Stories
The war of the camps
Israeli raids targeting Palestinian militants in the West Bank are taking an enormous toll on daily life in the territory, leaving hundreds dead and neighbourhoods destroyed, tactics that are feeding resentment and causing more unrest. Jenin camp in Jenin, Balata camp in Nablus and Nur Shams camp in Tulkarem are the stronghold of Palestinian militant groups in the West Bank and the places where the raids from the Israeli army have been more brutal and destructive, with a huge toll on Palestinian civilians. Since the Oct. 7 attacks, Israeli forces have killed 554 Palestinians in the West Bank, according to the United Nations, whose tally does not distinguish between civilians and combatants but is higher than any annual total since the United Nations began counting in 2005. Thousands more have been arrested or wounded, in sweeping operations backed by drones, warplanes and helicopter gunships. But the forays into Palestinian cities and refugee camps have done little to subdue the militants. Instead, the violence is helping grow their ranks, furnishing recruits angered by the conflict and driving rival groups together to plan joint attacks. Some of the operations have lasted days, knocking out power and water and confining residents to their homes as battles rage outside. Nearly every house here is pockmarked by bullets, and the streets are torn up by Israeli bulldozers searching for explosives.
Land Grab
Israeli land grabs, settlement expansion and demolitions in Palestinian communities mark the most significant territorial changes in the West Bank in decades. The life of Palestinian residents are changing significantly under the new Israeli government.During more than 19 months in power, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s coalition government has dramatically expanded Israel’s footprint in the occupied West Bank — accelerating a long-term campaign by the country’s settler movement to thwart the creation of a Palestinian state.The government has approved strategic land seizures and major settlement construction, escalated demolition of Palestinian property and increased state support for illegally built settler outposts.Palestinian communities experience paralysing constraints on daily life as settlements creep closer, limiting their ability to move freely and to access the farmlands that long sustained them. Settler violence has erased some villages.
Inside the ruins of Gaza’s al-Shifa Hospital
From The Washington Post: "GAZA CITY — Gaza’s largest hospital has been gutted. Combat bulldozers have moved sand into the courtyards. The buildings are scorched. It smells like death. Israeli commandos pulled out before dawn on Monday. A sprawling medical campus that housed maternity wards, surgery suites and emergency rooms has been mostly destroyed after two weeks of intense assault by Israeli troops battling Hamas militants who Israel said were barricading themselves inside the complex."
A Ramadan of violence and loss
The war in Gaza has cast a pall over the Islamic holy month of Ramadan, a time of fasting and community. For Palestinians in the West Bank and East Jerusalem, the occasion is always bittersweet, marked by moments of joy and constant reminders of the Israeli occupation that shapes their lives. Celebrations are circumscribed by Israeli restrictions. Families navigate checkpoints to gather for meals. Violence can interrupt prayer or play at any moment.
Out of Gaza
The violence of the Hamas attack in southern Israel on October 7th and the begging of the war in Gaza immediately reverberated across Israel and the West Bank. Details of the violence that happened in the southern Israeli villages near the border with Gaza started to emerge while an un precedented wave of violence spread across the West Bank. According to the UN, 326 Palestinian were killed in the West Bank, including East Jerusalem, from October 7th to January 7th. Among the fatalities were 84 children, the highest number of Palestinians killed in the West Bank since OCHA started recording casualties in 2005. The casualties are mostly caused by Israeli settlers violence and violent clashes in Jenin, Nablusand Tulkarem refugee camps. Settlers violence, already present before the war, became rampant in the weeks after October 7th pushing some Palestinian communities to abandon their villages. An unprecedented number of operations were conducted by the Israeli Army across the West bank. The IDF destroyed roads and infrastructures, and used airstrikes and heavy weaponry on densely populated refugee camps, causing the death of many unarmed civilians.
Afghanistan: A year of Taliban rule
Last August the Taliban seized power from the internationally backed Afghan government as American and NATO troops were completing their withdrawal. After twenty years of war and foreign intervention the country was once again in the hands of the Islamist movement. Soon after the fall, Western countries froze around $9 billion in Afghan central bank assets, mostly held in the U.S., stopped sending aid and applied sanctions on the Taliban government. The country soon spiraled into poverty. Around Kabul, families where selling their house appliances for any cash they can get, account holders waited in long lines outside banks to withdraw their savings, while in the currency exchange market, traders sat in front of piles Afghan banknotes that were quickly losing their value. Hospitals in Kabul and around the country swelled with malnourished children, with many of them sent home with packets of therapeutic food because of the lack of beds. The Taliban struggled to transform from an irregular militia to a functioning government. They now had to manage the police and the justice system.
Methamphetamine: the new drug trade of Afghanistan
For decades, Afghanistan has been a global hub for opium production, estimated to supply 80 percent of the world’s opiate users. Now its meth industry is growing at breakneck speed, stoking fears among Western experts and officials that, under the Taliban, Afghanistan could become a major supplier as demand rises globally.
Afghanistan: Before and after August 2021
The Taliban have never been more powerful since 2001. The area contested or controlled by the insurgents now comprises more than half of the country and have steadily grown in recent years. Since the peace negotiations between the US government and the Taliban began, the fighting between the Afghan security forces and the insurgents have escalated as both parties try to gain leverage at the negotiating table in advance of direct peace talks. The recent escalation in the war had disastrous consequences on the civilian population. Afghanistan remains one of the deadliest conflict in the world, civilian casualties are at an all-time high and the conflict is causing continued waves of internal displacement.
Hunger Crisis in Yemen 2021
Yemen had narrowly averted an official famine declaration in recent years after a surge in humanitarian funding. But now, the United Nations says that without another urgent intervention, such a designation will be unavoidable: at least 5 million people are on the brink of famine.
Broken Libya
In April 2019, renegade commander Khalifa Haftar launched an offensive to overthrow the United Nation-backed government in Tripoli. His forces, also known as the Libyan National Army, battled armed groups from Misurata and other western cities aligned with the Government of National Accord. The ensuing civil war, and the battle for Tripoli, caused a renewed humanitarian crisis with civilians, Libyans and migrants alike, paying the highest price.
The Little Book of Kabul
The Little Book of Kabul is a book project that depicts a portrait of Kabul through the daily activities of a number of artists who live in the city. The book is a collaboration between photographer Lorenzo Tugnoli and writer Francesca Recchia. The Little Book of Kabul dives into the lives of the three main characters exploring what it means to be an artist in Kabul and hence unveiling the beauty and brutality of the city.
Hunger Crisis in Yemen 2018
After nearly four years of conflict, more than 20 million Yemenis — roughly two-thirds of the population — don’t have enough to eat. In most cases, it’s not because food is completely unavailable but because it’s unaffordable. In an effort to strangle the rebels, known as Houthis, the Saudi-led coalition backing the Yemeni government has imposed import restrictions, including on food, medicine and fuel. In the worst-hit areas, concentrated in rebel-held territory in northern Yemen where coalition restrictions are most stringent, thousands more children are dying of malnutrition-related illnesses.
From Kabul to Kandahar along the highway of death
A travel along the artery that connects the nation’s two largest cities, Kabul and Kandahar the story narrates the scars of the war and the challenges ahead.Highway 1 is a ring road that connect the main cities of Afghanistan. Largely rebuilt after 2001 with American funding at a cost of at least $300 million, the highway was intended to win the hearts and minds of Afghans and bolster the nation’s economy, instead, it became a war zone and a symbol of American failure.
