Afrasianet - Kemal Özturk - When I saw tens of thousands of people walking barefoot, over the dusty dirt, in the middle of a devastated city, I was ashamed to write anything about the gains, or the geopolitical losses of the truce.

I realized then that staying alive in Gaza was a victory in itself.

To survive with your life under the weight of the genocide perpetrated by a murderous entity that bombards you with the deadliest weapons, trapped in a small spot with no refuge and no escape, is a victory in itself for two million trapped people.

To cling to life when you are a helpless child, a helpless woman, or a man without weapons, in a land surrounded by sea and land, where bombs fall on the heads of its people, without anyone responding to their distress, is a miracle in itself.

For a nation to cling to its homes, which have turned to dust, and have been forcibly exiled once to the south, and then for the fifth time to the north, to be shot by snipers so that they do not eat, drink and die on the roads, and yet insist on returning, this is a victory.

To stay alive in Gaza, to remain there, not to die, is a victory that history has never witnessed.

To hold out without weapons, without trenches, without protection, without allies, without a piece of bread, and yet to remain standing, is a legendary victory.

The entire world has witnessed the resistance of an annihilated people, facing the world's most formidable armies, equipped with the most lethal weapons, an army that knows no mercy.

In a mass massacre in which "friends" and "brothers" watch, countries that claim to be civilized, and neighbors who speak your language and do not move a finger, to fall to the ground and not surrender, this is also a victory.

In a land full of raptors waiting for your death, wolves and jackals that are waiting for you with their stained claws, to be saved from your wounds is a victory.

I couldn't write about the terms of the ceasefire agreement after I saw a mother and her child trying to return to a house that had turned into a pile of stones in Khan Yunis.

I couldn't explain to her the geopolitical gains of the agreement, and I looked her in the eye.

I couldn't compare: "Has Israel gained from this agreement? Has Hamas lost?". 

When the people of Nefi return for the fourth time from the south, and the fifth time to the north... They walk barefoot on roads that have become deserts, and I can no longer write about the weaknesses and strengths of the agreement.

Because the determination of those who walk under the flames of the sun, whose dust blows towards the sea, but who insist on returning to the rubble of their homes, is in itself a victory.

In the history of wars, the first thing that states target is the will to resist the enemy. Because every army and every nation loses the will to fight, doomed to defeat.

Imagine a Palestinian who lost his children and relatives, his city was destroyed, his house was demolished, and he had nothing left in this world, and yet his will to fight was not broken.

They starved his sons to death, he had only bones left, he had no morsel, yet he did not give up, and he did not give up fighting.

Perhaps the greatest thing that could have killed the will to fight was the betrayal of friends. The countries he called "sister", and the people he regarded as "friends", did not feed him bread, nor did they extend a hand to him as he starved.

However, his spirit was not shaken, and he did not back down from the battle for survival.

That in itself is a victory.

History has never seen such resistance.

History has not known such a nation that chose to die with honor and refused to surrender to the most powerful armies on earth, armed with the most powerful tools of murder.

Therefore, to be alive in Palestine is a victory.

When they survive, when they don't leave their land, when they cling to that dusty, dry soil, they have in fact defeated the most powerful armies on earth.

Excuse me, I will not write about the "gains and losses of political realism" in the ceasefire agreement.

Because staying in Gaza is a victory, and because this victory was achieved by the brave people of Palestine. 

Turkish writer and journalist