Prominent Gaza professor and writer killed in airstrike, weeks after telling CNN he and his family had ‘nowhere else to go’ | CNN (2024)

Editor’s Note: A version of this story appears in CNN’s Meanwhile in the Middle East newsletter, a three-times-a-week look inside the region’s biggest stories.Sign up here.

CNN —

In October,RefaatAlareerwas deliberating whether to stay at his home in the heart of Gaza City, orflee further south with his wife and six children.

As Israeli warplanes bombarded northern Gaza, the Israel Defense Forces (IDF) told civilians to evacuate their homes immediatelyand gosouth.

Civilians like Alareerwere confronted with an impossible predicament. Stay home and risk being killed, ortry 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.”

“It’s an archetypal Palestinian image of a discussion, a debate on should we stay in one room, so if we die, we die together, or should we stay in separate rooms, so at least somebody can live?” he said.

A professor of comparative literatureat the Islamic University of Gaza, Alareerwas famed for his role in chronicling Gazanexperiences. He was instrumental in nurturing young Palestinian writersand helped them tell their stories in English, according to friends and colleagues.

Alareerspoke to CNN from Gaza City, on October 12 and October 13. He gave consent in written messages to share the recording in the event ofhis death.

Weeks later, on December 7, Alareerwas 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.

He left behind his wife, and children aged 7to 21. CNN has been unableto reach members of Alareer’sfamily.

Refaat Alareer, a prominent Palestinian professor, poet and writer, was killed in an airstrike in northern Gaza, on December 7. His friend and colleague, Mosab Abu Toha, took this photo of Alareer picking strawberries in Gaza, on March 27, 2022.

In 2014, Alareeredited “Gaza Writes Back,” a collection of short stories by young writers documenting their lives under Israeli blockade.He wasalso co-editor of “Gaza Unsilenced,”acollection of essays, photos and poetry published in 2015thatdocumented the pain, lossand faith of Palestinians under Israeli siege. He also contributed to “Light in Gaza: Writings Born of Fire,” an anthology published in 2022.A native of Gaza City, hestudied atUniversity College London and SOAS, in London.

He was a co-founder of “We Are Not Numbers” – a non-profit organization that aims to amplify the voices of Palestinian youth living in Gaza and the refugee camps.

“We have the faith, we have the belief that we have a fair cause, a just cause, to struggle to fight back for freedom, for basic human rights. We’vebeen stripped out of this,” he told CNN.

Israel launched its military operation in Gaza with the stated aim of eliminatingHamas and rescuing the more than 240 hostages taken during the militant group’s October 7 attack, which killed more than 1,200 people in Israel.

Israeli strikes have so far killed about 17,700 Palestinians in Gaza from October 7 through December 9, according to a report published by the Palestinian Ministry of Health in Ramallah on Sunday. The report cites medical sources from the Hamas-controlled enclave. At least 70% of those killed in Gaza were women, children and the elderly, the report said.

CNN cannot independently confirm the number of dead and wounded in Gaza, but on Sunday the Israel Defense Forces said it had struck more than 22,000 targets in Gaza since October 7.

The IDF says it is trying to minimize civilian casualties,andaccuses Hamas of embedding itself in civilian infrastructure.UN Secretary-General António Guterreshas warnedthere is “no effective protectionof civilians” in Gaza.

Human rights groups have said that Israel’s attacks onciviliansamount to a war crime, as does their forcible evacuation.

During his interview with CNN, Alareercalled on the international community to see the “humanity” in Palestinian people, adding: “Feel their pain. Put yourself in their shoes.”

He had writtena poem anticipatingthat he might be killed,titled“If I must die.”

Following Alareer’sdeath, people in New York and London held vigils to honor his memory.

While Alareer’sdeath is being mourned among Palestinians, some of his comments have caused offense. In a BBC interviewhe described the October 7 attacks as “a pre-emptive attack by Palestinian resistance” that was “legitimate and moral.”

Memories of war

Gazan civilians are no strangers to the threat of death, having lived through years under siege. Alareersaid that recent Israeli strikes on the Palestinian enclave triggered his early memories of war.

Born in Shajaiya, in the eastern part of Gaza City, he said his family was forced to relocateto the Tel-al-Hawa areaof Gaza City, after their home was destroyedby Israeli bombardment during the 2014 war that also claimed his younger brother Hamada, who was 27 when he was killed.

“It’ssomething we don’ttalk about. We don’teven want to think about how these kids, the homes, the lives (that) get destroyed again and againevery few years,” he recalled.

The sounds of strikes hitting a building feel as though “the whole earth reverberates,” he said.

“Even the slamming of a door sometimes brings you these memories,” he said “That’s why we usually say there is no post-wartrauma for Palestinians. It’snonstop.”

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.

Nine years on, Alareersaid he and many otherGazanparentsfelt “helplessness and despair” because they have no way to protect themselves, or their children, from Israel’s persistent strikes.

He described the emotional and physical trauma sustained by Palestinian children under bombardment.

“The way things usually start is complete fear in the first couple of days,” he said. “This turns into numbness later on, complete indifference, complete submission.

“If you want to pray, you cut it short because there’s bombing around. If you want to eat, you stop eating because there’s bombing around.

“You want to hug your kids like you usually do, ortell them stories or pat them on the head,” he said. “But you don’twant to do it because you don’twant to feel, or make them feel, that this is like a farewell hug.

“We count the years by how many wars our kids survive.”

He had been a vocal critic of Israeland a source of comments that caused offenseto people outside Gaza, willing to be interviewed by many news outlets for Palestinian rights.

In his BBC interview as well defending the October 7 attacks, Alareercompared them to the 1943 Warsaw Ghetto Uprising, whichrepresentedthe largest Jewish resistance effort during the Holocaust.

Following the comments, a BBC spokesperson said his comments “were offensive and we don’t intend to use him again (as a commentator).”

He later accused Israel of fabricating evidence of sexual assault by Hamas on October 7.CNN reportedon survivors saying they either directly witnessed sexual violence or saw clear evidenceof it.

‘Towering figure in Palestinian society’

Alareerbegan teaching literature, creative writing, poetry, translationand Shakespeare at the Islamic University of Gaza in 2007. He described himself as a writer and educator.

His death on Thursday sparked tributes from friends, colleaguesand students across the globe.

Ra Page, 51, is a publisher and founder of Comma Press, in Manchester, England. He worked with Alareeron numerousliterary projects and workshops over the years. They met in person in Gaza City, in August 2022.

“My fondest memories are of jumping into his hilariously small car – definitely thesmallest, quirkiest, possibly oldestcar in Gaza and driving around listening to audiobooks and podcasts with him. He loved audio literature,” Page told CNN on Friday.

“To describe him; he was generous, above all. Gracious, gentle, patient, funny. He had a wicked sense of humor,” he added.

“He always championed others, ahead of himself. He was a great writerbut his mission was to platform and support other writers.”

In this image, taken by Ra Page, Alareer (left) can be seen sitting opposite Page's wife, Basma el Farra (right), at a restaurant bar called el-Bakka, during their last night together in Gaza City, in August 2022.

Alareerwas a “towering figure in Palestinian society,” said Abusalim, the writer and friend based in Washington,DC.

“Refaat’s life was not without its challenges. Despite personal tragedies and the harsh realities of life in Gaza, he remained unwavering, using his pen and his voice to fight back, to write back,” he told CNN.

“His teaching wasn’t just about imparting knowledge; it was about empowerment, about using language as a weapon against oppression,” Abusalim added.

Laila El-Haddad, a Gazan journalist and authorbased in Maryland, said Alareer“raised an entire generation of Palestinian writers in Gaza.”

Hetaught them “how to use English, the language of the countries that have been responsible for and complicit in their dispossession, genocide and blockade, to narrate their own stories,” added El-Haddad, 45.

Rawan Yaghi, who was taught by Alareerand is now a 30-year-old writer based in Canada, said he was a “leader of literary resistance.”

“His love for storytelling was infectious. He was a force for good, for perseverance, love, camaraderie,” she told CNN.

“We remember and carry on Refaat’s legacy. Refaat the storyteller, father, husband, son, teacher, and friend.”

CNN’s Kareem Khadder, Ibrahim Dahman and Eyad Kourdi contributed reporting.