![Palestinian Salafists shout slogans during a rally in protest of what they say are recent massacres committed against Syrian and Egyptian people and against Syria's President Bashar al-Assad and Egypt's army chief General Abdel Fattah al-Sisi, in Rafah in the southern Gaza Strip August 22, 2013. REUTERS/Ibraheem Abu Mustafa (GAZA - Tags: POLITICS CIVIL UNREST) - RTX12TCB](/sites/default/files/styles/article_header/public/almpics/2015/01/RTX12TCB.jpg/RTX12TCB.jpg?h=f7822858&itok=Z45vYp3p)
Asmaa al-Ghoul is a columnist for Al-Monitor's Palestine Pulse and a journalist from the Rafah refugee camp based in Gaza.
![Palestinian Salafists shout slogans during a rally in protest of what they say are recent massacres committed against Syrian and Egyptian people and against Syria's President Bashar al-Assad and Egypt's army chief General Abdel Fattah al-Sisi, in Rafah in the southern Gaza Strip August 22, 2013. REUTERS/Ibraheem Abu Mustafa (GAZA - Tags: POLITICS CIVIL UNREST) - RTX12TCB](/sites/default/files/styles/article_header/public/almpics/2015/01/RTX12TCB.jpg/RTX12TCB.jpg?h=f7822858&itok=Z45vYp3p)
![A Palestinian Greek Orthodox boy attends Christmas services at the Saint Porfirios church in Gaza City January 7, 2013. REUTERS/Suhaib Salem (GAZA - Tags: RELIGION SOCIETY) - RTR3C6CI](/sites/default/files/styles/article_header/public/almpics/2014/12/RTR3C6CI.jpg/RTR3C6CI.jpg?h=717f26e4&itok=zPtztUqv)
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Asmaa al-Ghoul
![Palestinian members of al-Qassam Brigades, the armed wing of the Hamas movement, pray before a military parade marking the 27th anniversary of Hamas' founding, in Gaza City December 14, 2014. REUTERS/Mohammed Salem (GAZA - Tags: POLITICS MILITARY ANNIVERSARY RELIGION) - RTR4HY0R](/sites/default/files/styles/article_header/public/almpics/2014/12/RTR4HY0R.jpg/RTR4HY0R.jpg?h=f7822858&itok=9N6WCkoP)
![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 picture taken on December 14, 2014 in Gaza City shows the entrance of the French Cultural Center that was slightly damaged by a bomb attack on December 12. On October 8, the centre's offices were set ablaze after the apparent explosion of two faulty fuel tanks. AFP PHOTO/MOHAMMED ABED (Photo credit should read MOHAMMED ABED/AFP/Getty Images)](/sites/default/files/styles/article_header/public/almpics/2014/12/460449002.jpg/460449002.jpg?h=f7822858&itok=WPVEgOE_)
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Asmaa al-Ghoul
![KHAN YUNIS, -: The new al-Aqsa University campus built on the former Jewish settlement of Neve Dekalim in Khan Yunis, 11 July 2006. The Palestinian Authority decided to build the new university on the land evacuated by Israeli Jewish settlers in the former Neve Dekalim settlement, instead of where the settlers had constructed permanent buildings. The settlement of Neve Dekalim was totally destroyed by Israeli bulldozers after their pullout in September 2005, but the permanment building was the only one lef](/sites/default/files/styles/article_header/public/almpics/2014/12/71424525.jpg/71424525.jpg?h=f7822858&itok=oNRZpJcb)
![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 woman makes coffee on a fire outside her makeshift shelter near the ruins of her house, which witnesses said was destroyed during the Israeli offensive, in Al Mughraga village in the south of Gaza City September 8, 2014. An open-ended ceasefire between Israel and Hamas-led Gaza militants, mediated by Egypt, took effect on August 26 after a seven-week conflict. It called for an indefinite halt to hostilities, the immediate opening of Gaza's blockaded crossings with Israel and Egypt, and a wide](/sites/default/files/styles/article_header/public/almpics/2014/12/RTR45EWK.jpg/RTR45EWK.jpg?h=f7822858&itok=i5Y4US5y)
![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 boat is pictured on the Nile River in the southern Egyptian town of Nagaa Hamady in Qena, some 700 km (435 miles) south of Cairo, January 10, 2010. REUTERS/Asmaa Waguih (EGYPT - Tags: SOCIETY TRAVEL) - RTR28QJH](/sites/default/files/styles/article_header/public/almpics/2014/12/1-0RTR28QJH.jpg/1-0RTR28QJH.jpg?h=e92c5d5c&itok=oedBEXg1)
![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
![trial.jpg](/sites/default/files/styles/article_header/public/almpics/2014/11/trial.jpg/trial.jpg?h=f7822858&itok=vo_2zxAV)
![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 keeps watch at the closed Rafah border crossing, between southern Gaza Strip and Egypt November 6, 2014. At Egypt's border with the Gaza Strip, families are emptying their homes - lugging mattresses and furniture onto waiting vans as soldiers look on from armoured cars. In nine villages along the frontier, 680 houses - homes to 1,165 families - are being razed to seal off smugglers' tunnels and try to crush a militant insurgency in northern Sinai that has intensified since the army overt](/sites/default/files/styles/article_header/public/almpics/2014/11/RTR4D2RN.jpg/RTR4D2RN.jpg?h=f7822858&itok=Ocx213Y6)
![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
![Palestinians take cover from rain inside a makeshift shelter near the ruins of their houses, that witnesses said were destroyed during a seven-week Israeli offensive, in the east of Gaza City October 19, 2014. An open-ended ceasefire between Israel and Hamas-led Gaza militants, mediated by Egypt, took effect on August 26 after a seven-week conflict. It called for an indefinite halt to hostilities, the immediate opening of Gaza's blockaded crossings with Israel and Egypt, and a widening of the territory's f](/sites/default/files/styles/article_header/public/almpics/2014/10/RTR4APDF.jpg/RTR4APDF.jpg?h=f7822858&itok=Uwb36zGk)
![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
![IMG_9557.jpg](/sites/default/files/styles/article_header/public/almpics/2014/10/IMG_9557.jpg/IMG_9557.jpg?h=f7822858&itok=NmA3ATur)
![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 throws a flag atop the rubble of the home of Hamas Gaza leader Ismail Haniyeh, which Gaza's interior ministry said was hit by a missile fired by Israeli aircraft before dawn on Tuesday, causing damage but no casualties, in Gaza City July 29, 2014. Israel's military pounded targets in the Gaza Strip on Tuesday after Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said his country needed to be prepared for a long conflict in the Palestinian enclave, squashing any hopes of a swift end to 22 days of fightin](/sites/default/files/styles/article_header/public/almpics/2014/09/RTR40GMX.jpg/RTR40GMX.jpg?h=f7822858&itok=TT-0fb5X)
![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