The Lives They Lived
The Mediterranean Sea traces the
25-mile-long stretch of coastal land that makes up Gaza; for many people there,
it is a lifeline. The poet Mahmoud Darwish understood those waters as the sole
possession of Palestinians, writing in his poem “The Strangers’ Picnic”: “I
will embrace a wave and say: Take me to the sea again. This is what the fearful
do: when a burning star torments them, they go to the sea.”
Wafa Al-Udaini grew up entranced
by that same sea. The waters offered relief for overheated bodies, a backdrop
for gatherings, fish to grill for dinner. When the Israeli military destroyed
clean-water wells and desalination plants, it became essential in a different
way: It was a place to wash dishes, do laundry and, occasionally, under extreme
duress, even drink.
When Al-Udaini became a
journalist, she traced the story of Israel’s occupation of Gaza by its impact
on the water and, in turn, on the lives of those who depended on it. This was
also her way of ensuring that the story of Palestinians was not told only by
the number of civilians killed or bombs dropped.
She wrote about the fishermen who
relied on catching anchovies and sardines to sell and feed their families. It
was a dangerous profession, she wrote, mainly because of the risk of being
fired on by Israeli naval gunners. The men she interviewed told her that the
Israeli blockade limited their access to equipment for their boats, leading
them to replace their motors with truck engines, which can result in capsizing.
And yet many of them returned despite the precarity. As one fisherman told her:
“I love the sea and its smell. It’s an indescribable thing.” In another
article, she wrote about the reduction of water pollution to the sea, which was
caused by Israeli airstrikes on sewage networks. She interviewed a woman named
Sabah who was elated to go surfing for the first time in years.
Al-Udaini was raised in the city
Deir al-Balah, in the middle of the Gaza Strip, by a large extended family. In
2007, she completed her English studies at Al Aqsa University. She quickly
became frustrated by Western media’s coverage of Gaza as a place of violence,
extremism and poverty. She resolved to be a voice from within, telling the
stories of its pleasures alongside its hardships. She wrote for smaller outlets
to start, eventually working her way up to regular bylines in The Guardian and
The Middle East Monitor. In 2009, she founded an organization called 16th October
to train young writers and activists in Gaza to work with English-language
organizations. (The group was named for the day the U.N. began to review a
report that found evidence that both the Israeli military and Hamas committed
war crimes in the 2008-9 Gaza conflict.)
Al-Udaini documented the way
cultural traditions could become peaceful weapons of defiance. In 2018, she
covered the Great March of Return, which started out as weekly demonstrations
demanding the end of the Israeli blockade and the right of return for refugees
and ended up stretching on for over a year. She marveled at the endurance of
those who kept attending the protests despite losing limbs after being hit by
rubber bullets and tear-gas canisters, describing them as “the image of sumoud,”
Arabic for steadfastness. Once, she observed people in an exuberant folk dance
called the dabka; another time, she was moved by the sight of elders holding
the keys to their former homes that they were forced to leave in 1948.
Al-Udaini became a frequent
commentator on Palestine Chronicle TV, which airs on YouTube. She always wore a
niqab, even though she felt it risked impeding her ambitions to become a
prominent voice in the West. Her eye shadow often matched the fabric of her
head scarf, pale pink or shimmery opal, eyes flashing as she delivered her
reports. Her voice was often raspy, carrying the strain of someone deprived of
sleep and time.
After a 2023 interview with a
particularly hostile British journalist was picked up by the Israeli media, Al-Udaini
shared with friends and colleagues that she was receiving threats. Eventually
she moved to a town outside Deir al-Balah, where she and her husband built a
two-story house surrounded by fields and farms. They loved it, even though
electricity and running water had been cut off.
On Aug. 7, Al-Udaini published
her last article, about outrage over the deaths of Ismael Alghoul and Rami
Alrifi, two Al-Jazeera journalists who were killed by an Israeli drone strike
while in a car marked “PRESS.” A little over a month later, Al-Udaini’s house
was hit by an Israeli airstrike, killing her; her husband; their 5-year-old
daughter, Balsam; and their 7-month-old son, Tamim. She is survived by her
other two children, Malek and Siraj, who now live with her parents. Their
whereabouts is unknown.
Al-Udaini once wrote an article
about the catastrophic loss of Gaza’s almond trees. The Israeli military forced
farmers to uproot acres of trees — and the rest were damaged by the
contaminated water supply. Almond blooms signify spring and form the basis of
local dishes and even children’s games. “They grew so well in Palestine that
when asked how they are, locals would reply, ‘Almond!’” she wrote. “It was a
sign of goodness, health, greatness. No longer.”
Jenna (J) Wortham is a staff
writer for the magazine who has written about wellness apps and how the
pandemic changed the internet.
