Timothy Stinson

🇵🇸 Arafat al-Arair spent his time during the genocide combating drug trafficking, quite openly facilitated by Israel and by Israel-backed Palestinian militias in Gaza. Israel first struck his family home, without warning, on June 10, 2024. His 10-year-old daughter Rasha and 11-year-old son Ahmed survived and were pulled alive from the rubble. About three months later, Israeli airstrikes hit their home in eastern Gaza City again, and this time both children were killed, the Palestinian Foreign Ministry confirmed. This Saturday, more than a year into the ceasefire, Al-Arair died from wounds sustained in another Israeli strike that targeted his vehicle while he was on his way to seize a drug shipment in Gaza City’s Tel al-Hawa neighborhood, according to Al-Araby TV correspondent Asem Alnabih, who had known him for 15 years. Israel has killed at least 77 Gaza police and security officers since agreeing to the so-called ceasefire last October. On Monday, it sealed the Rafah crossing with Egypt, cutting off food, fuel and cooking gas to more than 2 million people as winter sets in. Its stated reasons, a senior Palestinian source told Drop Site: "smuggling" and "interference by government bodies in the Gaza Strip." In fall 2024, when Israeli warplanes bombed the al-Arair family home killing his children, relatives discovered a handwritten will 10-year old Rasha had left behind. It read: “My will, if I become a martyr or pass away, please do not cry for me, because your tears cause me pain." She asked that her clothes go to people in need, her accessories and toys to named cousins and friends, and her 50-shekel monthly allowance be split between Rahaf and Ahmed. She ended with "please don't shout at my brother Ahmad."