What to the Arab-American and the Child of Immigrants Is the Fourth of July?

As we walked toward the park for the fireworks display, my 5-year-old held my hand excitedly. “I want to see the fireworks up close,” she said. We’ve only watched neighborhood displays through our window, in previous years. She helped me pull her younger sister in the wagon behind us.

When the first fireworks lit up the sky, both children covered their ears. “It’s too loud!” They cried, looking up at the sky in awe. “How do they shoot them up there? I want to see,” said my older child, quickening her pace. But my heart paused.

For me, it is hard to separate the explosions lighting our night sky from over 600 days of explosions, also funded by our tax dollars, setting alight universities, hospitals, tents, and children in Gaza. The daily atrocities, which include illegally blocking food and humanitarian aid and then “deliberately” shooting at unarmed Palestinian civilians waiting for aid at U.S.-funded distribution sites, have all but faded from our newspapers.

No child should have to look up at the sky in fear that the bombs bursting in air will flatten their home, school, or hospital, or separate them from their loved ones.

Read the article here.

Water Fact:  Children in Gaza at risk of dying of thirst

Water Fact:  Children in Gaza at risk of dying of thirst

For decades the Gaza Strip has suffered from an insufficient supply of clean water.  Now, according to UNICEF, “just 40 percent of drinking water production facilities remain functional in Gaza (87 out of 217).  Without fuel, every one of these will stop operating within weeks...If the current more than 100-day blockade on fuel coming into Gaza does not end, children will begin to die of thirst.”

The June 20th briefing by the UN organization continued: “Gaza is facing what would amount to a man-made drought.  Water systems are collapsing.”  In the words of one Gaza resident, “We have learnt to live without so much.  Without our homes; without safety; without loved ones…we have even learnt we can live without food for a week or more…but we cannot survive days without water.”

Please note: there will be no Alliance for Water Justice in Palestine Bi-Weekly Briefs this summer.  

Wall Posts of Note...

The Electronic Intifada

3h  ·

Israel has been starving us for months. It cut off all aid to Gaza in March, only to recently approve a US-led, militarized aid site run by the so-called “Gaza Humanitarian Foundation.”

The consequences are not abstract – they are visceral, immediate and devastating.

On 27 May in Rafah, thousands of hungry and desperate people surged toward the site seeking food and water. They had no option.

( Moaz Abu Taha / APA images)

Excerpt from "In Gaza you can choose only humiliation or death" by Malak Hijazi. Read the full article at https://electronicintifada.net/.../gaza-you-can.../50750

Palestinian Narratives

June 24 at 12:21 PM  ·

A recent study published on the Harvard Dataverse by researcher Yaakov Garb analyzes IOF military population estimates of Gaza’s population and shows that it has dropped from 2.2 million to just 1.85 million within three main Gaza “humanitarian zones” Gaza City, Al-Mawasi, and Central Gaza and compares them to Gaza’s pre-war population of approximately 2.227 million. The study finds that only about 1.85 million people are accounted for in these ‘enclaves’, leaving an estimated 377,000 Palestinians unaccounted for.

The missing 377,000 are not simply unaccounted for. They are people in northern Gaza who have endured the heaviest bombing, residents in the Rafah’s eastern district which is flattened, families in zones of total communication blackout, killed families, and families under the rubble.

Source: “Aid Distribution Compounds In Gaza” | Harvard Dataverse

Israel 'disappeared' 377,000 people in Gaza, half of them children: report

A new report published this month via the Harvard Dataverse reveals that at least 377,000 people in Gaza have been "disappeared" by the Israeli military since October 2023, with half of that number believed to be children.

The report, authored by Israeli professor Yaakov Garb, uses data-driven analysis and spatial mapping to examine how Israeli attacks on civilians and the obstruction of aid have led to a dramatic drop in the enclave’s population.

According to Garb's findings, the actual number of people killed may be far higher than the official death toll, which currently stands at around 61,000.

Maps in the report, based on Israeli military estimates, indicate that the remaining population in Gaza City is around one million, with 500,000 in Mawasi and 350,000 in central Gaza, totalling approximately 1.85 million.

Before the war, Gaza's population was estimated at 2.227 million. The discrepancy points to at least 377,000 people now unaccounted for.

While some may be displaced or missing, the scale of the gap has led analysts to conclude that a significant number are likely dead, suggesting the real death toll could be many times higher.

Read the article by the New Arab staff here.

The new report sheds light on how the Gaza Humanitarian Foundation's aid sites triggered the killing of scores of Palestinians [Getty]