In June 2025 Sussex Bylines published an article featuring two residents of Gaza, who detailed how the Israeli bombardment of the area had completely upended their lives, destroyed their homes and their families’ health, and forced them to flee the incessant attacks.
Almost a year on, we returned to one of our interviewees, Ahmed Al-Madhoun, to find out whether the ceasefire negotiated on October 10 2025 and Trump’s much-vaunted Peace Plan had improved conditions in Gaza.
We follow Ahmed’s story with an extract from the Substack account of Rasha Abou Jalal, a Palestinian journalist living in Gaza, describing current conditions in the Gaza Strip and the killing of yet another Palestinian journalist.
Life in Gaza – Ahmed’s story
I have lost my university, my education, everything in my life, and all my dreams. I’m just trying to secure our daily sustenance after losing our income. My family’s situation is very difficult and critical and we have to rely on humanitarian aid from kind-hearted people.
We live in a tent that doesn’t protect us from the cold, rain, or even the summer heat. We live on the sand and sometimes under the roof of a bombed-out house. We are plagued by insects and large rats. We use furniture from ruined houses to light fires for cooking and there’s no pure water – the water here is polluted, and we have contracted many illnesses.
Before the bombing and the invasion my life was wonderful. I was going to graduate, get a good job and get married, and build my life. But all that stopped when the genocide began and now I’m under a lot of psychological pressure because I’m preoccupied with securing our daily sustenance.
We have no money apart from what we are able to raise through donations because we lost our livelihoods at the start of the war.
My mother’s condition is very difficult because she hasn’t received medical treatment since the beginning of the war. (Ahmad’s mother was being treated for diabetes and associated sight loss when the war broke out). She needs a referral, but she isn’t allowed to get one, and the cost of medication in Gaza is very high.
Our situation gets worse every day – conditions haven’t improved, everything being said is a lie to make the world forget us. The aim is to displace us and make life unbearable for us.
There are no schools, nothing. Everything is destroyed and reduced to ashes. What remains has been turned into shelters.
There are still ground or air attacks on our area of northern Gaza – the bombing doesn’t stop. It seems as though every minute there’s another bombing, another killing
I don’t think there is any hope for peace. The world is ruled by evil people now.
Life in Gaza – the journalist’s story
Rasha Abou Jalal, a journalist from the Gaza Strip, works in several media outlets covering Palestinian political, humanitarian and social issues. She is a permanent member of the judging committee for the annual Press House Award.
Journalists and media professionals in Gaza continue to be at considerable risk in spite of the supposed ceasefire, with 234 having been killed between October 10 2025 and the end of January 2026.
Rasha writes:
There is no ceasefire in Gaza… not in any real sense.
I live here, on this exhausted strip of land, and I have lived through the details of genocide and famine day by day. So I can say this clearly: what is being called a “ceasefire” is nothing but words detached from the reality we are living, empty slogans that do not resemble our lives in any way.
I am writing this today because someone dear to me asked: “Have things calmed down? Have you found any peace?” My answer was difficult… because simply, there is no peace here. What exists instead are continuous attempts to soften a harsh reality, and to erase nearly 90% of what we are actually going through.
I have spoken and written – and I continue to – for more than 15 media outlets in different languages, sharing as much as I can of the stories of pain and resilience.
But what is happening is far greater than can be summarised, and far harsher than can be fully conveyed. Just yesterday, we lost another journalist colleague, Mohammed Washah, who was killed and left behind four orphaned children… and this is not an exceptional story, but one of hundreds that never reach the world.
So what I need from you is not just sympathy… but to be an additional voice for us. Share my stories. Amplify my words. Do not let them disappear in the noise.
Your presence with us – even through a single shared word – can make a difference.
To donate to help Ahmed and his family with food and medical supplies, go to https://chuffed.org/project/157281
To subscribe to Rasha Abou Jalal’s Substack account for daily accounts of life in Gaza go to https://substack.com/@rashaaboujalal1
CLICK HERE TO DONATE TO OUR CROWDFUNDER
HELP US BECOME STRONGER SO THAT WE CAN CONTINUE TO DELIVER POWERFUL CITIZEN JOURNALISM!
