A refugee camp bombed twice; a communication breakdown; an outing, for some – our coverage of Gaza this week.
Refugee camp bombed twice | A communication breakdown | Gaza mothers, Gaza journalists | An outing, for a few. Our coverage from Gaza this week:
“Help us stay alive”
133 babies had not yet reached the age of one, killed before they could walk or talk.
Mahmoud, 16, wanted to become a journalist, just like his father, Wael Dahdouh, a veteran Al Jazeera correspondent.
Among the oldest people killed were those who were survivors of the Nakba.
Produced by our team at AJ Labs, “Know Their Names” is a series of visualizations that name some of the many Palestinians killed by Israeli attacks, a number that now exceeds 9,000.
A refugee camp, a power outage
“It’s back, my darling…
“So let’s take a photo to reassure them that everything is okay…
“The 24th dawn of war…”
It’s a conversation Amjad al-Dirdasawii had with his three sons as the Internet recovered shaky after a near-total communications blackout in Gaza this week.
The Israeli-imposed blackout was reimposed later in the week and raised fears of an escalation of the Israeli bombing campaign. And they did, even hitting the densely populated Jabalia refugee camp for two consecutive days. The UN said the attack could constitute a war crime.
An outing for a few, very few
Brought in a wheelchair, Aseel Al-Astal, 10, smiles, then grimaces in pain, then smiles again. She is one of hundreds of injured people allowed to enter Egypt from Gaza, via the Rafah crossing, to seek treatment; a fraction of those affected.
“I am very happy because I can be treated and be able to walk again,” she said, positive despite her injuries and the loss of 15 loved ones due to Israeli bombing.
Foreign nationals have also been allowed to exit through the passage – but the bombs continue to fall.
“What should I do now?” » asked Nadia Eldin, sobbing as she spoke to Al Jazeera. “There is no security, bombs everywhere.”
Being a wife, a mother in times of war
Palestinian women are resorting to pills to delay their menstrual cycles because the Israeli offensive has created unsanitary conditions. But the pills can have side effects, ranging from irregular vaginal bleeding to nausea.
Meanwhile, mothers in Gaza fear for their premature babies as the Israeli siege paralyzes the enclave’s hospitals.
“Every second that the war continues, my heart burns with fear for my child and for all children,” one mother said.
Fear of war spreads
In Lebanon, fears of regional conflict are reaching a crescendo as fighting between Israel and Hezbollah continues and its leader Hassan Nasrallah delivers his first speech since the war began. But even without a ground war, the economic consequences have been painful.
Meanwhile, Yemen’s Houthi rebels claim to have fired a number of ballistic missiles and drones towards Israel, warning of future attacks.
Report atrocities, confront theirs
And as Al Jazeera journalists risk their lives to report on atrocities in Gaza, they come face to face with their own. A look back at the lives of members of Wael Dahdouh’s family killed last week during an Israeli raid.
In another tragedy, Mohamed Abu Al-Qumsan, a broadcast engineer at Al Jazeera’s Gaza bureau, lost 19 members of his family, including his father and two sisters, during raids on the Jabalia refugee camp.
Correspondent Youmna ElSayed also received a threatening phone call, claiming to be from the Israeli army, warning her and her family to leave their home immediately.
and now for something different
The elusive and changing Tantalus of Iraq; The wrinkled young girl from the Tunisian hammam keeps the young women at a distance; the jinn of the Sudanese town of Suakin, on the Red Sea; and the story of Dr. Dahesh, a Lebanese barber with supernatural powers.
They are all featured in our scary Arabic Halloween stories. Read, if you dare.
Briefly
Quote of the week
“They beat a prisoner who suffers from diabetes and who receives three injections a day. He was vomiting so much blood…we were afraid for two hours that he would be martyred because of the amount of blood he was vomiting. | Salah Fateen Salah, a recently released former prisoner, says Israeli forces beat a fellow prisoner on October 8, following the Hamas attack the day before.