Days before my sister, Suma Baroud, was killed by the Israeli army in Khan Yunis, she texted me a long message about her future plans for the land where her home once stood.
In Gaza, virtually all of my extended family’s homes had been bombed or demolished by Israeli warplanes and bulldozers. Suma’s plan, however, wasn’t to build a bigger house or sell the land and leave the Strip. ‘Once the wreckage is removed,’ she wrote, ‘I want to build a community garden and make produce available to the whole neighborhood.’ While I supported her idea, I wondered where my sister would live after the war. For her, that seemed a minor issue.
