(Illustration: Jaimee Haddad/Photo AFP)
"My life was already not easy with the blockade, but since Oct. 7, we know only death," says Aboubaker Abed from the Deir al-Balah refugee camp in central Gaza Strip, when the unreliable mobile internet allows him to send WhatsApp messages.This aspiring 21-year-old sports journalist dreamed that the playful language of soccer would connect the fate of the residents of the occupied enclave to the rest of the world. Since then, the words that link him to others are those he chooses to describe the destruction around him."With the bombing of more than 45 sports facilities, nine out of 10 stadiums in Gaza, and the death of more than 350 athletes, my most urgent task now is to be the spokesperson for the ongoing tragedy," he says on Aug. 19, the day before yet another strike killed several civilians in Deir al-Balah, which...
"My life was already not easy with the blockade, but since Oct. 7, we know only death," says Aboubaker Abed from the Deir al-Balah refugee camp in central Gaza Strip, when the unreliable mobile internet allows him to send WhatsApp messages.This aspiring 21-year-old sports journalist dreamed that the playful language of soccer would connect the fate of the residents of the occupied enclave to the rest of the world. Since then, the words that link him to others are those he chooses to describe the destruction around him."With the bombing of more than 45 sports facilities, nine out of 10 stadiums in Gaza, and the death of more than 350 athletes, my most urgent task now is to be the spokesperson for the ongoing tragedy," he says on Aug. 19, the day before yet another strike killed several civilians in Deir al-Balah,...