On December 7, prominent Palestinian poet Refaat Alareer was killed in an Israeli airstrike on Gaza City alongside six members of his family. Few days before he was killed by Israeli Occupation forcers, Alareer re-shared a 2011 poem anticipating that he might be killed, titled “If I Must Die.”

As of December 21, Alareer and more than 20,000 fellow Palestinians, mostly women and children have been massacred by Israeli forces as part of the Israel's Genocidal War on Gaza.

If I must die,

you must live

to tell my story

to sell my things

to buy a piece of cloth

and some strings,

(make it white with a long tail)

so that a child, somewhere in Gaza

while looking heaven in the eye

awaiting his dad who left in a blaze—

and bid no one farewell

not even to his flesh

not even to himself—

sees the kite, my kite you made, flying up

above

and thinks for a moment an angel is there

bringing back love

If I must die

let it bring hope

let it be a tale.