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The Great Omari Mosque, Gaza
Palestine, July 1, 2023
Suhail Nssar
“I have been praying there and playing around it all through my childhood,” said 45-year-old Ahmed Nemer, accusing Israel of “trying to wipe out our memories.”
“Wait..wait…
Do not scroll quickly..
These are souls killed by the Israeli occupation.
Look closely at the pictures and imagine that you know them..”
Belal Khaled, December 5
The Earth is closing on us
pushing us through the last passage
and we tear off our limbs to pass through.
The Earth is squeezing us.
I wish we were its wheat
so we could die and live again.
I wish the Earth was our mother
so she’d be kind to us.
I wish we were pictures on the rocks
for our dreams to carry as mirrors.
We saw the faces of those who will throw
our children out of the window of this last space.
Our star will hang up mirrors.
Where should we go after the last frontiers?
Where should the birds fly after the last sky?
Where should the plants sleep after the last breath of air?
We will write our names with scarlet steam.
We will cut off the hand of the song to be finished by our flesh.
We will die here, here in the last passage.
Here and here our blood will plant its olive tree.
Mahmoud Darwish
“In the past few minutes, I spoke with a civil defence crew member who was evacuating people from Khan Younis, from the vicinity of Nasser hospital to Rafah. He described to us the moment when a group of people, women, children and men, queuing in line to get water from an area that’s very close – about five minutes away from Nasser hospital – were targeted by multiple tank shells as they were queuing. He described the scene as ‘very bloody and shockingly graphic’ as children were thrown at the side of the streets and blood was everywhere. People who are trying to get their basic needs are being targeted.”
Hani Mahmoud, December 8, Rafah
Israeli occupation forces destroy water network in a village near Bethlehem
December 22
Israeli occupation forces closed off and subsequently destroyed the water network today in the village of Al-Minya, located southeast of Bethlehem in the occupied West Bank, according to local sources. The occupation forces also shut down all three main entrances to the village using earthen barriers, said the head of the Al-Minya village council, Zaid Kawazbeh.
Kawazbeh told Wafa that the forces sealed off the village by erecting soil barriers at its three main entrances. Following this blockade, the forces proceeded to demolish the water infrastructure that serves the village. The head of the Al-Maniya village council pointed out that this marks the third instance in which the Israeli authorities have deliberately targeted and destroyed the village's water network since October 7 of this year.
The closure of the three entrances effectively imposes a strict siege on the village, preventing residents from entering or leaving.
‘Existence,’ Fadwa Tuqan
In solitary life, I was a lost question;
In the encompassing darkness,
my answer was concealed.
You were a bright new star
radiating light from the darkness of the unknown,
revealed by fate.
The other stars rotated around you
–once, twice –
until it came to me,
your unique radiance.
Then the bleak blackness broke
And in the matching tremors
of our two hands
I found my missing answer.
Oh you! Oh you intimate, yet distant!
Don’t you remember the coalescence
Of your spirit in flames?
Of my universe with yours?
Of the two poets?
Despite our great distance,
Existence unites us – Existence!
“Our suffering is unspeakable and I only have two hopes left: that my remaining siblings will recover and that this horrifying war will end soon.”
“They started evacuating the northern areas, and now they are doing the same with central Gaza. They will soon order the evacuation of the south.”
December 29
