'Every Bullet That Kills My People Is American': Says Palestinian Journalist On Solidarity Day

A ceasefire was agreed on October 10, 2025, bringing Palestinians a brief reprieve after three years of near-continuous bombing, estimated at six times the explosive force of Hiroshima, concentrated on less than half the size of the Japanese city.

But can it really be called a ceasefire? In the 44 days since the deal, Israel reportedly violated it 497 times, according to the Gaza Government Media Office. On paper, the agreement exists, but in practice, hostilities have not stopped. The media office reported that at least 342 civilians have been killed since the ceasefire deal was brokered between Israel and Hamas through US intervention, with children, women and the elderly accounting for the majority of the victims.

Each year, November 29 is observed as the International Day of Solidarity with the Palestinian People, a date chosen by the United Nations in 1977 because it marked the anniversary of the 1947 UN General Assembly vote to partition historic Palestine. The day was created not as a symbolic gesture but as a political acknowledgement that the question of Palestine remained unresolved decades after the Nakba, the displacement of hundreds of thousands of Palestinians, and the establishment of the State of Israel.

The war that began on October 7, 2023, marked one of the deadliest escalations in the long and uneven conflict between Israel and the Palestinian armed group, Hamas. According to UN agencies, 70,000 Palestinians in Gaza have been killed since then, with many more still unaccounted for under collapsed buildings.

To understand life on the ground after the ceasefire, Outlook reached out to a Palestinian.

Imad Abu Shaweish, 38 years old, works as a journalist in the Gaza Strip. A father to four children, he volunteers to help displaced people, providing food and clothing.

"I have been displaced by the war more than once, and I was injured by Israeli bombing. Every bullet and missile that kills my people is an American product and an Israeli act", says Imad Abu Shaweish."

Upon being asked about the US-dictated ceasefire, Shaweish says that the Palestinians do not trust America, and all that it’s doing is trying to protect its spoiled child, Israel, which is what allows the killing to continue in Gaza.

He further stated, "America has supported Israel in the war in Gaza, and sent planes loaded with weapons that bombed civilian homes. It gave Israel and the settlers the right to kill Palestinians with impunity. Furthermore, its veto power prevented a Security Council resolution to stop the war in Gaza. They are only concerned with the captured Israeli soldiers and ignore the 70,000 Palestinian martyrs, the more than 160,000 wounded, the destruction of 80% of the Gaza Strip".

Abu Shaweish alleges how Israel does not want a ceasefire, as on the day the war stops, Netanyahu shall be tried for corruption and negligence, the Knesset will be dissolved, and elections will be announced. This will cause the extreme right in Israel to lose seats in government. Therefore, the Israeli army has committed more than 502 violations of the truce since the beginning of the ceasefire.

According to him, what Trump has done in the peace plan was solely to secure the release of the captured Israeli soldiers, to invest in rebuilding Gaza, and doesn't care about the children and women killed by Israel and its soldiers.

"I have lost 13 people from my family in the central Gaza Strip, after it bombed several old houses with heavy missiles, including 10 children. Every day, there is killing of civilians, in addition to preventing the entry of aid, tents, food, medicine, and cooking gas," says Abu Shaweish.

He says that some of his relatives were killed by Israel along with their children, describing what happened to his family four days earlier when Israel bombed three dilapidated houses made of old bricks with a missile fired from an F-16 fighter jet. More than 35 people were wounded in that single strike.

UN member states use International Day of Solidarity with the Palestinian People to reaffirm that Palestinians continue to live without self-determination, without a sovereign state, and under conditions of occupation, blockade, and exile. It is also a moment in which civil society, human rights organisations, and refugee communities draw attention to the ongoing violations, demographic losses, and the deepening humanitarian crisis in Gaza and the West Bank.

Decade after decade since 1948, Israel has expanded its control over Palestinian land, pushing communities off their homes, tightening its occupation over the West Bank, and sealing Gaza into an increasingly restricted and unlivable space. Entire generations have grown up displaced from places their families once lived in.

Gaza Death Toll: German Institute Estimates Over 100,000

The Max Planck Institute for Demographic Research (MPIDR) has estimated that at least 100,000 Palestinians were killed in Gaza during the Israel-Hamas war from October 7, 2023, to October 6, 2025—far exceeding the Gaza Ministry of Health's official count of 69,733 direct deaths. The institute's statistical modelling, drawing on data from the ministry, B'Tselem, UN agencies like OCHA and IGME, and the Palestinian Central Bureau of Statistics, calculated 78,318 direct conflict-related fatalities by end-2024, with the total surpassing 100,000 by October 2025.

Lead author Ana C. Gomez-Ugarte emphasised: “Our estimates... probably represent only a lower limit of the actual mortality burden,” noting that indirect effects like disease and famine, often greater and longer-lasting—remain unquantified. The analysis revealed a 44% drop in life expectancy in 2023 and 47% in 2024, resulting in average losses of 34.4 and 36.4 years per person. Age-gender patterns mirror those in documented genocides, per UN IGME, underscoring Gaza's unprecedented demographic catastrophe amid ongoing hostilities.

"We in the Gaza Strip love life and want peace, but Israel kills our children and us for no reason other than that we are Palestinians. They want to force us out of the Gaza Strip," says Abu Shaweish.

A large number of his relatives, more than 70 family members, have been lost in Gaza because of the war. "Eighty per cent of them were women and children, killed by Israel."

Even after the US-dictated ceasefire, access to necessities remains severely limited. Perhaps a few trucks were allowed into Gaza, but that is only enough for about 10% of the population. According to the UN, 90% of Gaza's residents need urgent aid, yet Israel is preventing the entry of food, water, medicine, and tents.

"The people of Gaza don't believe Israel and know they want to kill more children and women and destroy schools, mosques, churches, streets, and hospitals. We want the war to end and to live in peace and safety," he says.

Abu Shaweish says that the Palestinians never feel safe in Gaza. The bombing may have decreased significantly, but it's still concentrated daily, for homes are still being blown up and destroyed every day.