This is my will and my final message. If these words reach you, know that Israel has succeeded in killing me and silencing my voice. First, peace be upon you and Allah’s mercy and blessings.
Allah knows I gave every effort and all my strength to be a support and a voice for my people, ever since I opened my eyes to life in the alleys and streets of the Jabalia refugee camp. My hope was that Allah would extend my life so I could return with my family and loved ones to our original town of occupied Asqalan (Al-Majdal). But Allah’s will came first, and His decree is final. I have lived through pain in all its details, tasted suffering and loss many times, yet I never once hesitated to convey the truth as it is, without distortion or falsification—so that Allah may bear witness against those who stayed silent, those who accepted our killing, those who choked our breath, and whose hearts were unmoved by the scattered remains of our children and women, doing nothing to stop the massacre that our people have faced for more than a year and a half.
I entrust you with Palestine—the jewel in the crown of the Muslim world, the heartbeat of every free person in this world. I entrust you with its people, with its wronged and innocent children who never had the time to dream or live in safety and peace. Their pure bodies were crushed under thousands of tons of Israeli bombs and missiles, torn apart and scattered across the walls.
I urge you not to let chains silence you, nor borders restrain you. Be bridges toward the liberation of the land and its people, until the sun of dignity and freedom rises over our stolen homeland. I entrust you to take care of my family. I entrust you with my beloved daughter Sham, the light of my eyes, whom I never got the chance to watch grow up as I had dreamed.
I entrust you with my dear son Salah, whom I had wished to support and accompany through life until he grew strong enough to carry my burden and continue the mission.
I entrust you with my beloved mother, whose blessed prayers brought me to where I am, whose supplications were my fortress and whose light guided my path. I pray that Allah grants her strength and rewards her on my behalf with the best of rewards.
I also entrust you with my lifelong companion, my beloved wife, Umm Salah (Bayan), from whom the war separated me for many long days and months. Yet she remained faithful to our bond, steadfast as the trunk of an olive tree that does not bend—patient, trusting in Allah, and carrying the responsibility in my absence with all her strength and faith.
I urge you to stand by them, to be their support after Allah Almighty. If I die, I die steadfast upon my principles. I testify before Allah that I am content with His decree, certain of meeting Him, and assured that what is with Allah is better and everlasting.
O Allah, accept me among the martyrs, forgive my past and future sins, and make my blood a light that illuminates the path of freedom for my people and my family. Forgive me if I have fallen short, and pray for me with mercy, for I kept my promise and never changed or betrayed it.
Do not forget Gaza… And do not forget me in your sincere prayers for forgiveness and acceptance.
Anas Jamal Al-Sharif
06.04.2025
This is what our beloved Anas requested to be published upon his martyrdom.
At some point of Israel’s starvation of Gaza, hunger stopped being just physical, and started to erode the mind. You would see people wandering aimlessly, not even asking for food anymore. Children stopped playing. Conversations became quieter, slower. People forgot certain tastes. The memory of sweetness faded.
Cravings for anything sweet became so intense that mothers began sharing stories, and sometimes recordings, of their children begging for larger doses of liquid medicine, simply because it tasted slightly sweet. After months of deprivation, they just wanted to experience the taste of sugar again.
Some residents, thinking outside the box, started selling ice cream made from children’s liquid antibiotics, since it contained sugar and a bit of flavour. Everyone knew what it was made of, and that it could be harmful. But people still bought it - including me - because it was the only sweet thing left in a landscape of tasteless survival food. No one was eating for pleasure anymore; we were eating to stay alive.
When people talk about starvation, they often think only of empty stomachs. But starvation is not just a bodily affliction. It eats away at the human spirit. It robs people of memory, emotion and clarity.
Days pass in a fog, filled with survival tasks: fetching water, searching for something to eat, waiting in endless lines, watching others faint beside you.
Some children became unrecognisable; their limbs thin and movements weak, their faces pale and expressionless. Parents, especially mothers, carry unbearable guilt - not just for failing to feed their children, but for the mere act of bringing them into this world, and for beginning to lose themselves, forgetting how to provide comfort.
But as we awoke this week to find crates of sugar, dates and cheese in our local markets, Gaza sounded different. The laughter of taxi drivers - known for their grumpy complaining in times of crisis - rang through the streets. A shift in the city’s mood was almost visible. People described it as a feast after prolonged fasting.
“It feels like Eid,” one Palestinian journalist wrote on social media. “We had tea with sugar and cheese manakeesh.”
Others shared photos and stories of drinking tea with sugar for the first time in months.
The prices remain painfully high, because the amount of goods allowed in is still a fraction of what people need. Regardless, the mere sight of food and the scent of sugar in the markets - the possibility of choice, however limited - was enough to stir something long buried.
It was not normality. But it was enough to remind us that we are still human, after nearly two years of genocide and a siege that Israel said it was imposing on “human animals”.
On my way to work on Thursday morning, street vendors were selling pressed dates by the piece. I bought one and held it in my hand until I reached my office building.
As I climbed the stairs, internally grumbling about having to ascend two more flights after my long walk in the scorching sun, I popped the date into my mouth - and immediately, the sugar hit.
I stopped in the middle of the stairs, closed my eyes, and sighed in relief for the first time in months: “Where have you been all these months, sweet taste? Oh, I’m willing to forget everything that has happened. I’m willing to climb the two floors. I think I can handle the current situation a bit longer now.”
Apparently, dopamine does its job faster when it has been absent for too long. I finished the date, and a few moments later, came back to my senses after being briefly “sugar drunk”.
Now I understand. This is what they are fighting us with: dopamine.
This is the energy they are rapidly draining from the bodies of an entire population. You cannot push a people determined to resist your attempts at forced expulsion unless you first strip them of life, hope and energy.
Full article: https://t.co/5i6SwJm8b4