A child's cry from the beaches of Gaza.

Once again, I have my phone in my hands. I get lost in the endless tide of the timeline, scrolling through news portals, browsing WhatsApp groups. And it was in one of these groups that I received the most beautiful, truest, and most urgent message I've received in a long time. A video that not only touched me, but pierced me deeply—one of those that leaves no room for indifference.

Because of its power and importance, I couldn't keep it to myself. It would be a sin to confine it to the small screen of my device. It's my duty to share it with you who follow me in this space. Here it is:

“They announced it on the radio, for everyone to hear: ‘We will block any boat that comes to Gaza.’ As if saying it aloud made it law. As if the sea belonged to them.”

This land is ours. And this sea is ours. And we have the right to welcome whomever we want.

We live under this lockdown every day. Hospitals without medicine, children asking when the sea will part, and the planes under our sky never leaving.

And if they take you, if they hurt you, don't let them erase you. Say their names in front of the cameras, write them on the walls if you need to. Make your presence a cry that cannot be denied.

People ask me why you are risking your lives for strangers. They forget: you are not strangers. You bring your names and mingle them with ours. You bring witnesses who can say, "I saw it."

Promise me that when things get chaotic, you won't let their violence dictate the story. Let the cameras show the truth. We're waiting for you on the beaches of Gaza. We're here waiting, not just for your boats, but for the day when no one needs to break through a siege to reach us.

We're waiting for you on the beaches of Gaza. Thank you from the bottom of my heart.

I am grateful to the Global Sumud Flotilla*. You are not just boats, you are hope approaching our shores. Your presence with us is a message to the world that Gaza is not alone. I am here, waiting for you, on the beaches of Gaza.

Juwayriya Adwan 

This text is a transcription, in free translation, from social media: the video of Juwayriya Adwan, a young Palestinian poet of approximately 10 or 11 years old, who, by the sea, addresses the world. It is a punch in the gut to all those who defend Netanyahu's genocidal government and a jolt to all of us who are in favor of a Palestinian state and against the crimes being committed in Gaza. It is the cry of a child against the genocide in Gaza.

Global Sumud Flotilla (globalsumudflotilla.org/This is a coalition of people who defend human dignity and believe in the power of nonviolent action. They unite in this movement to denounce and put an end to the genocide perpetrated by the State of Israel against the Palestinian people.