(Israel-Hamas War Latest: Human Rights Watch, Dec. 19: 179-page report, “Extermination and Acts of Genocide: Israel Deliberately Depriving Palestinians in Gaza of Water")
Human Rights Watch found that Israeli authorities have intentionally deprived Palestinians in Gaza of access to safe water for drinking and sanitation needed for basic human survival. Israeli authorities and forces cut off and later restricted piped water to Gaza; rendered most of Gaza’s water and sanitation infrastructure useless by cutting electricity and restricting fuel; deliberately destroyed and damaged water and sanitation infrastructure and water repair materials; and blocked the entry of critical water supplies.
Israel's oldest daily founded in 1918, Haaretz, now sanctioned by the Israeli government:
Dec. 18: 'No Civilians. Everyone's a Terrorist': IDF Soldiers Expose Arbitrary Killings and Rampant Lawlessness in Gaza's Netzarim Corridor
'Of 200 bodies, only 10 were confirmed as Hamas members': IDF soldiers who served in Gaza tell Haaretz that anyone who crosses an imaginary line in the contested Neztarim corridor is shot to death, with every Palestinian casualty counting as a terrorist – even if they were just a child.)
My Dear Friends:
I'm happy to share with you this exciting news: my tanka prose, "The Smell of Sorrow," nominated by the Tanka Society of America for the Pushcart Press Competition.
The Smell of Sorrow
all day rain ...
the puddles outside
and inside
these ripped plastic shelters
at the edge of Rafah
After the rain, at a camp located roughly a mile away from sandy terrain, strewn with rubbish and debris, men, women and children carry buckets of sand back and forth, back and forth, between their tents and the sandy area. A girl suddenly drops her bucket, then sits on the muddy groud, crying. For a moment, she stares up at the sky as if someone were listening.
Ribbons, 20:1, Winter 2024
FYI: My tanka below could be read as a sequel:
Against the Drowning Noise of Other Words, CXXVII: "the living and the dead"
the veil-thin line
between the living and the dead
each raindrop
and every US-made bomb
fall on rows of ripped tents
Added: Against the Drowning Noise of Other Words, CXXXVI: "evacuation orders"
in smoky twilight
one evacuation order
after another ...
death upon death while the world
looks at us, but doesn't see us
FYI: Ls 4&5 allude to the following remark:
I was looked at, but I wasn’t seen.
--Albert Camus, The Outsider/Stranger, 1942
This tanka is a sequel to the following:
Against the Drowning Noise of Other Words, XCVII: "evacuation"
after Jane Reichhold
Gaza evacuation
bombed-out ruins
after
bombed-out ruins
And ABC News, Dec. 18: Israel orders another Gaza evacuation ahead of an offensive
The Israeli military has ordered another evacuation in central Gaza ahead of an offensive in the area, even as Israel and the militant group Hamas appear to inch closer to a ceasefire
Added: Against the Drowning Noise of Other Words, CXXXVII: "screams"
pause between bombings ...
scream after scream stretching
this wintry night
Added: Against the Drowning Noise of Other Words, CXXXVIII: "this Gazan, Khaled Nabhan"
for Khaled Nabhan
laying his beard
on his slain granddaughter's cheek
he strokes her air
hugs and kisses her again ...
this Gazan doesn't cry, but I cry
FYI: Haaretz, Opinion, Dec.19: Israel's Shameful Mocking of the Palestinian Grandfather Who Symbolized Gaza's Pain
Khaled Nabhan is no more. The grandfather who never cried, as if he begged us to cry in his place, the grandfather who made us all cry.
And Haaretz, Dec. 19: Palestinian 'Grieving Grandfather' From Viral Video Killed in an Israeli Attack in Central Gaza: Khaled Nabhan, the man who cradled his slain granddaughter in a viral video last year, was reportedly killed this week in Nuseirat refugee camp by an IDF tank shell
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