I was the first international student from the class of 2025 to arrive on campus. It took me around 70 hours to reach Lexington from Gaza in Palestine due to the Israeli travel restrictions on Palestinians. Since then, I have not been able to return to Gaza, and it looks like I might never visit the Gaza I once knew.

At the time of writing this, Israel has killed more than 24,000 Gazans, according to Palestinian authorities, most of whom were women and children. According to Aljazeera, more than 50,000 have been wounded, and 8,000 more are thought to be under the rubble.

I lost friends, two dozen family members, teachers and neighbors. Israel destroyed hospitals, churches, my family’s apartment and all five schools I attended. Israel has been indiscriminately bombing Gaza. According to the Washington Post, Israel has been using unguided bombs in nearly half of their bombings of Gaza. One hit my neighborhood, wiping it out.

While I sit in class, I cannot fully commit to the no-phone policy. I anxiously check telegram news channels for news on Israeli strikes, making sure none of them have hit areas where my family and friends have sought refuge.

If I am lucky, I can hear my parents’ voices once every two days, and occasionally, I receive a brief message from my mom: “We are still alive.” That is how I am assured my family is safe. Yet, surviving airstrikes is only a part of their struggle.

My family’s biggest challenge is finding food. According to the United Nations, half of Gaza’s population faces the dire risk of starvation. My close friend, Mahmoud, described how he fought to get a bag of flour when aid first reached his area. If my people manage to survive this war, they might not survive Israel’s starvation of Palestinians in Gaza.

Yet, a seed of hope has grown inside me during this war: Washington and Lee’s community. I cannot express the gratitude I have for my classmates, professors and staff. I received emails from so many people, including those I have never met, checking in on me. This overwhelming support encourages me every day as I go to class. It reminds me that whatever goals others have, peace is the righteous goal. Although some of you might not know the entire history of the conflict, almost everyone I know showed support and sympathy.

Friends organized several events on campus to recognize the tragic loss of life in Gaza. One event was planting 800 Palestinian flags, each representing ten lives lost. That was 14,000 lives ago.

While most of the conversations I had were thoughtful, I encountered only one bad experience. A student came to me after the vigil to mourn the lives lost. He did not have the baseline of any conversation: respect.

We could disagree, but having that baseline of respect is important to move forward. We could disagree on ideology, but the killing of 10,000 children is not debatable. That is a war crime. We could disagree on the way forward, but cutting food and water is a war crime. We could disagree on many things, but decades of brutal occupation is not debatable. Palestinians have the right to a sovereign independent state. Every nation has the right for self-determination, but the Israeli occupation does not believe so, as demonstrated in the United Nations’ 2023 vote on Palestinian self-determination.

Israel is still killing Palestinians, injuring us, starving us, arresting us, and viewing us as “human animals.” I go to class thinking about my city and my people living through hell. If you disagree with me, I am open to dialogue. But only a dialogue that recognizes me and my people as humans and not “animals.” If you agree with me, challenge yourself even more. Get your news from non-traditional outlets. Demand your representatives to call for a ceasefire. Peace is not abstract. Peace is the goal, and you can be part of it.