#ein-el-hilweh-refugee-camp

#ein-el-hilweh-refugee-camp

Taybeh, a small hilltop town in the heart of the West Bank, is one of the oldest Christian communities in the world, now feeling under siege and fighting for its existence.

There's a chilling effect on not just my academic freedom, but that of my colleagues; anyone who dares to speak out against the war and against aggression.

What America and Israel are doing in their aggression against the countries of the region is not a war of a military nature, but a senseless war, said Dhirgham Samir, a demonstrator in his 40s.

Francesca Albanese, the United Nations special rapporteur on Palestine, has accused Israel of treating Palestinian lives as expendable, linking the hellish impact of a deadly winter storm in Gaza directly to the deliberate destruction of the enclave's infrastructure. Speaking to Al Jazeera Arabic on Tuesday as a deep weather depression pummelled the Gaza Strip, killing at least seven children, Albanese said the weather disaster had exposed the depth of Israel's disregard for civilian survival.

Approximately 92 percent of homes in the Gaza Strip have been destroyed since October 7, 2023. According to United Nations estimates, around 436,000 housing units have been damaged or destroyed as a result of Israeli airstrikes and military operations.

The reopening of Rafah, the border crossing between Gaza and Egypt, has rekindled the hope (or at least raised a previously unthinkable question) of returning to the Strip for the approximately 100,000 Palestinians who managed to escape almost two years ago from the constant air strikes, forced displacement, and hardships of the Israeli offensive. Almost all of them did so within the first seven months of the war, until Israeli troops seized Rafah in May 2024 and Gazans lost their only exit route.

But urgency should never become an excuse for illusion, spectacle, or political shortcuts. The contrast between rhetoric and reality could not be sharper. While United States President Donald Trump and a group of world leaders gathered in Davos, Switzerland, to sign the charter of the so-called Board of Peace and unveil glossy reconstruction plans, the killing in Gaza continued. Since the ceasefire came into effect on October 10, no fewer than 480 Palestinians have been killed.