27 h. ago ‘I watched the bombs fall. I watched the mothers’: how do we grieve the children of Gaza?

Palestine is not a metaphor. And yet – I’ve superimposed every experience of my own mothering these last months on to PalestineThe last time I carried a life, I got to hear her heartbeat exactly three times before it stopped. It was my fifth pregnancy. After the final appointment, the one where the surgeon furrowed her brow as she looked at the ultrasound, I walked down First Avenue. It was winter. It was the year after the pandemic had begun. I was feral with grief. I snapped at strangers, cried in the bodega, etc. I’d spent a year getting pregnant, then unpregnant. I’d wake in the middle of the night and remember: heartbeat, heartbeat. At times, I felt absurd for my grief. I couldn’t ascertain what the metric of a mother was, what goalpost had to be met. Had I met it? Surely grief like this – love like this – had to be more deeply earned?Three years later, I went under anesthesia again for another egg retrieval. At this point, I had a baby, nearly 18 months old. The surgery was on...

Events

36 h. ago In Yemen as in Gaza, bombs and starvation are stealing the lives of our children | Elham Al

As a mother living in Sana’a, I’ve seen how war devastates hopes, dreams and futures, and I share the desperation of Gaza’s mothers“Mom, why are they bombing us?” my oldest daughter asked me in 2019, as the Saudi coalition committed crimes with US weapons. Why? This is the eternal question.When the western-backed, Saudi-led military campaign began in March 2015, I started compiling a mental list of all the ways the war was scorching the concept of childhood in Yemen. How war takes parents away from their children, and our children away from us. How war, not time alone, ages our children. Continue reading...

Events

7 d. ago UN food agency chief says women and children are 'starving' in Gaza and pressed Netanyahu on aid

The director of the U.N. World Food Program says it's “very evident” after a visit to Gaza that there is not enough food and that mothers and children are starving

Society

1 week ago ‘Death is better than displacement’: Gaza City mothers say hunger blocks escape of looming Israeli offensive

Palestinian mothers have warned that their hunger is preventing them from moving away from Gaza City as Israel warned that Gaza’s largest city would be destroyed unless Hamas yields to their terms.

Politics

3 w. ago Gaza mothers struggle to feed families amid deepening famine: ‘The children remain hungry’

Before the war, Gaza’s kitchens bustled with elaborate meals that touched on Palestinian traditions and culture

Society

4 w. ago Mothers in Gaza stretch meager ingredients where they can, but say hunger persists

Before the war, Gaza’s kitchens bustled with elaborate meals that touched on Palestinian traditions and culture

Events