Israel and Palestine have been at war for generations. Peace News traveled to Gaza to find out how people view the conflict.
At the end of the Muslim month of Ramadan, families in the Gaza Strip emerge to celebrate. We asked them about their hopes for the coming year.
Gaza resident Marina said that youth are struggling to see a chance for peace in Gaza, but that she still has hope.
“For more than 10 years or 11, we see the same thing during the month of Ramadan, the same situation,” Marina said.
“We are still under siege, and conflict rages between parties. If I’m going to talk about peace, I would say that Palestinian youth don’t see any solution to make peace between Palestinians and Israelis, because the world is suffering. But, I think that conflicting parties can coexist, permanently or even temporarily, to get over the conflict in the future.”
Rawan, another Gaza resident, felt the same.
“I don’t think we can make peace right now, but we hope so in the future,” Rawan said.
Another resident, Heba, believes leaders can make a difference.
“We hope that our leaders can make peace for us and make life better for the people of Gaza,” she said.
“It’s not wrong to make peace for the next generations.”
Ahmed, Gaza resident, said peace is a matter of life or death for the people of Gaza.
“We hope in the future that we can build peace,” he said.
“The peace is not wrong actually, so we have to negotiate the other side until we find a solution. There’s nothing without cost, but if we don’t negotiate with them we will lose our houses and our families are going to die.”
Another resident, Waleed, believes peace is possible but with time.
“In my view, we can resolve the Palestinian-Israeli conflict, after we resolve [the Palestinian issue], because it would benefit us to make peace with Israelis,” Waleed said.
“At this point, Palestinian’s are open to make peace, even though they couldn’t make plans to create peace with Israelis, and the [the Israelis] have the same problem. We can’t know where we are going, or if we can create peace or not, but I assume that we will make peace as soon as all the parties are ready.”
Masoud Kafah is a freelance journalist from Palestine. He has worked for several news agencies and holds a BA in Political Science and Media (Islamic University of Gaza). He has also lived i the Gaza Strip, where he volunteered for several charity organizations.
