Palestinians in Gaza: exemplars of ethical and local humanitarianism

This paper is a synthesis of stories told by Palestinian colleagues in Gaza in conversation with the authors and shared with their permission. It is not submitted as a research study, but as a deliberate and decolonial contribution to centre and amplify whole stories and voices of ordinary people enduring genocide. It follows five story lines drawn from our conversations and offered as vignettes: the motivations of ordinary people to adapt, find purpose, and stay; survival through horrors, starvation and wicked choices; recurrent thoughts and memories; strength and resistance; and making meaning of the concept of humanity. Across varied roles and professions—doctors, psychologists, students, teachers, translators and aid volunteers—our colleagues describe motivations grounded in vocation, belonging and duty, recount persistent ethical dilemmas, and detail profound human costs including hunger, trauma and moral injury. Through storytelling, the central claim that animates this work is clear: it is the actions of everyday citizens in Gaza, carried out in extremis, that exemplify what being humanitarian — and human — means. Their actions should be written into the books of humanitarian and health ethics around the world.