![Exiled Palestinian Islamic Jihad leader Ramadan Shallah delivers a speech during a conference in support of Palestinians in Tehran on February 28, 2010. Israel has lost its "raison d'etre" and its presence in the region causes instability, Iranian media quoted Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad as saying at the conference attended by top Palestinian militant leaders. AFP PHOTO/ATTA KENARE (Photo credit should read ATTA KENARE/AFP/Getty Images)](/sites/default/files/styles/article_header/public/almpics/2014/02/97173403.jpg/97173403.jpg?h=f7822858&itok=lW2rYEGz)
Asmaa al-Ghoul is a columnist for Al-Monitor's Palestine Pulse and a journalist from the Rafah refugee camp based in Gaza.
![Exiled Palestinian Islamic Jihad leader Ramadan Shallah delivers a speech during a conference in support of Palestinians in Tehran on February 28, 2010. Israel has lost its "raison d'etre" and its presence in the region causes instability, Iranian media quoted Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad as saying at the conference attended by top Palestinian militant leaders. AFP PHOTO/ATTA KENARE (Photo credit should read ATTA KENARE/AFP/Getty Images)](/sites/default/files/styles/article_header/public/almpics/2014/02/97173403.jpg/97173403.jpg?h=f7822858&itok=lW2rYEGz)
![A Russian woman married to a Palestinian speaks to the media at the Erez border crossing after leaving the Gaza Strip January 2, 2009. Israel allowed 443 foreigners living in the Gaza Strip to leave on Friday, a defence official said on Thursday as Israeli forces attacked the Hamas-controlled territory for a sixth day. REUTERS/Amir Cohen (ISRAEL) - RTR22ZOO](/sites/default/files/styles/article_header/public/almpics/2014/02/RTR22ZOO.jpg/RTR22ZOO.jpg?h=f7822858&itok=RMW18yzT)
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Asmaa al-Ghoul
![A Palestinian woman waits to receive food supplies at the United Nations Relief and Works Agency (UNRWA) headquarters in Gaza January 7, 2009. Israel and Hamas said they were temporarily holding their fire in the Gaza Strip on Wednesday to ease the flow of humanitarian aid and both sides said they were studying an Egyptian proposal for a ceasefire. REUTERS/Mohammed Salem (GAZA) - RTR234UE](/sites/default/files/styles/article_header/public/almpics/2014/02/RTR234UE.jpg/RTR234UE.jpg?h=f7822858&itok=Qz5WEHt4)
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Asmaa al-Ghoul
![A PORTER PUSHES AN ELDERLY PALESTINIAN CANCER PATIENT THROUGH THE EREZ CROSSING BETWEEN THE GAZA STRIP AND ISRAEL. A porter pushes an elderly Palestinian cancer patient through the Erez crossing between the Gaza Strip and Israel March 21, 2004. Palestinian doctors complain Israel has stopped allowing ambulances to bring patients into Israel from Gaza, forcing the sick to cross unaided through the heavily guarded checkpoint. REUTERS/Goran Tomasevic - RTRFRM5](/sites/default/files/styles/article_header/public/almpics/2014/01/RTRFRM5.jpg/RTRFRM5.jpg?h=f7822858&itok=ksN0di6K)
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Asmaa al-Ghoul
![Airport1.jpg](/sites/default/files/styles/article_header/public/almpics/2014/01/Airport1.jpg/Airport1.jpg?h=f7822858&itok=wz70ouPB)
![Asmaa al-Ghoul](https://www.al-monitor.com/sites/default/files/styles/large/public/authors/2016/asmaaalghoul.jpg/asmaaalghoul.jpg?h=55541bb6&itok=zoLMHrdv)
Asmaa al-Ghoul
![A Palestinian man looks out a window beside bloodstains on the wall of a house at the scene of an Israeli air strike in Beit Hanoun, in the northern Gaza Strip January 22, 2014. Israel killed two Gaza gunmen in an air strike on Wednesday, blaming one of them for firing rockets across the border during former Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon's funeral last week. Islamic Jihad claimed one man, Ahmed Al-Za'anin, as its own, without immediately commenting on the other's affiliation. REUTERS/Suhaib Salem (GAZ](/sites/default/files/styles/article_header/public/almpics/2014/01/RTX17PBF.jpg/RTX17PBF.jpg?h=f7822858&itok=JowKvnu7)
![Asmaa al-Ghoul](https://www.al-monitor.com/sites/default/files/styles/large/public/authors/2016/asmaaalghoul.jpg/asmaaalghoul.jpg?h=55541bb6&itok=zoLMHrdv)
Asmaa al-Ghoul
![A freed Palestinian prisoner (L) is greeted by a relative upon arrival at Rafah crossing in the southern Gaza Strip December 18, 2011. Israel plans to release 550 Palestinian prisoners on Sunday in the second stage of a deal with Hamas that brought home soldier Gilad Shalit after five years of captivity in the Gaza Strip. REUTERS/Ibraheem Abu Mustafa (GAZA - Tags: POLITICS CIVIL UNREST) - RTR2VF9U](/sites/default/files/styles/article_header/public/almpics/2014/01/RTR2VF9U.jpg/RTR2VF9U.jpg?h=f7822858&itok=KKHLOtWZ)
![Asmaa al-Ghoul](https://www.al-monitor.com/sites/default/files/styles/large/public/authors/2016/asmaaalghoul.jpg/asmaaalghoul.jpg?h=55541bb6&itok=zoLMHrdv)
Asmaa al-Ghoul
![A Palestinian vendor prepares water pipes at his shop on the beach of Khan Younis in the southern Gaza Strip May 31, 2009. Sunday marks World No Tobacco Day. REUTERS/Ibraheem Abu Mustafa (GAZA ANNIVERSARY HEALTH) - RTR2443D](/sites/default/files/styles/article_header/public/almpics/2014/01/RTR2443D.jpg/RTR2443D.jpg?h=f7822858&itok=KGZMLbI5)
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Asmaa al-Ghoul
![IMG_0653.jpg](/sites/default/files/styles/article_header/public/almpics/2014/01/IMG_0653.jpg/IMG_0653.jpg?h=f7822858&itok=gslan3Xu)
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Asmaa al-Ghoul
![Young Palestinians take part in a military-style exercise during a summer camp organized by Hamas in Rafah in the southern Gaza Strip June 13, 2013. REUTERS/Ibraheem Abu Mustafa (GAZA - Tags: POLITICS MILITARY) - RTX10MO1](/sites/default/files/styles/article_header/public/almpics/2014/01/RTX10MO1.jpg/RTX10MO1.jpg?h=f7822858&itok=wqTo1fCD)
![Asmaa al-Ghoul](https://www.al-monitor.com/sites/default/files/styles/large/public/authors/2016/asmaaalghoul.jpg/asmaaalghoul.jpg?h=55541bb6&itok=zoLMHrdv)
Asmaa al-Ghoul
![An Egyptian soldier sits atop a bulldozer on the border between Egypt and southern Gaza Strip September 12, 2013. Cairo closed the Rafah crossing, Gaza's main window to the world, completely on Wednesday after assailants crashed two explosive-laden cars into a security building adjacent to the border zone, killing six Egyptian soldiers. The bulldozing of the tunnels has deepened Gaza residents' feelings of isolation in a tiny coastal territory that many have described as a prison. Egypt has suggested Palest](/sites/default/files/styles/article_header/public/almpics/2014/01/RTX13IT4.jpg/RTX13IT4.jpg?h=f7822858&itok=hUclCx32)
![Asmaa al-Ghoul](https://www.al-monitor.com/sites/default/files/styles/large/public/authors/2016/asmaaalghoul.jpg/asmaaalghoul.jpg?h=55541bb6&itok=zoLMHrdv)
Asmaa al-Ghoul
![Mourners react at a mosque during the funeral of three-year-old Palestinian girl Hala Bhairi, who medics said was killed by shrapnel from an Israeli strike, in the central Gaza Strip December 25, 2013. A Gaza sniper shot dead an Israeli civilian over the border on Tuesday and Israel hit back with air strikes on two Hamas training camps which hospital officials said killed the Palestinian girl near one of the targets. REUTERS/Suhaib Salem (GAZA - Tags: POLITICS CIVIL UNREST) - RTX16TQV](/sites/default/files/styles/article_header/public/almpics/2013/12/RTX16TQV%20%281%29.jpg/RTX16TQV%20%281%29.jpg?h=f7822858&itok=QQC0BxtK)
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Asmaa al-Ghoul