The article below was first published in the Israeli daily Haaretz on July 6, 2025. It describes protests by supporters of the Gaza Youth Committee, a group of Palestinians in Gaza opposing the gruesome character of the October 7, 2023, Hamas-led attacks on Israel that killed about 1,200 Israelis, including children.

The Gaza Youth Committee is collaborating with Standing Together, a peace organization of Jews and Palestinians in Israel promoting an end to the genocidal war by the Zionist state.

These actions are a much-needed antidote to the brutality of Israel’s unrelenting war on the Palestinian people in Gaza and to the reactionary character of Hamas and its October 7 assault on Israel, which provided an opening to Israel’s right-wing government to launch the devastating war on Gaza.

World-Outlook is publishing the article that follows for the information of our readers. The headline, subhead, photos, and text below are from the original

— World-Outlook editors

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‘We Live and Die Together’: Gazans Protest with Photos of Israeli Children Killed by Hamas

After Israeli activists began protesting the war by holding up photos of children killed in airstrikes, the Gaza Youth Committee is now reciprocating. ‘We’ve seen them raise photos of Palestinian children, and we want to say clearly: We, too, are against the killing of Israeli children’

By Linda Dayan and Nagham Zbeedat

Jul 6, 2025, 6:13 pm IDT

Last week, photos started circulating across Israeli social media. They showed three men, stony-faced and somber, standing amid the rubble of Gaza. In each one’s hand was a photograph: one of 4-year-old Ariel Bibas, and one of his 9-month-old brother, Kfir.

The two redheaded boys are immediately recognizable to an Israeli audience; they became a symbol of the cruelty of the Hamas-led October 7 attacks and the urgency of bringing home the hostages held in the Gaza Strip after the two were kidnapped with their mother Shiri Bibas, and returned to Israel in coffins over a year later.

The Gazan men’s quiet protest mirrors demonstrations by Israelis who have been gathering each week in Tel Aviv, Jerusalem and Haifa to silently hold up pictures of children killed by Israeli strikes on Gaza. They sit on the sidelines of protests against the war in Gaza and the government of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, challenging passersby to recognize the human toll of nearly two years of bombings and strikes. Police have tried to crack down on these demonstrations, terming them “provocative.”

The Gazan initiative was the work of the Gaza Youth Committee, an NGO based in the Strip striving for peace and coexistence. Its co-founder Rami Aman organized the protest from Egypt, where he currently resides.

“It came from a desire to show Israelis that Palestinians, despite their suffering, still recognize the humanity of the ‘other,'” he told Haaretz. “It was never about justifying violence, but about pushing back against the idea that Palestinians celebrate death.”

The organization, which was founded in 2010 and currently counts more than 500 active members, has led other campaigns over the years. In 2018, a time when incendiary kites and balloons launched by Hamas caused hundreds of fires in southern Israel, 50 activists from the committee released 150 doves carrying messages of peace over the border from Gaza.

The demonstration hoped to counter dehumanization. “We, too, grieve for every innocent child – Muslim, Christian, Jewish, even Buddhist,” Aman said. He notes that one of the men involved in the initiative has lost three of his own children in this war. “He still insisted that he was a father to all children, regardless of religion or nationality.”

Aman added, “What happened on October 7 doesn’t justify the killing of 2.5 million people” – the population of the Gaza Strip. “Our message reached every Israeli who wanted to hear it,” he added. “The images and messages spread more widely than we’d expected.”

‘A breath of fresh air’

As the photos of the Gazan men went viral, responses started pouring in. “This gives me hope for peace,” wrote one Israeli on Instagram. “A breath of fresh air in a reality full of racism and fear” wrote another on Facebook post. “Isn’t this dangerous for them?” a commentator asked, fearing reprisals from Hamas and other militant groups in the Strip. “Brave men,” another wrote. “We need to let hope win.”

Some Israelis were less receptive to the message. “This is psychological warfare by Hamas,” one wrote on Facebook. “They killed babies and children, and now they’re standing there miserably with their photos. This is a false media exercise by the murderers in Gaza.”

Aman says that the families of the Israeli children have not reached out directly to the organizers, “but we know the message resonated. The initiative stirred widespread conversation, even in Israel, and challenged the dominant narrative,” he said.

Israel’s media picked up the story as well. “With pictures of Kfir and Ariel Bibas: Gazans, including bereaved parents, started quiet protests in recent days with pictures of Israeli children killed by Hamas,” read a post by the Kan public broadcaster.

“A rare protest against terror groups,” read the Ynet news article, which discussed the organizers’ call for peace and mutual recognition of humanity. “This is a rare initiative in favor of ending the fighting from within the Gaza Strip.”

Aman is dissatisfied with Israeli media coverage of the initiative, which he said has distorted their intentions. “Some outlets tried to downplay or politicize the initiative.” At the same time, he said, “We know that some of the [bereaved] families in Israel shared our images, and that gave us hope to continue with our mission.”

Among Gazans, though, the responses have been mixed but skewed mostly positive. “Some Gazans, especially youth, were encouraged by seeing the campaign and joined in. Others feared for their safety. There’s still deep fear here – of being misunderstood, of being punished for peace,” Aman said. “Some of the critics said the images were AI, or that activists were paid to pose for these pictures, but despite the hunger and fear, these men are still fighting to send a message of hope and peace.”

He added that some who supported it were afraid to voice their agreement due to political pressure in Gaza, which is still ruled by Hamas. “Many of those who had dared to speak against Hamas over the past decade were either forced to leave Gaza, or used the political persecution they faced as grounds to seek asylum abroad.”

‘We’re treated like we have no value’

Aman knows this firsthand. After a Zoom meeting with Israeli peace activists in 2020, he was arrested by Hamas and spent months in one of Gaza’s notorious prisons, facing torture and interrogations. The militant group pressured him to divorce his wife – the daughter of a Hamas official – and released him; he has been living in Egypt since. Aman was supposed to return to the strip in November 2023, but the war dashed these hopes.

“Hamas turned us into paper. We’re treated like we have no value,” he said. “After 2009, they started crafting a new image of the Palestinian as invincible, rather than human. Networks like Al Jazeera have helped shape that narrative.”

For years, Gazans have tried to show the world that they are ordinary people, he said. “We’re still fighting for that image. We’ve gone from people trying to ‘liberate land’ to people simply trying to survive.”

He reminds the Israeli government that it cannot make Hamas disappear at will, and it cannot force a new regime on Gazans, be it a government or a militia. And as fiercely as he critiques Hamas, he spares no criticism for Israeli society as well.

On the other side of the border, he says, there is no partner for peace. “Every time we try, we’re met with silence or rejection,” he said, adding that Israeli leftists urge the Palestinian activists they know to leave Gaza for their own safety. “But if you’re encouraging the good ones to leave Gaza, who do you expect to preach for peace in the enclave? Who are you leaving the Strip for? That’s not a partnership.”

He cites a lack of trust in Israelis as the bombs continue to fall. “What more do you want from us? People here are dying with hope in their hearts.” He provides the example of the bombing of the Al-Baqa Café in Gaza earlier this week.

“One activist participated in a recent initiative to provide packages of hygiene products for women who lost their husbands or families,” he said. “The activist was killed in the airstrike that targeted the café. The will for peace is alive, but it’s not matched.”

He also wants to dispel the belief among Israelis that Gazans know where the hostages are being held and refuse to help them. “They are not among us. They’re not being held in our homes or schools,” he said. “If we knew where they were, we would have returned them to end this nightmare we’re living. The hostages are with Hamas, in locations built and supported with funding that Netanyahu himself provided to the group over the years.”

To Israelis and Palestinians alike, Aman and the Gaza Youth Committee want to share the message that both peoples’ fates are intertwined. “We feel your pain. We are against the killing of anyone – child, soldier or civilian,” he said. The organization recently launched a campaign titled “We Live Together, We Die Together” to send messages from Gaza’s residents to Israelis.

“Gaza residents stand in solidarity with every family – Jewish, Christian, or Muslim – that has lost a child in this war,” he said. “In the coming days, we will be sending a series of videos and photos to the Standing Together [Jewish-Arab grassroots] movement, whose efforts we deeply appreciate. We’ve seen them raise photos of Palestinian children, and we want to say clearly: We, too, are against the killing of Israeli children.”

“Gaza’s people want this war to end,” he added. “They want the Israeli hostages to be released. Despite the hunger, danger, death, poverty and overwhelming challenges facing all of Gaza, the Youth Committee has not abandoned its role in voicing calls for peace.”

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