Through Amjad’s Eyes: The Human Cost in Gaza

The first update of 2026 from Amjad Al-Mhalwi, directly from Gaza, has arrived. Through his voice and his testimony, faithfully conveyed by his friend Doug Hostetter, Pax Christi International’s UN Representative, we have been able to follow the worsening of the terrible conditions to which the Palestinian people have been subjected for far too long.

In recent months, Amjad explains, the situation in Gaza has become, if possible, even more dramatic. The ceasefire declared last October has been repeatedly violated by Israel, which has continued to kill civilians, particularly children. The harsh winter continues to bring illness and suffering, with no medicines or basic supplies available for treatment. Amjad’s family, like so many other Palestinians, is still forced to move from place to place, living in constant fear.

In the face of this seemingly endless suffering, we renew our appeal to the international community to act urgently for a permanent ceasefire and for full respect of international law.

May Amjad’s voice touch the heart and conscience of each one of us, preventing us from forgetting, compelling us to act.

January 19, 2026

Amjad texts

The situation in Gaza has been dire since the October 10, 2025, ceasefire declared by President Trump. Israel has violated the truce repeatedly, killing 464 Palestinians including 164 Children and 63 women since the Trump Peace Plan came into effect. We live in constant fear of targeted killings, renewed war, displacement, and the prospect of again living on the streets, searching for water and food. The hardest thing has been being displaced from one place to another. My own family has had to move more than a dozen times during the first two years of the war. Israeli armed drones are overhead almost all the time, even though the Gaza Peace Plan called for “all military operations, including aerial, and artillery bombardment be suspended.” The continuing of Israeli targeted killings is terrifying. You live in constant fear, even while shopping or walking in the street. The drone overhead may be targeting someone just beside you. The streets are crowded with people. The Israeli military might be trying to assassinate only one person, but many others die with them.

We hope that America and the Arab countries will force a permanent end to the war, not in stages. These stages are what are killing us. We want the crossings to Egypt opened so that people can travel for medical treatment and education.

After two years of war everyone is struggling financially. The Trump peace plan called for 600 truck a day to be allowed to enter Gaza, but the usual number is 300 – 400 trucks a day, and often far less, and many items are completely excluded by the Israelis. What is available in the market is very expensive. We also suffer from extreme cold and heavy rains, which flood homes, tents, and streets.

The flu is also spreading rapidly and there are no medicines to treat it. My children still live in constant fear. They are constantly afraid that the war has returned and any loud nose cause bedwetting. I have told them we’ll travel and live abroad to get our medical treatment and study. They keep asking me, “When will be leave. . . When, when?”

Some goods are available, but they are expensive. What little money we had is now gone, and we can’t afford them. We face war on all sides. First, there’s the return of the war, the bombing, and the terror. Then there’s the war of the merchants because of the high prices. There’s also the war from the collaborators with the Israeli army—the spies—and their war with Hamas. They enter, kidnap, and shoot. The Israeli army hasn’t stopped demolishing houses and firing constantly into the Palestinian controlled part of Gaza. There is also the infighting between powerful Palestinian families, with gunfire. We fear it all. We are not safe here. The war and shortages have destroyed much of the integrity of Palestinian culture here leaving a corrupt generation that now begs, steals, and fights. We all suffer from depravation and insecurity.

The International Court of Justice ruled on July 19, 2024, that the Israeli occupation of Gaza was illegal and should be ended. After more than two years of war and the false hopes of the two past Trump ordered ceasefires, it is time for the world community to come together, to force anend to this war and the Israeli occupation of Palestine and allow Palestinians to form their own sovereign state to live is peace and security with their Israeli neighbor.

Amjad Al-Mahalawi

Doug Hostetter