Mosab Abu Toha: This young man who was killed yesterday while seeking aid on the Rasheed Street in Gaza was put on a pallet as others carried him to the hospital. That same pallet that had sacks of flour before other people managed to get them.

 Mosab Abu Toha

@MosabAbuToha

This is one of the most heartbreaking photos to see. 

 

This young man who was killed yesterday while seeking aid on the Rasheed Street in Gaza was put on a pallet as others carried him to the hospital. 

 

That same pallet that had sacks of flour before other people managed to get them. 

 

 Last year I wrote a poem about a young man who was carried on a broken door. 

 

They could not find a stretcher 

to carry your body.  They put 

you on a wooden door they found 

under the rubble: 

Your neighbors: a moving wall.

Dear America- Stand up for international law and Human Rights, not the weapons industry.

letter I just sent to my elected leaders

Dear America,

Israel with all its pretty propaganda enriches some, but impoverishes many many more, triggering injustice and suffering every where it can reach, including right into America, robbing US blind.

Robbing US of real democracy and equality- robbing US of free speech and our fourth estate, robbing US of civilized and well informed dialogue, robbing US of funds needed for human beings, for our children and schools and the environment... robbing US of goodness and grace. Robbing US of respect and a decent future.

Zionism inspires religious extremism & corruption worldwide. No one is safe.  No one is secure.

For every one's sake please stop trusting Israel. Stop funding Israel. Stop arming Israel. Stop excusing Israel. AND stop duplicating the propaganda of a very foreign country that is in flagrant and long term violation of international law.

STOP ignoring racist Israel's intentional and systematic destruction of Palestinian families, homes, communities and jobs.  Start a better way forward towards a just and lasting peace & progress by saying NO to trigger-happy Israel and NO TO WAR!

Fund UNRWA and true compassion, not the killing zone scheme of Israel's "Gaza Humanitarian Foundation."

Because as Volker Turk warns, “The current trajectory of escalating conflict and disregard for human rights is indefensible.” 

Stand up for international law and Human Rights, not the weapons industry. 

Sincerely,

Anne Selden Annab

NOTES https://anniesnewletters.blogspot.com/search/label/Notes

Israel VS Iran ... Israel's nuclear weapons - up to 400* VS Iran's nuclear weapons 0 [ZERO!]

"The Iraq playbook is back & the media won't question it. Iraq has no nuclear weapons. Israel- on trial for genocide- does. Iran signed the NPT & allows IAEA inspections. Israel hasn't- & its leaders face ICC arrest warrants.... BEWARE OF POLITICIANS BEATING THE DRUMS OF WAR

"Israel is a nuclear-armed state, with one of the most advanced military’s in the world, funded and armed by the U.S., that started a war of aggression with Iran and is committing genocide in Gaza… And the BBC makes it sound like they’re William Wallace resisting the English." Assal Rad

"Dekel also credits Abdoh with helping spark her interest in the larger story surrounding the Tehran children, including the Jewish community's ancient roots in Iran and the remarkable humanitarianism of a Muslim nation accepting Jewish refugees in the Nazi era, when so many countries were turning them away."

NEW YORK, 15 June 2025 – “This weekend’s surge in violence across the Middle East signals a dangerous escalation. Children are once again paying the ultimate price. Since Friday, an intense military escalation in the region has seen strikes on Iran and Israel hit residential areas, killing and injuring civilians – including children – and causing damage to civilian infrastructure. Beyond the death toll, this alarming escalation creates widespread fear and trauma among children in all communities. UNICEF strongly condemns all forms of violence against children. Our thoughts are with all the families and communities mourning this tragic loss of life. We reiterate the Secretary-General's call for all sides to show maximum restraint, avoiding at all costs a descent into deeper conflict, a situation the region and its children cannot afford. UNICEF urgently calls on all parties to uphold their obligations under international law and to ensure the protection of civilians, in particular children. All children have the right to live without the threat of war and violence...." UNICEF for every child

The United Nations 2025 ACT NOW for a peaceful world: Did you know that the world spent $2.4 trillion on its militaries or that the global economic cost of violence was nearly $20 trillion in 2023?

"There are no bomb shelters in Gaza. There are no sirens. And there is no emergency alert app on our phones. And if there was one, there is no phone signal or internet connect most of the time. And there is hardly any electricity to charge our phones. The only shelters we have been running into and living in are schools and hospitals. But even those have been bombed constantly and our families were burnt alive in front of our eyes. Even the areas that were designated as "non-combat zones" got bombed. We live there in tents without access to water or food or clothes." Mosab Abu Toha

‘They just see you as an Arab’: Israel’s Palestinian citizens given cursory protection from attack. Deaths of four family members sheltering in supposed ‘safe rooms’ in Tamra highlight racial inequality of Israel’s defence of its citizens

Israel's attack on Iran: "It’s all looking very Gaza-like: escalation with no end; or regime change with no plan." Nesrine Malik in The Guardian

"Killings & wars will breed more wars & bloodshed. Civilians will always suffer first & suffer most. Political will, leadership & courage are overdue & needed more than ever. It's time for long lasting peace in Gaza & across the region." Philippe Lazzarini

In Tel Aviv, rescue teams use advanced equipment, sniffer dogs, and heavy machinery to save those trapped under rubble. In Gaza, civil defense workers and neighbors dig with bare hands, without fuel or tools, because Israel blocks the entry of life-saving equipment. Many victims in Gaza die slowly, not from the initial bombing, but from suffocation, hunger, or thirst beneath the ruins.

It Being Sunday ... a 2025 poem by Anne Selden Annab

It being Sunday

in a land with many churches

I pray that prayers for peace 

rise up, rise up to sway

people away from war.

Away from bombing children,

pulverizing families,

and homes ... and jobs.

Away from generating enemies.

Away from creating poverty, starvation, suffering...

Might does not make right

nor does armed resistance.

Scorn violence!

We live in an age of computers- the internet

an endless feed of personal truths at our fingertips

with the power of fair and just laws

able to shape a better way forward

for all of humankind.

 

***

Laila El-Haddad & Mosab Abu Toha both win the JAMES BEARD FOUNDATION AWARD 2025 for their essays on Gaza ... "We Palestinians win, with or without recipes..."

CSM: In Gaza, Palestinians wonder: Is it worth braving bullets to find food?

Israeli attacks on educational, religious and cultural sites in the Occupied Palestinian Territory amount to war crimes and the crime against humanity of extermination, UN Commission says

Reporter: “Why do you think so many countries and governments around the world are just ignoring what’s happening in Gaza?” Greta Thunberg: “Because of racism.”

Antisemitic and Islamophobic violence is rising in the United States. Both must stop: We have a duty to call out antisemitism when we see it. We also have an equal duty to remember that Palestinians, Arabs and Muslims are also being targeted

Let's use the best tool we have: EDUCATION against ignorance, prejudice, hatred, genocide

More journalists have been killed by Israeli forces in Gaza than in most major wars combined.

The MATH of modern GENOCIDE & the US weapons industry.

"The Holocaust did not start with gas chambers. This hatred gradually developed from words, stereotypes, and prejudice through legal exclusion, dehumanisation and escalatin violence" Memorial and Museum Auschwitz-Birkenau

Building a Culture of Peace ...

"The United Nations was not created to take mankind to heaven, but to save humanity from hell." ~Dag Hammarskjöld, second Secretary-General of the United Nations

"Whereas recognition of the inherent dignity and of the equal and inalienable rights of all members of the human family is the foundation of freedom, justice and peace in the world..."   https://www.un.org/en/about-us/universal-declaration-of-human-rights

Israel VS Iran ... Israel's nuclear weapons - up to 400* VS Iran's nuclear weapons 0 [ZERO!]

"The Iraq playbook is back & the media won't question it. Iraq has no nuclear weapons. Israel- on trial for genocide- does. Iran signed the NPT & allows IAEA inspections. Israel hasn't- & its leaders face ICC arrest warrants.... BEWARE OF POLITICIANS BEATING THE DRUMS OF WAR

"Israel is a nuclear-armed state, with one of the most advanced military’s in the world, funded and armed by the U.S., that started a war of aggression with Iran and is committing genocide in Gaza… And the BBC makes it sound like they’re William Wallace resisting the English." Assal Rad

 Assal Rad

@AssalRad

Israel is a nuclear-armed state, with one of the most advanced military’s in the world, funded and armed by the U.S., that started a war of aggression with Iran and is committing genocide in Gaza… And the BBC makes it sound like they’re William Wallace resisting the English.

"Dekel also credits Abdoh with helping spark her interest in the larger story surrounding the Tehran children, including the Jewish community's ancient roots in Iran and the remarkable humanitarianism of a Muslim nation accepting Jewish refugees in the Nazi era, when so many countries were turning them away."

 

How Iran Gave Refuge to Nearly 1,000 Jewish Children During the Holocaust

https://www.gc.cuny.edu/news/how-iran-gave-refuge-nearly-1000-jewish-children-during-holocaust

NEW YORK, 15 June 2025 – “This weekend’s surge in violence across the Middle East signals a dangerous escalation. Children are once again paying the ultimate price. Since Friday, an intense military escalation in the region has seen strikes on Iran and Israel hit residential areas, killing and injuring civilians – including children – and causing damage to civilian infrastructure. Beyond the death toll, this alarming escalation creates widespread fear and trauma among children in all communities. UNICEF strongly condemns all forms of violence against children. Our thoughts are with all the families and communities mourning this tragic loss of life. We reiterate the Secretary-General's call for all sides to show maximum restraint, avoiding at all costs a descent into deeper conflict, a situation the region and its children cannot afford. UNICEF urgently calls on all parties to uphold their obligations under international law and to ensure the protection of civilians, in particular children. All children have the right to live without the threat of war and violence...." UNICEF for every child

Catherine Russell

@unicefchief

NEW YORK, 15 June 2025 – “This weekend’s surge in violence across the Middle East signals a dangerous escalation. Children are once again paying the ultimate price.

“Since Friday, an intense military escalation in the region has seen strikes on Iran and Israel hit residential areas, killing and injuring civilians – including children – and causing damage to civilian infrastructure.

“Beyond the death toll, this alarming escalation creates widespread fear and trauma among children in all communities.

“UNICEF strongly condemns all forms of violence against children. Our thoughts are with all the families and communities mourning this tragic loss of life.

“We reiterate the Secretary-General's call for all sides to show maximum restraint, avoiding at all costs a descent into deeper conflict, a situation the region and its children cannot afford.

“UNICEF urgently calls on all parties to uphold their obligations under international law and to ensure the protection of civilians, in particular children. All children have the right to live without the threat of war and violence.

“UNICEF, together with other UN agencies and humanitarian partners, is actively assessing the situation and remains ready to scale up support to affected children and their families as needed and requested.”

The United Nations 2025 ACT NOW for a peaceful world: Did you know that the world spent $2.4 trillion on its militaries or that the global economic cost of violence was nearly $20 trillion in 2023?

United Nations Geneva

@UNGeneva

 

Each of us can heal divisions and embrace peace & understanding. 

 

Encourage families & communities to speak up, learn, respect, embrace diversity, and protest injustice. 

 

Be the change you want to see! #ActNow for Peace. https://buff.ly/4AGOhrR

Building a movement for peace

The future is young. Today, half the world’s population is under 30, and this generation is emerging as a powerful force for peace in a world marred by conflict and injustice.

Across the globe, young people are organizing protests, sparking global movements, and forging bonds of solidarity. In communities ravaged by violence, they serve as peacekeepers and peacebuilders, laying the groundwork for a resilient tomorrow.

Learn more about how young people contribute to peace, and join them in building a movement for a more peaceful and just world.

Know your facts

Empower yourself with knowledge

Get inspired

Read peacebuilder stories

Speak up

Become an advocate for peace

"When the whole world is silent, even one voice becomes powerful.”

Malala Yousafzai, UN Messenger of Peace

ActNow for peace

From ending violence against women and girls to empowering youth and building peace, we can do more to create a better world. Here are ten more actions you can take to contribute to a more peaceful future.

Know your facts

Did you know that the world spent $2.4 trillion on its militaries or that the global economic cost of violence was nearly $20 trillion in 2023? Learn the facts in your campaign against violence.

Fast facts

Did you know that that wars cost the world $20 trillion in 2023 or that one in three victims of trafficking is a child?

Fortify your campaign against violence with hard facts on issues that matter.

Disarmament

First resolution of the UN General Assembly was on nuclear disarmament in 1946.

#INVEST IN PEACE

 https://www.un.org/en/peace-and-security/page/fast-facts

"There are no bomb shelters in Gaza. There are no sirens. And there is no emergency alert app on our phones. And if there was one, there is no phone signal or internet connect most of the time. And there is hardly any electricity to charge our phones. The only shelters we have been running into and living in are schools and hospitals. But even those have been bombed constantly and our families were burnt alive in front of our eyes. Even the areas that were designated as "non-combat zones" got bombed. We live there in tents without access to water or food or clothes." Mosab Abu Toha

Israeli BOMB damage in Gaza 2025

Mosab Abu Toha

@MosabAbuToha

There are no bomb shelters in Gaza. 

 

There are no sirens. 

 

And there is no emergency alert app on our phones. 

 

And if there was one, there is no phone signal or internet connect most of the time. 

 

And there is hardly any electricity to charge our phones. 

 

The only shelters we have been running into and living in are schools and hospitals. 

 

But even those have been bombed constantly and our families were burnt alive in front of our eyes. 

 

Even the areas that were designated as "non-combat zones" got bombed. 

 

We live there in tents without access to water or food or clothes. 

 

Nothing could intercept these 2000 lb bombs as they hit our tents. 

 

No country intercepts the drones either. 

 

The ceiling of our tents could not protect us. 

 

We even do not know when a bomb is falling. 

 

If we survive by chance, the doctors operate on us with no anesthesia and when we are dismissed from the hospital, we cannot find antibiotics or painkillers. 

 

And the world is watching as we tell these stories. 

 

And we continue to scream as we die.

‘They just see you as an Arab’: Israel’s Palestinian citizens given cursory protection from attack. Deaths of four family members sheltering in supposed ‘safe rooms’ in Tamra highlight racial inequality of Israel’s defence of its citizens

Ruins of the Khatib family home in which Manar Khatib, her two daughter and sister-in-law all died in two ‘safe rooms’ in the blast from an Iranian missile. Photograph: Quique Kierszenbaum/The Guardian

...  The war between Israel and Iran involves powerful modern weapons that can turn a human body into vapour and scraps in an instant. Israel also has modern air defences which have managed thus far to intercept most of the incoming Iranian missiles. And for three-quarters of the country there are underground bunkers, a virtual guarantee of survival.

But the Khatib family did not have a bunker. They were Palestinian citizens of Israel, like the rest of the 37,000 population of this old hillside town in the Lower Galilee. And in common with most Palestinian-majority towns, Tamra does not have a single underground shelter. Like much else in Israel, there is nothing equal about the way death comes from the sky.

“The Israeli government, since the creation of the state, didn’t invest in one public shelter for the Arab part of society,” Tamra’s mayor, Mussa Abu Rumi, said. The reinforced “safe rooms” in new-build houses are an inferior alternative, as the fate of the Khatibs showed, and Abu Rumi said only 40% of Tamra residents even have those... READ MORE https://www.theguardian.com/world/2025/jun/15/they-just-see-you-as-an-arab-israels-palestinian-citizens-given-cursory-protection-from-attack

[AS ALWAYS PLEASE GO TO THE LINK TO READ GOOD ARTICLES (or quotes) IN FULL: HELP SHAPE ALGORITHMS (and conversations) THAT EMPOWER DECENCY, DIGNITY, JUSTICE & PEACE... and hopefully Palestine, or at least fair and just laws and policies]

Israel's attack on Iran: "It’s all looking very Gaza-like: escalation with no end; or regime change with no plan." Nesrine Malik in The Guardian

 Nesrine Malik

@NesrineMalik

‘By opening a new front, the Israeli government takes a shot at both restoring the terms of its pact with its sponsors, and the historical narrative that it is the victim, acting in irreproachable good faith.’

 This week’s column https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2025/jun/16/gaza-israel-destroyed-reputation-attacking-iran-benjamin-netanyahu

[AS ALWAYS PLEASE GO TO THE LINK TO READ GOOD ARTICLES (or quotes) IN FULL: HELP SHAPE ALGORITHMS (and conversations) THAT EMPOWER DECENCY, DIGNITY, JUSTICE & PEACE... and hopefully Palestine, or at least fair and just laws and policies]

"Killings & wars will breed more wars & bloodshed. Civilians will always suffer first & suffer most. Political will, leadership & courage are overdue & needed more than ever. It's time for long lasting peace in Gaza & across the region." Philippe Lazzarini

 Philippe Lazzarini

@UNLazzarini

#Gaza : tragedies go on unabated while attention shifts elsewhere. 

 

Scores of people have been killed & injured in the past days including of starving people trying to get some food from a lethal distribution system. 

 

Restrictions on bringing in aid from the UN including @UNRWA continue despite an abundance of assistance ready to be moved into Gaza.  In addition, severe shortages of fuel are now hampering the delivery of critical services especially health & water. 

 

Killings & wars will breed more wars & bloodshed. Civilians will always suffer first & suffer most. 

 

Political will, leadership & courage are overdue & needed more than ever. 

 

It's time for long lasting peace in #Gaza & across the region.

In Tel Aviv, rescue teams use advanced equipment, sniffer dogs, and heavy machinery to save those trapped under rubble. In Gaza, civil defense workers and neighbors dig with bare hands, without fuel or tools, because Israel blocks the entry of life-saving equipment. Many victims in Gaza die slowly, not from the initial bombing, but from suffocation, hunger, or thirst beneath the ruins.

Alaa From Gaza

@alaafromgaza92

In Tel Aviv, rescue teams use advanced equipment, sniffer dogs, and heavy machinery to save those trapped under rubble. In Gaza, civil defense workers and neighbors dig with bare hands, without fuel or tools, because Israel blocks the entry of life-saving equipment. 

Many victims in Gaza die slowly, not from the initial bombing, but from suffocation, hunger, or thirst beneath the ruins. 

This is not a tragic accident, it is a policy. It is the outcome of a deliberate blockade that strips people of their right to survive, their right to be rescued. 

The world calls one side's suffering a crisis, and the other's a consequence. This disparity reveals more than neglect, it reveals dehumanization. 

Palestinian lives are treated as expendable, and global silence makes it easier to bury them, not only under rubble, but under indifference.

It Being Sunday ... a 2025 poem by Anne Selden Annab

"La Liberalité". Texte latin: "Dives in omnes". (Il est riche pour tous). Corne d'abundance. Pierre Le Moyne (1602-1671): De l'art de regner / Le Moyne. Publisher: À Paris : chez Sebastien Cramoisy et Sebastien Mabre-Cramoisy, imprimeurs du Roy.

 

        It Being Sunday

It being Sunday

in a land with many churches

I pray that prayers for peace 

rise up, rise up to sway

people away from war.

Away from bombing children,

pulverizing families,

and homes ... and jobs.

Away from generating enemies.

Away from creating poverty, starvation, suffering...

Might does not make right

nor does armed resistance.

Scorn violence!

We live in an age of computers- the internet

an endless feed of personal truths at our fingertips

with the power of fair and just laws

able to shape a better way forward

for all of humankind.

poem  copyright ©2025 Anne Selden Annab

Laila El-Haddad & Mosab Abu Toha both win the JAMES BEARD FOUNDATION AWARD 2025 for their essays on Gaza ... "We Palestinians win, with or without recipes..."

JAMES BEARD FOUNDATION AWARD.

Laila El-Haddad  

@gazamom

 

It was a true honor. I only wish it did not take a genocide to win an award or for people’s eyes to be opened. Still, we will continue to resist by narrating our own stories

 

https://www.lailahaddad.com/books

 

Mosab Abu Toha

@MosabAbuToha

 

Congratulations to me and my dear sister Laila El-Haddad on each winning a prestigious JAMES BEARD FOUNDATION AWARD 2025. 

 

I won in Personal Essay Laila won in Personal Essay with Recipes. 

 

We Palestinians win, with or without recipes. 

 

Laila read her remarks, which represent me and her and all of us who have families in Gaza. 

 

I could not share mine there because I was not there in person. But I will post my remarks here soon.

 

Award Winning Work

 

THE WINNING ESSAYS

 

Laila El-Haddad PICTURED WITH HER AUNT UM HANI (PHOTO: MAGGIE SCHMITT)

A Cuisine Under Siege

I couldn’t rescue my aunt in Gaza, but I can keep her recipes alive.

By Laila El-Haddad

---

Published on March 5, 2024 in SAVEUR

Though I’ve lived abroad most of my life, Gaza is where I call home. It's where my parents were born and raised and where I spent summers as a child. Whenever we’d return, we’d be welcomed back by our large extended family. First among them was my aunt An’am Dalloul, whom we called Khalto Um Hani: “mother of Hani,” her eldest child and my cousin. She’d always arrive bearing a bowl of sumagiyya, Gaza City’s signature meat stew with chard, sumac, and chickpeas—and my father's favorite meal.   

Um Hani, along with my cousins Hoda, Wafaa, and Hani, were killed in an Israeli airstrike in their residential Gaza City neighborhood in November 2023. 

In an instant, the household perished, my cousin Nael later told me. Only a skeleton of the building was left. He recounted the horrific scene over WhatsApp—how he gathered their remains in his arms and buried them in a mass grave under heavy Israeli bombardment, how he failed to retrieve the corpse of one of his sisters, and how his brother bled to death before paramedics could reach him. Nael, like 90 percent of Gazans at the time of writing, is displaced, fleeing with his children from one city to the next in search of shelter, food, and some semblance of safety. He has been surviving on canned beans for more than three months.

Nael’s news shook me to my core. I couldn’t sleep.... READ MORE https://www.saveur.com/culture/palestinian-cuisine-under-siege/

[AS ALWAYS PLEASE GO TO THE LINK TO READ GOOD ARTICLES (or quotes) IN FULL: HELP SHAPE ALGORITHMS (and conversations) THAT EMPOWER DECENCY, DIGNITY, JUSTICE & PEACE... and hopefully Palestine, or at least fair and just laws and policies]

 

The New Yorker Illustration by Matt Rota

Essay

My Family’s Daily Struggle to Find Food in Gaza

In my homeland, where we used to cook and celebrate together, my relatives are eating animal feed to keep from starving.

By Mosab Abu Toha

February 24, 2024

Recently, my wife’s distant aunt, Leila, invited me, my wife, and our three children to her home in the Faisal neighborhood of Cairo. She promised to cook us maftoul, a Palestinian dish that we had not eaten since we fled Gaza in December. Back home, making maftoul was often a family affair. One person cooks a rich stew from pumpkin, onions, tomatoes, and chickpeas. Someone else mixes wheat flour into a dough. A third person rubs the dough through the holes of a sieve, creating tiny balls that are similar to pearl couscous. Finally, the balls are steamed and served with a hot ladleful of the stew. We looked forward to tasting it again.

Leila speaks with the same warmth as my mother, and she cooks the same familiar foods. When we arrived at her sixth-floor apartment, I felt the comfort that comes from shared history. Only months ago, my family survived Israel’s bombardment of northern Gaza, and I was detained by Israeli forces. Leila’s husband, who was deaf, was killed during Israel’s 2014 offensive in Gaza. The moment I sat down, their eleven-year-old son, who lost his father as a toddler, took out a box of dominoes and taught me to play. I thought about how none of us meant to live in Egypt. Leila and her brother came here for her son’s medical treatment, and they can no longer go home.

While the maftoul was cooking, sending a delicious smell through the apartment, I got a video call from my brother Hamza, a father of three with a fourth on the way. He was in northern Gaza, picking through the rubble of the house that we once shared. In the background was the recognizable sound of military drones, and I urged him to get to safety. Instead, Hamza passed the phone to my mother, who was there, too. She looked pale and tired, and she told me that they were running out of food, but she still thanked God for what they had. She was scouring the area for edible plants such as cheeseweed... READ MORE  https://www.newyorker.com/news/essay/my-familys-daily-struggle-to-find-food-in-gaza

[AS ALWAYS PLEASE GO TO THE LINK TO READ GOOD ARTICLES (or quotes) IN FULL: HELP SHAPE ALGORITHMS (and conversations) THAT EMPOWER DECENCY, DIGNITY, JUSTICE & PEACE... and hopefully Palestine, or at least fair and just laws and policies]