cross-posted from: https://lemmy.ml/post/36634037

24 September 2025 15:58 BST | Last update: ~12:00 EDT

“Sell your furniture,” Youssef advises Palestinian journalist Ahmed Dremly, as he packs his belongings to flee Gaza City.

“The bed in your room, the wardrobe, the bookcase - sell them all,” he insists.

Dremly, one of Middle East Eye’s main contributors in Gaza City throughout the Israeli genocide, responds bitterly: “Who would buy them?”

Youssef, his friend, replies: “Sell them as firewood.”

“So I should smash the bed my mother used to sleep on - my room, my memories - and sell it all as firewood?” Dremly asks again.

“Better that than having it buried under the rubble,” Youssef says, his voice trailing off as he disappears into the distance.

It’s a conversation straight out of a dystopian, apocalyptic novel - but one that most of Gaza City’s one million residents have been forced to have in recent days.