers, led some in Gaza to label the conversation itself an act of treason.

READ MORE
Gaza’s top Islamic scholar issues fatwa criticising 7 October attack (BBC)
The most prominent Islamic scholar in Gaza has issued a rare, powerful fatwa condemning Hamas’s 7 October 2023 attack on Israel, which triggered the devastating war in the Palestinian territory.

Qatar says it suspended mediator efforts for Gaza ceasefire due to lack of good-faith negotiations (CNN)
Qatar announced Saturday that it has paused its role as a mediator for a ceasefire in Gaza between Israel and Hamas due to a lack of willingness by the sides to reach an agreement.

Around 70% of deaths in Gaza are women and children, says UN (CNN)
Several United Nations agencies are again sounding the alarm on the rapid deterioration of humanitarian conditions in much of Gaza and the civilian toll of more than a year of Israeli military operations.

'There will be no return': Israeli army says it will not allow residents to return to north Gaza (Haaretz)
The military stated that so far, approximately 55,000 residents of Jabalya have fled south, adding that 'no one is returning to the northern area. According to a report in The Guardian, the statement was made by the commander of Division 162, Brig. Gen. Itzik Cohen

The Israeli army is allowing gangs in Gaza to loot aid trucks and extort protection fees from drivers (Haaretz)
Armed clans in the Rafah area are blocking trucks entering Gaza from Israel, leading some organizations to avoid sending desperately needed humanitarian aid. These incidents are occurring in an area under full IDF control, with the army refraining from action due to concerns that harm to aid workers could provoke international criticism

Hungry Palestinians in north Gaza search for food, sealed off from aid for a month by Israeli siege (AP)
With virtually no food allowed into the northernmost part of Gaza for the past month, tens of thousands of Palestinians under Israeli siege are rationing their last lentils and flour to survive. As bombardment pounds around them, some say they risk their lives by venturing out in search of cans of food in the rubble of destroyed homes.

You might also like
  • New evidence Netanyahu was warned about October 7
    Shahar Burla
  • ‘L’chaim for the next 1,500’: Israeli drummer celebrates Cirque Du Soleil milestone
    Gideon Cohen
  • Who is Ofer Winter and could he upset Netanyahu’s election?
    Shahar Burla
logomark.67a07ee3
We believe in the free flow of information

Republish our articles for free, online or in print, by using our Creative Commons licence

You might also like

    Woman with land and houses behind her
    NewsAustralia

    Australia to increase sanctions against West Bank settlements

    Deborah Stone
    Arab Israeli Palestinian election vote
    Israel Votes 2026FeatureIsrael

    Fear of Netanyahu victory may drive big surge in Palestinian voter turnout

    Ben Lynfield
    haredi street guitar
    Photo EssayArts & Culture

    Jerusalemites through the lens

    Sharon Gabay

About the author

Rami Aman

Rami Aman

Rami Aman is a Palestinian journalist and peace activist in the Gaza Strip. He is founder of the Gaza Youth Committee.

More from the author

ReflectionIsrael

Neither Israel nor Hamas has broken me: A Gazan woman’s story 

OpinionIsrael

An open letter from the Gaza Youth Committee to Australia

‘I no longer belong to ISIS, I want Hamas to… let me live a normal life’

Comments5

  • Avatar of Oliver

    Oliver19 August at 08:36 am

    I don’t want to be a buzzkill, but some “peace activists” have been suspected of being Hamas double-agents. I hope Rami isn’t one of them, but it’s the sad reality we’re living in.

  • Avatar of Noam

    Noam22 February at 10:09 pm

    If there are so many peacefull people in Gaza, how is it that I can’t find a single condemnation from Gaza residents of hhe massacre on 7.10, we heard critisize on hamas about food stealing for example but they never condemn the massacre

  • Avatar of Lilach

    Lilach20 November at 09:49 am

    Thank you Rami- for your courage in standing for peace still after all this-
    You are a testament that there are exalted Human Being on all sides (of course).

  • Avatar of Rosara Frenk

    Rosara Frenk15 November at 11:38 pm

    Thank you Rami for this sensitive text. I feel that my heart expands in reading it. Love to human that are you my friend.

  • Avatar of Sara Vidal

    Sara Vidal13 November at 02:11 pm

    it is great to know that the work for peace continues – but why hasn’t this article been corrected for the incorrect statistics?