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Israel's war on Gaza

‘It's only a matter of days': Palestinians bid farewell as Israel rains bombs on Gaza

Palestinians posting on social media say they don't think they will survive Israel's bloody bombardment across the strip
A Palestinian woman sits amid the devastation in the yard of a school, a day after it was hit by an Israeli strike, in the al-Tuffah neighbourhood in Gaza City on 4 April 2025 (Omar al-Qattaa/AFP)
By Pauline Ertel
Published date: 4 April 2025 16:37 BST | Last update: 2 weeks 1 day ago

Palestinians are posting final messages and letters of farewell on social media, expressing their fear they will not survive amid the intensity of Israel's carpet bombing of the Gaza Strip.

Many Palestinians in Gaza have turned to social media since the start of Israel's onslaught in October 2023 to communicate with one another, document Israeli attacks and their daily experiences, and share their thoughts, hopes and lives with international audiences in a period when media outlets, social media platforms and arts and education institutions stand accused of censoring information and muzzling freedom of expression related to the war.

Over the past 24 hours however, posts expressing hopelessness amid the severity and destructiveness of the attacks and fear that people in Gaza might not survive this time, have soared. 

On Thursday, Israel killed at least 112 Palestinians, in what has become the deadliest day since Israel resumed its war on the besieged enclave on 18 March.

A video posted by Nour, a woman from Gaza, shows an Israeli strike on a building nearby amidst an entirely destroyed neighbourhood as a woman sobs in the background.

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"It seems we won’t survive this time .." the caption reads.

Journalist Abdallah Alattar from Rafah in the southern Gaza Strip, shared: "it seems that we won't make it this time" on Friday morning, which has been widely circulated and reshared.

Abubaker Amed, a football journalist from Deir al-Balah, expressed in a post that the people of Gaza "know the world has let them down and thus feel their killing is a matter of time".

Several users have also called on the people and global powers to pay attention and speak up for the people in Gaza, facing not only bombing, but also starvation due to Israel’s blockade on food and essentials.

"Bombs above, hunger below—Gaza is suffering. How much longer can we endure this?" wrote one Palestinian. "The world must act NOW!"

Israel's war on Gaza continues to be supported and funded by its allies, most notably the US.  

In March, the Donald Trump administration bypassed a normal congressional review to approve a nearly $3bn arms sale to Israel.

On Thursday, independent US Senator Bernie Sanders attempted to bring forward two joint resolutions of disapproval to block $8.8bn worth of offensive weapons sales to Israel that were already approved by the Trump administration.

Only 15 senators, including Tim Kaine and former presidential hopeful Elizabeth Warren, voted to move forward and the vote to block the weapons transfers failed.

Prayers and self-eulogies

Several users have also used their social media accounts to post a farewell messages and prayers in case they should die.  

Writer and pharmacist from Gaza Omar Hamad, on Thursday night posted a farewell message on X, saying that he felt his posts did not make a difference.

"At first, I was eager, sharing everything my hands could write," he said. "But I do not know what you need to see or read to finally rise against all that is happening - not for our sake, but for your conscience, for your faith, so that you do not struggle with your conscience when you go to sleep."

"I have never felt death drawing this close to me throughout the entire genocide as I do these days," Hamad wrote in a separate post on 3 April.

Hamza Alsharif, a medical doctor at the European Hospital and the Al-Aqsa Hospital posted on X that bombings "are intensifying across all areas of the Strip", and that "blood is everywhere".

"If I die, I am not a number, I am a planet in itself, I have dreams and ambitions that I wanted to achieve. Don't forget me in your prayers and keep talking about me," Dr Alsharif wrote in a post pinned to his profile since 18 March.

Last month, an Israeli missile targeted and killed 23-year-old Al Jazeera journalist Hossam Shabat in Beit Lahiya just hours after Mohammad Mansour, a correspondent for Palestine Today, was killed in an Israeli air strike which targeted his home. His wife and son were killed alongside him.

Hours after Hossam's death, his colleagues posted a message written by Hossam himself, indicating that he had a sense that he would be likely targeted.

"If you’re reading this, it means I have been killed - most likely targeted - by the Israeli occupation forces," said the 23-year-old.

Hossam's self-written eulogy was reminiscent of renowned Palestinian poet and academic Refaat Alareer, who was killed in an Israeli air strike in December last year and whose widely circulated poem 'If I must die' became a symbol of hope and resistance amid Israel's war.

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