It has been a year since Operation Al-Aqsa Flood.

A year of the most horrifying images and cries from our friends and families in Gaza.

We are in a year of mourning.

• Over forty thousand people*, of which 17,000 are children, brutally murdered for the crime of being born in Gaza,

• 900 entire families wiped off the earth for the crime of surviving in their ancient homes, and

• A new label for humanity: wounded child, no surviving family.

A year of civil destruction.

• 817 mosques and churches where families will never gather to pray again,

• 31 hospitals that will never again save another life,

• 53 schools that will never hear another bell ring,

• 12 universities that will never grant another degree, and

• 19 cemeteries, now replaced by four mass graves.

And a year of resistance.

Resistance to genocide, to occupation, to erasure, to lawsuits, to firings, to even not being allowed to wear your keffiyeh in your school or workplace.

But, this year, a new hope for a free and liberated Palestine has been born and is stronger than ever.

There have been more people on the streets in the support of a free Palestine than ever before in human history.

Resistance to apartheid, occupation, colonialism, and genocide requires all of us. Every day is not easy, but together, we are strong.

I think about my Aunt Elham. 

She survived the Nakba.

She built Gaza’s first music programs.

She taught children of all ages and all communities, for decades, how to make music in the face of extreme repression.

We established the Elham Fund to carry on her legacy. 

To resist occupation as best we can. The way she did with every moment of her life.

This organization was born out of necessity to help one child – Rayyan, a four year old Christian boy trapped in the Holy Family Catholic Church in Gaza City in desperate need of chronic life saving medication.

Today, we have raised and distributed almost $20,000 to over 40 families of all faiths across the Gaza Strip.

Your donations have helped these families reclaim a measure of dignity.

A woman named Ahed, who received her USD $400 transfer earlier this summer, told us: the most important thing she was able to purchase was lice shampoo.

With four young boys living in a crowded tent in Deir Al-Balah, these basic necessities became her way of keeping her kids comfortable.

In a genocide, these type of commodities become incredibly expensive and hard to get.

So today, on October 7, 2024, I can tell you, the people of Palestine haven’t given up. 

The people of Lebanon, Yemen, Syria and Iran haven’t given up on the cry for a Free Palestine.  

Every single day we don’t surrender is a victory.  

Help us keep winning, one day at a time. 

Yours in Struggle,

Hammam Farah
Co-Founder, Executive Director
Elham Fund

* The Lancet estimates that the more accurate death toll in Gaza, taking into account unidentified remains, bodies still buried, and people dying of illness and starvation, is actually 186 000 people or more as of the time of publication in June 2024 - meaning that is likely a vast underestimate.