When I saw tens of thousands of people walking barefoot, covered in dust, through a city reduced to rubble — I felt ashamed to speak of “gains” or “geopolitical outcomes.”
At that moment, I realised that to remain alive in Gaza is, in itself, a victory.
To survive a genocide carried out by a ruthless occupier armed with the deadliest weapons, trapped in a narrow strip of land with no escape — that is not mere endurance, it is defiance. It is the triumph of two million souls against the machinery of annihilation.
To cling to life as a defenceless child, a mother with no refuge, or a man without arms, surrounded by seas and siege, as bombs rain upon your home and no one answers your cries — that is a miracle.
To hold on to your home, to your land, even when your house becomes dust and your city a graveyard — when you are expelled south for the fourth time, then north for the fifth, snipers waiting to kill you for trying to drink or eat — and still, you insist on returning… that is victory.
To remain alive in Gaza — to simply exist — is a form of resistance unmatched in human history.
To stand firm without weapons, without allies, without shelter, without even a piece of bread — and still not fall — is a legendary triumph.
A People That Refused to Die
The whole world has witnessed a people facing one of the strongest armies on earth — an army that knows no mercy, no restraint, no morality.
In a genocide where “friends” and “brothers” remained silent, where so-called civilised nations watched indifferently, where neighbours sharing the same language turned away — to fall but never surrender is victory in its purest form.
In a land surrounded by beasts — vultures waiting for your death, wolves with bloodied claws circling your wounds — to survive is victory.
I could not write about ceasefire clauses after seeing a mother and her child trying to return to what was once a home in Khan Younis — now just a pile of stones.
How could I explain “political gains” while looking into her eyes?
How could I ask who “won” the agreement when the people who lost everything are still walking barefoot across the desert roads, under the burning sun, returning to the rubble that was once their life?
Their determination — to walk back, to live again, to rebuild — is the truest definition of victory.
The War Against the Spirit of Resistance
Throughout history, the first target in every war is the enemy’s will to fight. For when a nation’s spirit is broken, defeat is inevitable.
But imagine a Palestinian who has lost his children, relatives, and home — who has nothing left — yet his resolve to resist remains unshaken.
They starved his people, left them with nothing but bone, yet they did not surrender.
Perhaps the greatest attempt to destroy the will to fight came not from bombs, but from betrayal — the betrayal of those called “brothers” and “friends.”
Nations that proclaimed kinship closed their borders. Governments that claimed solidarity watched him starve. No one extended a hand.
And still, his spirit did not falter. He continued to fight for survival, for dignity, for his land.
That, too, is victory.
A Victory Beyond Weapons
History has never seen such resistance — nor a nation that chose honourable death over humiliating surrender to the most heavily armed military force on earth.
Thus, to stay alive in Palestine is not merely endurance; it is triumph.
When the people of Gaza remain — when they refuse to leave — when they grip the dust of their homeland with their bare hands and say, “This is ours,” they have already defeated the mightiest army on earth.
Forgive me — I will not write about the “political balance” of a ceasefire.
Because to remain in Gaza is a victory.
And that victory belongs entirely to the brave people of Palestine.
Sunna Files Team
