In the days after the genocide began, a video circulated across social media of IOF soldiers kidnapping and torturing a Deaf Palestinian named Ihab Tanboura.

Tanboura is a young Deaf man from Beit Lahia. Israeli soldiers filmed themselves torturing and abusing him as Tanboura lay shirtless and bruised on the ground, whilst a booted soldier stepped on his head. In the video, which horrified the Palestinian Deaf community, the soldiers tied Tanboura’s hands behind his back, rendering him unable to communicate while he bled all over the floor. The soldiers proceeded to taunt Tanboura with their guns and laughed as they stepped on his head with their boots. Whilst Tanboura screamed in pain, the soldiers kicked him in his skull, back and chest.

Upon viewing this video, the World Federation of the Deaf (WFD) said in a statement that they condemned “rendering Deaf people incommunicable by tying their hands behind their back.” It was a great disappointment that this organisation limited their criticism to the act of tying Tanboura’s hands, whilst they remained silent on the torture witnessed by anyone who saw the video.

As a hearing Palestinian who is able to communicate in Auslan (Australian Sign Language), I remain committed to social justice for Deaf Palestinians and other d/Deaf peoples around the globe.

Any Palestinian would tell you that the Zionist apartheid colonial project is an experience of racism and colonisation. For Deaf Palestinians, Zionism is also experienced as audism — a form of oppression and discrimination directed against Deaf people. Since October 2023, I have gotten to know members of the Palestinian Deaf community across the Gaza Strip. In sharing their accounts, it is my hope that readers will begin to understand their uniquely horrific experiences of the genocide, and how their Deaf and Palestinian identities are inextricably embedded within them.

The Deaf community in the Gaza Strip

The Deaf community across the Gaza Strip is approximately fifteen-thousand strong, consisting of Deaf, DeafBlind and Hard of Hearing Palestinians. One of the leading local Deaf organisations is Atfaluna, the Society for Deaf Children (‘Atfaluna’ being the Arabic word for ‘our children’). The Society is a non-government organisation that runs schools for Deaf children, workshops and community centres.

Two months into the genocide, the IOF destroyed the community centre/school which was the hub of Deaf culture in Gaza City. Afterwards, twelve IOF soldiers took a group picture in front of the ruins of the building. In contrast to their glee, the Deaf community was horrified at what had happened to a space that was once a vibrant haven for Palestinian Deaf culture in Gaza.

The experiences and abilities of Deaf Palestinians vary. Some are able to read and communicate in a spoken language (Palestinian Arabic), while others based in the Gaza Strip can only communicate in Palestinian sign language. The Palestinian Union for the Deaf met with the WFD and explained how Deaf people in Gaza are constantly attacked, arrested and murdered by the IOF.

According to the Union, neither the Israeli or Palestinian government bodies have provided accessible information in Palestinian Sign Language, but rather have relied on hearing Palestinians to explain the urgent circumstances surrounding them. Whilst the Palestinian Authority has let down Deaf Palestinians, it’s worth pointing out that it is limited in its ability to dismantle the barriers of audism that are affirmed by the apartheid system, which subjugates all Palestinians — both hearing and Deaf. Since 1948, the State of Israel has imposed restrictions upon all Palestinians across historical Palestine, which has meant that Palestinian Deaf communities have not been able to contact each other and have lived in isolation, separated by checkpoints, apartheid walls and citizenship barriers. Deaf cultures emerge from the interactions that Deaf communities can have with one another, and the colonial apartheid systems currently in place have obstructed the abilities of Deaf Palestinians to engage in a unique and robust Deaf culture across historical Palestine. Deaf Palestinians in Gaza can only communicate via video calls to other Deaf Palestinians isolated from one another in bantustans across the West Bank and those with Israeli citizenship living in-between.

Whilst Zionism has denied Deaf Palestinians access to one another, the terror imposed upon the community across the Gaza Strip is ongoing. Several Deaf Palestinians were forcibly displaced from Gaza City to Rafah, where they remain in tents. Iman Mushtaha recalled the dreadful experience of her brother waking her up to flee their home as she could not hear the sounds of bombing nearby. Mohammad Siam was displaced from Khan Younis to Rafah, and explained that he could not hear explosions but could feel the earth-shaking beneath him. Siam further explained that he could see concrete slabs and debris flying over his head, whilst windows shattered around his family. As smoke and dust surrounded him, Siam tried to shield his children from the destruction around them before they managed to flee. Perhaps most haunting is the story told by DeafBlind Palestinians themselves who were at Al-Shifa Hospital when the Israeli soldiers seized it and had beaten them along with several other Palestinians with disabilities in this hospital. Even Palestinian Deaf children in Gaza have experienced violence at the hands of the IOF, as one boy recounted that when a soldier hit him, his hearing aid fell off and he was crying in pain. This boy’s sister explained that she had to inform the soldiers that his hearing aid was not an ‘eavesdropping device’ as the soldiers initially alleged. Evidently, the IOF’s menacing cruelty against d/Deaf and disabled peoples throughout this genocide is beyond despicable.

As Ranem Shhadeh, a Palestinian Deaf interpreter explained in her speech at a protest at Gallaudet University, while Deaf people around the world struggle with access, the Deaf community in Gaza is completely deprived of it. As she noted, some Deaf people in Gaza cannot read nor write, so the Israeli leaflets that are dropped upon the population are distressing. She further explained that if a Deaf person had their arms amputated, the drastic impact on their ability to communicate would be devastating. I was informed by people within Gaza’s Deaf community that this recently became an unfortunate reality for a Deaf woman who was injured in an Israeli attack. Her arms amputated, now faced with an unbearably traumatic future as she further grieves the murder of her parents in this horrific attack.

The traumatic impact of the genocide is further experienced by CODAs — the children of Deaf adults. In Deaf communities around the globe, CODAs often inherit the responsibility of translating for their Deaf parents. In the midst of this genocide, young hearing Palestinian children born to Deaf parents are burdened with operating as translators in extremely stressful situations.

Al-Jazeera interviewed a Deaf couple named Walaa and Ahmed Abu Odeh, who fled from Gaza City with their three children. The eldest, Mohammed, operated as an interpreter for his parents, who were unable to hear the bombs falling on Gaza. As Mohammed translated, his father explained:

Life is hard. The [Israeli] planes bomb us. We are Deaf, so it scares us. There is no one to help us, and we cannot hear.

Mayar alTorok, another Palestinian CODA displaced from Gaza City to Rafah, translated her parents’ experiences. She explained in both spoken Arabic and Palestinian Sign Language that her parents are Deaf and their lives are incredibly hard because of the war. Explaining her family’s trauma, Mayar signed:

We escaped to Shifa Hospital, then to Khan Younis, then to Nasser Hospital. We have no change of clothes, no food, no tent and everything is difficult. We are very cold. We need help. We need food and water. We want the genocide to stop.

She finally pleaded: “Please God, stop the war please God!’.

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Article 11 of the Convention of the Rights of Peoples with Disabilities declares that

States Parties shall take, in accordance with their obligations under international law, including international humanitarian law and international human rights law, all necessary measures to ensure the protection and safety of persons with disabilities in situations of risk, including situations of armed conflict, humanitarian emergencies and the occurrence of natural disasters.

Israel has ratified this convention but continues to cruelly and repeatedly violate the rights of Deaf Palestinians — a fact that we should take as further evidence of their intention to eliminate the Palestinian people.

Since October 7, we have watched with horror as the number of murdered Deaf Palestinians continues to increase. We are still unable to confirm the exact numbers as many Palestinians remain buried under the rubble. Palestinian sources have conclusively identified nineteen victims belonging to the Deaf community in the Gaza Strip. The stories of Mohammed Nahd Banar and Atta Ibrahim al-Mugayd are extremely distressing yet need to be outlined here.

Mohammed Nahd Banar was a twenty-year old Deaf Palestinian who was murdered by the Israeli military in early February 2024. According to my contacts, his family reported that Banar could not hear the bullets fired at him. As he lay dying on the ground surrounded by hearing people who could not sign, he wrote his name in the sand so he could be identified when he died.

Atta Ibrahim al-Mugayd was a seventy-three year old Deaf Palestinian elder born only two years after the Nakba. On the 6th of November 2023, a young Israeli soldier named Lior (last name unknown) shot four bullets into al-Mugayd, killing him. When Lior entered al-Mugayd’s home, he found the Deaf elder in his bedroom, hiding beside his bed. al-Mugayd waved his hands to motion “no, don’t shoot”. Perhaps he was unable to verbalise his pleas to stay alive. After murdering him, Lior boasted about shooting four bullets into the Deaf elder, as he mocked him fluttering his hands whilst Lior’s fellow soldiers commended him. One fellow soldier shook Lior’s hand and commented: “all respect.”

These are just some of the horrors facing Deaf Palestinians across the Gaza Strip. It is my hope that the soldiers who murdered Atta Ibrahum Al-Mugayd and other Deaf Palestinians face prosecution in the International Criminal Court in The Hague. Whilst the community have been able to identify nineteen known victims, some Deaf Palestinians have told me that they estimate about thirty or forty Deaf people have gone missing and are feared to be murdered by the IOF.

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As the genocide has unfolded, a number of journalists on the ground have become household names. Across social media, Motaz, Bisan, Plestia, Hind, Wael and many others have shared their stories of heroism and survival, countering the colonial narratives fed to the media by the IOF. At a time when Western media participates in the erasure of Palestinian stories, these journalists have developed mass followings, turning social media users into eye-witnesses of the horrors in the Gaza Strip.

The global Deaf community has become invested in the lives of these journalists, as well as others whom the world is yet to recognise and value. Alongside their hearing peers, Deaf social media users and their allies also follow several Deaf Palestinians that are reporting their struggles across the Strip. Providing a Deaf lens through which to follow the events, Deaf Palestinians have operated as citizen journalists, uploading videos of their accounts. Some communicate predominantly through Palestinian Sign Language, whilst others have uploaded videos in a mix of Palestinian Sign Language and International Sign.

Alaaeddin Alnahhal and Kamel Ghazal are some of the first Deaf Palestinians to have become widely known by members of the global Deaf community. Diaspora Palestinians first met Alaaeddin in an Al-Jazeera documentary focussed on the struggles of Deaf Gazans, in which he mediated the ableist structures within a colonised society trying to survive in spite of an apartheid colonial project committed to the erasure of all Palestinians — both hearing and Deaf.

After October 7, Alaaeddin began creating videos in Palestinian Sign Language, documenting the horrors around him. He would often end his videos signing “world come see what is happening,” communicating his disbelief that the world would sit idle by. Similarly, Ghazal has reported being forced to flee Gaza City, spending his days looking for food and water and charging his phone using whatever generators he was able to find. Between December 2023 – February 2024, Ghazal’s social media account was silent, which led his followers to fearing the worst. Thankfully, he has since started posting updates again, although his appearance has noticeably changed as a result of the starvation suffered by Palestinians in the Gaza Strip.

Two and a half weeks into the genocide, Basem AlHabel, a Deaf Palestinian, vlogged about his experiences of displacement. As one of the few Deaf Gazans who could communicate in American Sign Language, he explained that the Deaf community was traumatised and disturbed by the murder of what was then estimated to be 15000 Palestinians (the numbers have horrifically increased since then), including 7000 children. The numbers included Deaf people some of whom were his friends. In subsequent vlogs, AlHabel documented that the Deaf community was starving, desperately looking for flour to make bread. Recently, AlHabel was given a press jacket that finally recognised his work as a Deaf journalist in Gaza.

Belal Namous, another Deaf Palestinian displaced to Rafah, vlogged three months into the genocide that the Deaf community was barely surviving. In a heart-breaking video, he explained that he and his peers were in desperate need of food, clothes, nappies for Deaf babies and medications. In despair, he cried: “I swear, I swear, I swear, my heart is breaking because of the genocide happening in the Gaza Strip.” Belal’s brother, Mahmoud Namous, a Deaf Palestinian displaced from Gaza City to Rafah, vlogged about having to dodge the IOF’s bullets just to get a bag of flour.

Whilst the genocide continues with the complicity of Western media and governments, there remains no end in sight for Deaf Palestinians in the Gaza Strip. Around the world, Deaf people navigate the ableist barriers imposed upon them by hearing communities. For Deaf Palestinians, these barriers are compounded by their multilayered experience of colonisation, racism and audism. Yet they too, like all Palestinians, have the right to live with dignity, free from apartheid, colonisation and genocide.

Image: detail from a poster commemorating Palestinian Deaf leader Hashem Ghazal