On Monday, Gazan hip-hop artist MC Abdul released a new track titled What is it Worth?. It came out the same day that Israel and Palestinian militant group Islamic Jihad (PIJ) agreed a ceasefire to end a four-day spate of violence that killed at least 44 Palestinians, 15 of them children.
MC Abdul is only 13, but the political themes in his music are anything but adolescent – hardly surprising for someone who has grown up in one of the most dangerous areas on the planet.
His lyrics are desperate, too: "What is it worth? Living my life under siege, I pray for the day I am free."
While he and his compatriots are still not free, Saturday's ceasefire is an important step in protecting lives. But it is far from stable. Tor Wennesland, the UN's top Middle East envoy, has warned the Security Council that Monday’s agreement is "fragile”. Both sides have said they reserve the right to respond if it is breached. Shortly after the ceasefire was announced, a Palestinian security official connected to President Mahmoud Abbas was shot dead in a refugee camp in Lebanon. A motive has not been established, but the timing is peculiar. Hours later, the Israeli military conducted a raid in Nablus, killing three.
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Riyad Mansour, Palestinian permanent observer to the UN, addresses a Security Council meeting in New York. Reuters -
Palestinians search through the rubble of a building in which Khaled Mansour, a top Islamic Jihad militant, was killed in an Israeli air strike on Sunday, in Rafah, the southern Gaza Strip. AP -
Mohammad Arada removes a tricycle from the rubble of his home after it was destroyed by an Israeli air strike, in the Rafah refugee camp. AP -
Women mourn during the funeral of four teenage Palestinian cousins in Jabaliya, in the northern Gaza Strip. Reuters -
People march during a rally in support of Gaza Strip residents at the Grand Central Terminal in New York. EPA -
Palestinians celebrate on a street in Gaza city after a ceasefire was announced. Reuters -
Palestinians burn tyres near the Huwwara checkpoint, south of the West Bank city of Nablus, during a protest against Israel's air strikes in Gaza. EPA -
Children cry during the funeral of Tamim Hijazi in Khan Yunis, a city in the southern Gaza Strip. The Gaza resident was killed in an Israeli air strike. AP -
Smoke billows from a building struck during an Israeli air strike in Rafah in the southern Gaza Strip. Israel bombarded Islamic Jihad positions in the Gaza Strip for a third day, with 31 Palestinians killed. AFP -
Palestinians inspect a destroyed house after an Israeli air strike on Rafah in the Gaza Strip. EPA -
A Palestinian rocket is fired from Gaza City toward Israel as Israel bombarded Islamic Jihad positions in the Gaza Strip for a third day. AFP -
The Palestinian Civil Defence evacuate a wounded man following an explosion in Jebaliya refugee camp, northern Gaza Strip. AP -
A Palestinian man in the rubble of his badly damaged home, which was struck by Israeli missiles in Gaza City. AFP -
A Palestinian woman and her daughter survey the damage to their home, caused by the Israeli air strikes, in the northern Gaza Strip. Reuters -
Palestinians search the rubble of a building in which Khaled Mansour, a chief Islamic Jihad militant, was killed in an Israeli air strike on Rafah, southern Gaza Strip. AP -
An Israeli Iron Dome air defence system launches a missile to intercept rockets fired from the Gaza Strip, on the outskirts of the southern Israeli city of Ashkelon. AFP -
The friend of a young Palestinian killed during the night in the Jabaliya refugee camp in the northern Gaza Strip, is overcome at his funeral in the same camp. AFP -
The body of Palestinian Muhammad Hassouna, who was killed in an Israeli air strike, is prepared for his funeral at a hospital in Rafah. AP -
An Israeli Air Force Apache helicopter fires flares in the sky above the Israel-Gaza border. Reuters -
A Palestinian boy looks out of a car damaged amid Israel-Gaza fighting, in the northern Gaza Strip. Reuters -
Israeli police keep watch while Jews visit the Al Aqsa compound in Jerusalem on Sunday. Reuters -
Palestinians search a destroyed building in which leading Islamic Jihad militant Khaled Mansour was killed by an Israeli air strike in Rafah. AP -
Israeli extreme-right politician Itamar Ben Gvir, centre, speaks to the media as he makes his way to the Al Aqsa complex in East Jerusalem. EPA -
Israelis rest in a bomb shelter after rocket attacks fired from the Gaza Strip, in Ashkelon, southern Israel. Palestinian officials say at least 32 people in Gaza have died in latest surge of violence. AP -
The Palestinian Islamic Jihad group fires rockets from Gaza City. Israel's military has said it 'neutralised' the group's leadership group in the enclave, where at least 32 people, including six children, have been killed in three days of Israeli strikes. EPA -
Palestinian medics take an injured man to hospital. AFP -
Palestinians carry an injured girl to hospital following an Israeli strike in the southern Gaza Strip. AFP -
Palestinians search for casualties in the rubble of a residential building in the southern Gaza Strip. AFP -
A salvo of rockets is fired from Gaza City towards Israel. AFP -
Palestinians gather at a hospital in Jabaliya refugee camp in the northern Gaza Strip. AFP
However bleak the situation, the ceasefire has shown that international diplomacy can still help even in Palestine and Israel’s darkest moments. Egyptian President Abdel Fattah El Sisi was instrumental in mediating the agreement and UN Security Council member states, including the UAE, quickly called for an urgent meeting into the violence.
Gazans are taking advantage of this tentative respite to try to pick up the pieces and get back to normal. They are used to rebuilding their lives, though they should not have to do it so often. The last significant period of violence happened only a year ago, when Israel and Hamas fought an 11-day war. This time around, casualties included Gaza's only power plant, which was forced to shut down temporarily due to a lack of fuel. That led to a cut in electricity supply to just eight hours a day. It has now restarted, after Israel reopened border crossings, allowing fuel trucks to enter.
The damage to private property is also significant. MC Abdul's music video shows a number of incinerated vehicles and buildings reduced to rubble. “Our lungs are full of dust, we're struggling to breathe," he says. “We Gaza kids want to see the future, not rubble in the streets.”
These lines reveal the significant mental burden of the violence, particularly on young people. So does footage of children startled and running from missile strikes that hit a street on which they were gathered. Save the Children, a charity, reported in June that 15 years of life under blockade has left 80 per cent of children in Gaza with feelings of depression, fear and grief.
PIJ, a violent group that has destabilised and threatened both Palestine and Israel, is now greatly weakened. But without any semblance of a political solution to the decades-long occupation of Palestine on the horizon and without a two-state solution, it is certain that violence of this kind and worse will be repeated, with or without PIJ.
“What is it worth? Seeing my nation in mourning, seeing innocent lives destroyed?" Gazans will be mulling this question as they pick up the pieces. The world should, too.
