The Palestinians determined to get the word out on life inside Gaza

Good morning. As the death toll has risen in Gaza since the beginning of the war, and amid ongoing debates about which figures are to be trusted, Palestinians have sometimes used variations of a phrase to describe their despair at how invisible their individual losses have been to the wider world: “we are not numbers”.

Because of repeated internet blackouts, power outages making communication difficult and the danger to journalists on the ground, the stories of specific people that might work against that perception have often been difficult to tell. But through accounts like the Guardian’s serialised Gaza diary by 35-year-old Palestinian Ziad – who has described everything from having his messages of condolence finished by his phone’s autocomplete function to trying to save the family goldfish – and the many vivid social media posts coming out of the territory, it has been possible to understand something of the plight experienced by those on the ground.

Meanwhile, Kaamil Ahmed, a reporter on the Guardian’s global development desk, has been writing about the Palestinians he has managed to reach by WhatsApp, direct message and phone. For today’s newsletter, I spoke to Kaamil about the work of telling those stories, and what they tell us about how Palestinians are trying to survive. Here are the headlines.

Five big stories

In depth: ‘Every day is a new battle’

There is no way for journalists to get into Gaza without an Israel Defense Forces (IDF) escort, and at least 48 of those on the ground have been killed so far; the Committee to Protect Journalists says that 43 of them are Palestinian. Ever since the 7 October attack by Hamas that killed over 1,200 Israelis, the stories of ordinary people living through Israel’s bombardment of Gaza have often emerged in other ways.

Kaamil Ahmed used to report in Jerusalem, and sometimes travelled to Gaza for work. After war broke out last month, he started to reach out to his old Palestinian contacts. “But it’s been a very slow process,” he said. “It’s so hard to get hold of people. So as well as that, I’ve been starting again through social media and messaging people posting about the war to ask if they’ll speak to me about what they’ve been through.”

Stories that would take a day for a local reporter in normal circumstances are now the work of a week or more. But through his old contacts and his new ones, Kaamil has told stories of swimming instructors and writers, English teachers and breakdancers. And through those stories, some persistent themes have emerged of how civilians are navigating an unimaginably frightening new reality.

Not everyone wants to talk

Among the most useful tools for finding people who want to talk has been Snapchat, which – unlike other social media apps – allows a user to search for posts on a geographic heatmap. “Instead of being filtered by an algorithm based on who you already know, you can reach anyone who’s posting – that’s a good way to get a broader view of what’s happening on the ground,“ Kaamil said. On Instagram, meanwhile, Palestinian users like Motaz Azaiza and Bisan Owda are gaining millions of followers.

It’s probably too simple to claim that people in Gaza are universally determined to tell their stories when so many are naturally preoccupied with survival, or have little faith in the outside world to pay attention. And Kaamil is unsettled by the risk of interviews feeling “transactional” – “like you’re jumping in, and taking something, and moving on”.

But, he adds, “most people who are using social media – the reason they are doing it is because they think people need to see how they’re living. A lot of people do see something important in describing what is happening to them.” In those circumstances, he added, “it feels very weird to go through the usual niceties – it seems stupid to ask someone how they are. The conversations are accelerated. If people want to talk, they usually want to get to the point.”

Blackouts and power shortages mean communication is precious

The repeated shutdowns of communications in Gaza that appear to have been imposed by Israel during particularly intense periods of fighting have meant that those waiting for updates on the wellbeing of their friends and loved ones from afar have been kept in the dark. Even when connections are restored, Kaamil said, “they barely have any electricity, so they’re not leaving their phones on all the time”.

When the first blackout happened, one contact of his, the swimming instructor whose Facebook profile turned from celebrations of his students’ successes to tributes to the dead, disappeared from WhatsApp for four days. “And you may not get responses from people for a long time even if they have access to offices and more reliable services,” he added. “Anyone who has a way to communicate is a conduit for information, so they’re being bombarded. You just have to wait and hope they’re ok.”

The struggle to survive begins again every day

As Kaamil has heard these stories, he’s been struck by the impossibility for the residents of Gaza of looking beyond their most immediate needs. “Every day is a new battle,” he said. “To find water, to find bread, to charge phones. It takes hours to get to a market, because there’s no fuel for cars. It takes hours to queue for supplies or to use the bathroom, and you can’t cook more food than you need for the next day, because you don’t have a fridge. It doesn’t matter who you are, or who you were before this: everything takes a long time, and there’s nothing to spend your money on. The cycle starts again constantly, for everyone.”

Most people Kaamil speaks to have loved ones who’ve been killed since the war began. That is the context for how they perceive Israel’s campaign: “I hear the word genocide a lot more now,” Kaamil said. “That is a very complicated and contested term [this piece explains differing interpretations of what it means, and why Israelis and Palestinians alike feel it is a threat that they now face], but it’s what people there feel.”

Civilians in Gaza are no more inherently political than anyone else

Because of the unique misfortune of their geopolitical circumstances, people in Gaza are quite often treated as if they see everything through a political lens; an answer to whether they support Hamas, even before 7 October, was far more likely to be how they would be heard by the wider world than the equivalent question to somebody living in Europe or the US.

“But if you ask somebody a question like that, it doesn’t mean they were thinking about it before you asked them,” Kaamil said. “My experience of Gaza is as a place full of people finding creative ways to get by, and to enjoy their lives. I don’t know anybody who visited Gaza who didn’t enjoy it, and find it, despite everything, actually a nice place to be. That’s part of why it feels so important to show how people are surviving, or trying to survive, now.”

What else we’ve been reading

• When The Crown first aired, it was considered prestige TV. Michael Hogan explains why, after seven years, the show has descended into a trashy, soapy drama. Nimo

• Martin Scorsese’s Killers of the Flower Moon has a running time of 3 hours and 26 minutes, which some say is far too long. Andrew Pulver writes about the dilemma some directors are facing as they cut down original running times, leaving them to rely on streaming services to show their work in full. Nyima Jobe, newsletters team

• I have spent an embarrassing number of hours watching the Real Housewives franchise, but even I do not compare to some of the fans that descended up on Las Vegas for Bravocon. Doreen St. Félix’s report for the New Yorker has some brilliantly funny details. Nimo

• Native American representation has massively improved within popular culture, moving away from the long-ingrained stereotypes. Edward Helmore speaks here with some of the trailblazers changing the narrative. Nyima

• Mark Brown went to Stockton, a north-east town with the lowest life expectancy in England, and spoke to the older community about what life is like there. Nick Winn, a retired painter and decorator, points to the lack of investment for the low life expectancy, adding that if you asked most people in Westminster where Stockton is “they couldn’t pick it out on a map. Levelling up is just a catchphrase, a gimmick.” Nimo

Sport

Cricket World Cup | A masterful century for Travis Head took Australia to victory over India in the tournament final with seven overs to spare. Australia looked wobbly at 47-3 after bowling India out for 240, but recovered to thwart the hopes of the Ahmedabad crowd thanks to Head’s 137 from 120 balls and a doughty 58 not out from Marnus Labuschagne. “The surging energy in the stadium said this game was India’s,” wrote Geoff Lemon. “But there was one snag. Travis Head is impossible.”

Football | Manchester City emerged victorious from their derby with Manchester United in the Women’s Super League, securing a 3-1 victory after Katie Zelem’s opener for their rivals thanks to goals from Jill Roord, Lauren Hemp, and Khadija Shaw. A 72nd-minute red card for City’s Laia Aleixandri was not enough to bring United back into the match.

Formula One | Max Verstappen earned his 18th victory of the season in Las Vegas, recovering from a penalty and an on-track clash with George Russell to take the victory. After a difficult week of buildup to a vital showcase event in the US, Giles Richards wrote, “the sport finally delivered on the streets of the city to such effect that what was a grand gamble genuinely paid off”.

The front pages

The Guardian has a special report on its front page with the headline “The 1% polluter elite” as it begins a series on the great carbon divide. Talk of tax cuts dominate other front pages. In the i it’s “Tax cuts for business are my priority, says Hunt” as the paper covers possible plans for the autumn statement. The Mail continues the theme with,“Are we finally on brink of a real tax cut?” In the Mirror it’s “That’s rich”, as the paper covers what it says is an increase in rent of a flat owned by Jeremy Hunt.

The Hamas-Israel war features in the Telegraph with the headline “Israel on brink of hostage agreement”. The Times headline is “Sunak faces cabinet row on new plan for Rwanda” with the paper reporting that the prime minister is facing opposition to its plans to opt out of European human rights laws. The Financial Times leads with “Pressure mounts on OpenAI board to reinstate Altman as chief executive” as the coverage of his sacking continues.

In the Sun, the headline is “Nuke sub mins from disaster” as the paper says that a Royal Navy submarine was saved as it was sinking to its crush depth.

Today in Focus

Cartoon of the day | Edith Pritchett

Sign up for Inside Saturday to see more of Edith Pritchett’s cartoons, the best Saturday magazine content and an exclusive look behind the scenes

The Upside

A bit of good news to remind you that the world’s not all bad

For the latest in the Guardian’s Seascape series, Svenja Beller followed Brian von Herzen from The Climate Foundation, who wants to reforest the oceans with seaweed to aid hunger, the ongoing climate emergency and restore ecosystems.

The million-dollar ingredient seaweed has the hopes of “sequestering” carbon dioxide and adding to healthier oceans. If successful, Herzen says “we could change humanity’s relationship with the ocean, from extraction to regeneration.”

Sign up here for a weekly roundup of The Upside, sent to you every Sunday

Bored at work?

And finally, the Guardian’s puzzles are here to keep you entertained throughout the day – with plenty more on the Guardian’s Puzzles app for iOS and Android. Until tomorrow.

• Quick crossword

• Cryptic crossword

• Wordiply