“They also serve who only stand and wait.” - John Milton’s Sonnet 19 Motasem Dalloul, a journalist in Gaza, in his voice notes to Outlook's Editor Chinki Sinha revealed the reality of a Palestinian journalist, he has to cover the deaths of his loved ones and the destruction of his homeland. He sent a couple of lines too. He said he would send more later. We will wait. Waiting has no ending. He can send it a century later. Our hope is sharper than a machete, more piercing than a bullet. Dalloul lost his two young sons and wife in 2024 in the war in Gaza that has unleashed images of violence and loss and brutality and seems endless. He lost nephews and nieces and brothers and sisters and uncle and his home. We bear witness.