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George Leone's avatar

What stays with me in this piece is how, even in a night shaped by hunger and gunfire, the moral center of the story is a simple choice: refusing to survive at someone else’s expense. In a place where the world has stripped people of everything, this young man and his friend still protected an old man’s dignity. That’s not sentimentality — it’s the kind of humanity that survives when every system around it has collapsed.

The contrast is brutal: an army treating starving civilians as targets, and civilians treating each other as family. The people with the least power are the ones still acting with honor. Stories like this matter because they expose the lie that Gaza is defined by violence. What’s actually being documented here is character — the kind that persists even when the world looks away.

Humanity didn’t disappear in Gaza. It’s the only thing that hasn’t.

Julie B 🇨🇦's avatar

This is the true nature of the Palestinian people. They are kind and generous even with the threat of starvation and death hanging over them. They will always take care of others first. Especially Abood, I’ve seen it so many times before.

Leonie Brittain's avatar

We have a saying: when one door closes, a window opens. This is a beautiful story, Abood, about generosity over the instinct to self preserve. Ultimately, it is about treating the Other, as you yourself would wish to be treated. But more profoundly, it is about doing the thing you can live with, and maintaining your self respect. I want to praise you, but that would be patronizing. Extreme hunger is a terrible, painful thing that I have never experienced, and the way it has been imposed on you Palestinians in Gaza is sadistic beyond measure. All I can say with any certainty is that beyond generously yielding the bag of rice, you did something much more important, you restored the old man’s faith in humanity and gave him hope, a gift that would have lifted his heart and maybe the hearts of his children, made his life more bearable.

Carole Law's avatar

Abood, you have a gift of storytelling. I could feel your anxiety and also your compassion at every turn of your story. You possess integrity that eludes many people. May you be blessed every day of your life for the love and kindness that make you who you are. Hold not despair in your heart, it will cripple you from putting one foot in front of the other to keep going. YOU matter. YOU are making a difference. YOU are loved. ❣️

A Cat Called Moose's avatar

I can now see the post from 2 days ago but only from going directly into your profile page …. I’m new on Substack so may be user error here😬

Jaz's avatar

Who does that in 2026? The only democracy in the Middle East that has NEVER belonged to the Middle East: not with Khazars DNA. The only Moral Army in the world that has no morals, no rules for war and no an once of humanity towards children and babies; a diaper soldiers who cannot fight face to face , they can only bomb with AI and drones from sky. A nation of Sick psychopaths, pedophiles, thieves, rapists, liars, killers and organ harvesters; who set up outdoor huge screens to stream and cheer the bombing of Palestine and Lebanon.

Useless UN! Sanctions Now!

https://x.com/i/status/2069910231925088404

钟建英's avatar

You and your people are exemplary, thanks for sharing your stories. They will not be forgotten …

Matthew ngatai's avatar

You know' those isreali demonic genocidals are going to be answerable to the the lord Jesus christ son of the father of God in heaven and punished by God the Father for their evil deeds some day.