The Public Source

On January 20, 2024, his friend Ali Hodroj, a telecommunications engineer, was assassinated in an Israeli drone strike on the Bazourieh road. “He was one of those whom God blessed with knowledge and wealth, yet martyrdom remained his highest aspiration,” Khalil says. Ali excelled in his field and played a key role in building the communications networks of resistance groups, from Hezbollah to Hamas and the Islamic Jihad.

Artwork by Nabil Anani, "Jerusalem," 2013. Acrylic on canvas. (Image courtesy of Nabil Anani & Zawyeh Gallery) Palestinian-American novelist, poet, and activist susan abulhawa has spent much of her literary career writing against the erasure of Palestinian lives.

Later in the day, Abu Sharif’s superior noticed his agitation. “What’s come over you? Why do you look like it’s your last day?” he asked. “There, you said it yourself,” Abu Sharif answered. His superior advised him to return home to his family, hoping he might find comfort with them. Abu Sharif handed over his duties, just in case, and headed home.

Her mother, friend, and brother rushed to her, but in the blur, it felt much longer, as if the wait stretched into hours and days. Zeinab cried out to her friend, struggling to explain that it was the pager, not the charger, that had exploded. “I was screaming inside,” she says, “but they couldn’t hear me.” Her friend quickly understood what had happened and took her to al-Rassoul al-Aazam Hospital, where Zeinab was the third pager casualty through the doors.

“I had inspected the device upon receiving it and reviewed its six tones. This sound wasn’t one of them,” Assi recalls thinking. He grabbed the pager with his left hand, and it exploded before he could press the “OK” button. He fell back onto the chair — screaming “Ya Zahra’!” As he took in what had happened, he became convinced that the drones had signaled the devices to detonate. “I smelled the burns and looked at my hand. It was drenched in blood.

Her husband could not accept the news of her blindness. He consulted every doctor he could find, even as the health sector came under severe strain during the war. But they all confirmed the diagnosis. Recalling those first days after the massacre, he swears, “The injury of my brother or father would not have devastated me like this. God tested me with my heart’s greatest love.” Despite the shock of her injury, he remained steadfast, until his own tears nearly choked him, he says.

After the massacre, Hussein could not bring himself to return to his childhood home. While he and his mother were in Iran for his treatment, his father relocated the family to Tayr Debba, honoring his son’s wish to leave a home that no longer felt safe. “No, I don’t miss Toura,” he declares, his tone decisive yet strained, as if convincing himself he must sever ties with the village where he once grew tomatoes, cucumbers, and mint, eating what he harvested straight from the soil.

On March 8, eight days after the joint U.S.-Israeli airstrikes killed his father, Mojtaba Khamenei became the third Supreme Leader of the Islamic Republic. He was selected by the Assembly of Experts, the elected body of clerics with the constitutional authority to appoint and remove the Supreme Leader. As of late summer, the public has yet to see him. Only an undated, short video with no sound surfaced, apparently showing him in conversation with President Masoud Pezeshkian.

متظاهرون مؤيدون لفلسطين يحملون لافتة "جرائم الحرب في نيويورك تايمز" داخل مقر جريدة نيويورك تايمز خلال احتجاج ينتقد تغطية الصحيفة للإبادة الجماعية في غزة. نيويورك، الولايات المتحدة الأمريكية. ١٤ آذار ٢٠٢٤. (مايكل نيجرو، وكالة سيبا الأمريكية عبر أسوشيتد برس) ملاحظة المحررة: يكشف تحقيق لـ"بريزم" اُجريَ على مدى أشهر عن انحياز لإسرائيل داخل المستويات القيادية في غرف الأخبار الأميركية الرئيسية، وقد تصاعد بعد ٧ تشرين الأول ٢٠٢٣.

Gianluca Costantini is an Italian cartoonist, graphic journalist, and activist whose work focuses on human rights. He is the author of several graphic novels, including “Libya,” with journalist Francesca Mannocchi. His most recent books include “Zodiac,” created with Ai Weiwei; “Xi Jinping: The Silent Emperor”; and “Volodymyr Zelensky — The Voice of the People.” He is also the founder of Channel Draw.