It was as a spectator, from Doha, Qatar, where he has lived since leaving Gaza in early 2024, that the most famous of Palestinian journalists, Wael Al-Dahdouh, commented on the start of the ceasefire between Israel and Hamas on the morning of January 19. On the Qatari channel Al-Jazeera, for which he has worked for 20 years, he said: "It's not easy for me to observe these moments from afar, to see my colleagues in the midst of these ruins. But we have to be able to live this moment to the full, in all its sweetness and bitterness." The sweetness of a truce that could bring some respite to the residents of the Palestinian territory after 471 days of war, the bitterness of having endured so much.

A month earlier, on December 14, in one of the very few interviews he agreed to give, via Zoom, Al-Dahdouh, his right forearm still immobilized by a splint since Israeli fire reduced it to pieces in December 2023, confided his unshakeable attachment to his native land – "this territory is part of me," he said, "it reflects me and I reflect it." A refugee for the past year in Qatar, with his five children enrolled in school or university, the 54-year-old is trying to resume some kind of a normal life. But all his thoughts remain focused on Gaza, where his close relatives, brothers and sisters, neighbors and friends still live.

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