The body of renowned Palestinian academic Refaat Alareer Israel killed in Gaza City in December 2023 has been transferred to, and laid to rest in, the Bin Marwan Cemetery in the eastern part of the city.

The 44-year-old was killed on December 6. The poet and writer was laid to rest beside the graves of his brother Salah, his sister Asmaa, and their children.

They were all killed in the same Israeli airstrike in northern Gaza.

The professor of English Literature at the Islamic University in Gaza had refused to leave northern Gaza when Israel began its campaign of genocide in October 2023.

Alareer was reportedly targeted deliberately after receiving multiple death threats.

The apartment he was in with his family was surgically bombed out of the entire building where it is located, according to corroborated eyewitness and family accounts, the Euro-Med Monitor reported.

Alareer had been staying at an UNRWA school-turned-shelter in Gaza with his wife and children prior to his death.

However, after receiving a death threat via phone call stating that they found the location of his shelter he decided to move out.

Alareer decided to go to his sister’s, where he was martyred.

Just hours before his death, Alareer said in his last interview that Gazans felt helpless against the ruthless Israeli campaign, and that he would defend himself using his marker pen if the Israeli forces were to come to his house.

Following his tragic death, Alareer’s poem ‘If I Must Die’ went viral and was translated into more than 250 languages.

His final collection of writings ‘If I Must Die: Poetry and Prose’ was published posthumously in December 2024 and became an international bestseller.

In 2021, Alareer wrote an opinion piece in the New York Times about the situation in the Gaza Strip. He ended the article with a conversation with his 8-year-old daughter, Linah.

Below is an excerpt of the article:

“On Tuesday, Linah asked her question again after my wife and I didn’t answer it the first time: Can they destroy our building if the power is out?

I wanted to say: “Yes, little Linah, Israel can still destroy the beautiful al-Jawharah building, or any of our buildings, even in the darkness.

Each of our homes is full of tales and stories that must be told.

Our homes annoy the Israeli war machine, mock it, haunt it, even in the darkness.

It can’t abide their existence. And, with American tax dollars and international immunity, Israel presumably will go on destroying our buildings until there is nothing left.

But I can’t tell Linah any of this. So I lie: “No, sweetie. They can’t see us in the dark.””

Before his martyrdom, Alareer had made multiple guest appearances on Democracy Now!, the BBC, and ABC News.

He was also a key contact for El País, offering latest updates about the Israeli campaign of genocide in Gaza trip.