Representatives of major clans in the besieged Gaza Strip held a national conference demanding a comprehensive national plan to confront the Israeli occupation.

This conference was a rare occurrence since political meetings of this nature are often confined to political groups, such as Hamas, Fatah, and other socialist, Islamic and nationalist parties. 

In a statement issued at the end of the conference, the leaders of the clans reiterated their full support of the Resistance in the occupied West Bank.

They also demanded that the Palestinian Authority stop its political arrests of Palestinian activists in the West Bank. 

In the statement, the groups also called for the immediate formation of an inclusive Palestinian National Council, with elections at home and abroad.

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According to the Gaza Ministry of Social Development, 459 families were displaced as a result of the Israeli war. They are now homeless, totaling 2,516 people, including 1,180 children.

On May 9, Israel attacked Gaza with ferocity. For five days, it bombed the besieged Strip, killing 33 Palestinians and wounding hundreds more. Much of that horror, however, was not shown on television.

On May 13, 2023, the Nabhan family received a phone call from the Israeli army, warning them of an imminent bombing of their residence, located in the neighborhood of Jabalia, in the besieged Gaza Strip.

Falestine and Belal Nabhan are both 35. They have four children with special needs. That harrowing call terrorized them.

We were having dinner when the Israeli army called us and ordered us to evacuate our house in ten minutes, Falestine told The Palestine Chronicle.

 

Gripped by fear, I hastily dressed myself on the staircase. I also forgot to wear my hijab, Falestine continued.

Her husband Belal told us that his first thoughts were focused only on the children.

We only had ten minutes to leave our house, he said. Even for a healthy person this is hardly enough, imagine for a person with disabilities.

I was not even able to take their medications and wheelchairs with me, Belal said, with the sadness of that moment still lingering.

The Nabhan familys house, once filled with cherished memories, now lies in ruins. The family is now homeless.

Where can we seek refuge? My disabled children did not deserve such a fate, Falestine told us, in tears.

The Nabhan family remains without shelt...

Archaeologists working on a 2,000-year-old Roman cemetery discovered in Gaza last year have found at least 125 tombs, most with skeletons still largely intact, and two rare lead sarcophaguses, Reuters news agency reported.

It is the first time in Palestine we have discovered a cemetery that has 125 tombs, and it is the first time in Gaza we have discovered two sarcophaguses made of lead, Fadel Al-Autul, an expert at the French School of Biblical and Archaeological Research, told Reuters.

Autul, whose organization supervises the work with help from the French aid agency, Premiere Urgance International, also said that one of the two sarcophaguses was decorated with images of grapes and the other with dolphins.

Archaeologists working on a 2,000-year-old Roman cemetery discovered in Gaza last year have found over 125 tombs, the Palestinian Ministry of Antiquities says. Most of them have skeletons still largely intact and to rare lead sarcophaguses.

(Video: via Reuters) pic.twitter.com/qLZDOnz1qu

The Palestine Chronicle (@PalestineChron) July 24, 2023

We need funds to preserve this archaeological site so that history does not get washed away, he added.

Autul said he hoped the site would become a tourist destination, with a museum to display the findings.

At least 25 engineers and technicians were engaged on Sunday, despite the soaring heat, in digging, clearing the dirt, and preserving the skeletons. They have also been piecing together clay jars found inside some of the graves.

Tatreez in Shatila: Stitching Palestinian Culture Through Embroidery (PHOTOS)

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It is a new era in Palestine. This new era is taking shape before our very eyes, through the blood, tears and sacrifices of a brave generation that is fighting on two fronts against the Israeli military occupation, on the one hand, and collaborating Palestinians masquerading as a leadership, on the other.

But how do we, in Palestine solidarity communities around the world, respond to the changes underway, to the new language and to the actual unity wihdat al-Sahat which are reanimating the Palestinian body politic?

First, I believe that we must insist on the centrality of the Palestinian voice to any solidarity action pertaining to Palestinian freedom anywhere.

Not any Palestinian voice suffices, however; only voices that truly epitomize and capture the aspiration of the Palestinian people, voices that do not speak factional language or represent powerful classes with financial and other interests.

Second, solidarity groups, especially in the West, must know how and when, if at all, to engage with smear campaigns and fraudulent dialogues on multi-faithism, racism and anti-Semitism.

This cannot be the centerpiece of conversations on Palestine or the solidarity movement. Numerous experiences in the past have taught us that allocating most of our energies to fight smear campaigns is a losing battle, which will ultimately have little impact on raising awareness of the struggle for justice in Palestine itself or the championing of the Palestinian cause.

Indeed, the main task of solidarity is just that solidarity, as in adopting and advocating moral positions with the hope of achieving future political shifts in support of oppressed and/or freedom-seeking peoples in Palestine and anywhere injustices may be found.

Third, we must remember that solidarity is not speaking on behalf of anyone; rather, it is the creation of spaces and platforms and the navigation of margins that would allow others to represent their own struggles while rendering and advocating these positions in ones own local and national settings.

In other words, it is the localization of international struggles. It is doing our part to ensure our local representatives, regional/state parliaments and, ultimately, national governments shift their position from supporting Israeli a...