The letter added, "We cannot go back to the status quo before October 7, with Hamas in control of Gaza and with the Palestinian Authority undermined by the lack of any serious political perspective,"
Refaat Alareer (left) sits with his friends and colleagues, Yousef Aljamal (center) and Jehad Abusalim (right), on the Staten Island Ferry in New York during a book tour in 2014.
남양주오피
Weeks later, on December 7, Alareer was killed by a strike in Shajaiya, in northern Gaza, his friend and colleague, Jehad Abusalim, confirmed to CNN. He was staying with his brother, his sister, and her four children, who were also killed, according to Abusalim, a writer, 35, based in Washington, DC.
“It’s something we don’t talk about. We don’t even want to think about how these kids, the homes, the lives (that) get destroyed again and again every few years,” he recalled.
From CNN's Celine Alkhaldi, Kareem Khadder and Michael Rios
In the letter, they also highlighted the “urgent need” for a “political process on the basis of the implementation of the two-state solution.”
There are still seven American men and one woman unaccounted for since the Israel-Hamas war began, according to the White House. Four Americans — a four-year-old girl and three women — have been released so far.
“Even the slamming of a door sometimes brings you these memories,” he said “That’s why we usually say there is no post-war trauma for Palestinians. It’s nonstop.”
원주오피
The remarks appear to support Israel’s contention that its forces are closing in on what it claims are two Hamas strongholds in the north of Gaza — Jabalya and Shejaiya.
Some of the families have called on the White House to consider making a side deal with Hamas that focuses on just the American hostages, and have even floated the idea of cutting the Israeli government out of initial negotiations altogether.
Civilians like Alareer were confronted with an impossible predicament. Stay home and risk being killed, or try to flee without protection. At the time, the 44-year-old writer and academic told CNN he and his family had no choice but to remain in the north, because they “have nowhere else to go.”
Israel has said that dozens of men shown in unauthorized videos apparently filmed by Israeli soldiers after their surrender last week were suspected Hamas members, though many of the people in the videos have been identified as civilians.
