Neither mascletás, nor revelry: with rockets, bombs, chaos and ambulances, the inhabitants of Gaza – those who remain – have welcomed the year 2024. Nor with meetings for the bells, but with protests against Israel in the West Bank. Among Palestinians, a unanimous New Year’s resolution that is, in reality, a desperate wish: “We want to live! We want to live!”

“May we stop living on the streets and dying on the streets. May those of us who remain find ourselves again. Return and visit the graves of our loved onesrecover them from the rubble”, they ask after a ruthless, devastating, bloody 2023. They long, in short, for a minimum of normality: “In 2024 I ask to be able to return to the remains of my house and live there even if it is planted in a tent “.

Come back, come back, come back; to home, to family, to work, to school. “Have food, water, electricity againeverything that we lack now,” they lament. And while our children are at the moment of asking for toys, the youngest Palestinians settle for less: “Being able to dress, do things, have a house.” Desires so simple and so complex , at the same time.

From Israel, the latest announcement is not very comforting: some of the soldiers are going to withdraw, but because its economy is beginning to notice it. From there they point out that the war will extend throughout 2024. Thus, it is normal that – as some Palestinians say – they do not feel the change of year: The pain is such that every day seems the same.