Israel is trying to make people in Gaza hate living there by bombing the places [that] they love and belong to — restaurants, cafes, schools, universities and mosques.

“I hear [on the news] about the blowing up of houses in Sheikh Radwan neighborhood,” Awad said, referring to Israel’s use of explosive-laden robots to obliterate houses.

Though Awad has been displaced three times since October 2023, this displacement, she said, is different and worse since there is no coming back to the house.

“We will return because the land is ours, but I have no hope that I will return and find my house,” Awad said.

In William Shakespeare’s tragedy Hamlet, the protagonist declares: “I must be cruel only to be kind.” He meant that causing pain could at times serve a greater good.

Gaza and Hamlet are alike.

“Gaza is the mother who can be cruel to her children,” said Ahmad Mortaja. “Yet no matter what she does to them, her children continue to love her and remain attached to her.”

It is a phoenix, Mortaja said, always rising from the ashes, declaring that hope still lies beneath the rubble.

“When Gaza rises again,” Mortaja said, “we must dust it off and live once more.”

Mahmoud Darwish, the renowned Palestinian poet, once wrote: “We have on this land what makes life worth living.”

Mortaja affirmed: “And who deserves life more than us.”