❶ How long can Gaza survive with no water?

• Background: “A cross sectional study of the relationship between the exposure of pregnant women to military attacks in 2014 in Gaza and the load of heavy metal contaminants in the hair of mothers and newborns.” BMJ Open.

❷ Israel bans Palestinian mother of six from her Jerusalem home
❸ Israel to close Al Jazeera, mouthpiece of Palestine’s cause
. . . . . ❸ ― (ᴀ) Opinion/Analysis: What is behind Israel’s attempt to ban Al Jazeera?

• Daily Report: Israeli Violations Activities in the oPt

❹ POETRY by Jehan Bseiso
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❶ HOW  LONG  CAN  GAZA  SURVIVE  WITH  NO  WATER?
Al-Monitor (Palestine Pulse)      
Rasha Abou Jalal
August 6, 2017.   The water crisis caused by ongoing power outages of more than 20 hours a day has pushed Gaza Strip residents to dig unlicensed wells, disregarding the ensuing serious threats to the already scarce aquifer water stock.
___ At the request of Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas, Israel reduced its power supply to Gaza on June 19 from 120 megawatts to 48 megawatts, causing the current water crises.
___Omar Hamid, the head of a family of nine, told Al-Monitor, “The municipality is delivering water to the citizens’ homes for only two hours every two or three days. This is not sufficient to meet a household’s minimum basic water needs.”
___He said, “There’s no electricity to operate the water pumps and fill our water tanks. Gaza has been living with barely four hours of power supply a day. This scarce supply of electricity often does not coincide with the supply hours of water pumped from the various municipality wells to the citizens’ homes.”   MORE . . .

Paola Manduca, Safwat Y Diab, et al. “A  CROSS  SECTIONAL  STUDY  OF  THE  RELATIONSHIP  BETWEEN  THE  EXPOSURE  OF  PREGNANT  WOMEN  TO  MILITARY  ATTACKS  IN  2014  IN  GAZA  AND  THE  LOAD  OF  HEAVY  METAL  CONTAMINANTS  IN  THE  HAIR  OF  MOTHERS  AND  NEWBORNS.” BMJ Open. Bmjopen.bmj.com. July, 2017.
ABSTRACT: Metal contamination of humans in war areas has rarely been investigated. Weaponry’s heavy metals become environmentally stable war remnants and accumulate in living things. They also pose health risks in terms of prenatal intake, with potential long term risks for reproductive and children’s health. We studied the contribution of military attacks to the load of 23 metals in the hair of Palestinian women in the Gaza Strip, who were pregnant at the time of the military attacks in 2014, and their newborns. We compared the metal load in the mothers with values for adult hair from outside the war area (RHS) as the reference. We investigated heavy metals trans-passing in utero, and assessed if the heavy metal intake could derive from sources unrelated to the war.   FULL ARTICLE . . .

❷ ISRAEL  BANS  PALESTINIAN  MOTHER  OF  SIX  FROM  HER  JERUSALEM  HOME Palestine News and Information Agency – WAFA 
Aug. 7, 2017.   After spending 12 months in prison, the Israeli authorities Monday banned Dalal Said Abu al-Hawa, 39, from her East Jerusalem home and sent her into exile in the West Bank, according to her family.
___Abu al-Hawa, a mother of six, was detained one year ago and charged with transferring money to Palestinian prisoners in Israeli jails, including her son Omar, 17, who is serving a two-and-a-half-year sentence for throwing stones and Molotov cocktails at Israeli police.
___She was also charged with being in Jerusalem without a permit.
___Abu al-Hawa, who is originally a West Bank resident, moved to East Jerusalem’s al-Tur neighborhood after marrying an East Jerusalem resident and getting family reunification.
[. . . .] Exiling Abu al-Hawa is part of Israeli policy aimed at punishing families of Palestinians who resist the Israeli occupation of their homeland.   MORE . . .
❸ ISRAEL  TO  CLOSE  AL JAZEERA,  MOUTHPIECE  OF  PALESTINE’S  CAUSE   
Days of Palestine
Aug. 7, 2017.  Israeli Communication Minister Ayoob Kara said on Sunday that Israel is preparing to close Al Jazeera’s office in Jerusalem.
___Kara said he had requested that the government press office revoke press credentials of Al Jazeera’s journalists.
___He said that he would join the Gulf countries, adding: “These countries say the channel [Al Jazeera] is a tool of Daesh, Hezbollah and Iran; we are supporting this.”   MORE . . .
. . . . . ❸ ― (ᴀ)  OPINION/ANALYSIS:  WHAT  IS  BEHIND  ISRAEL’S  ATTEMPT  TO  BAN  AL JAZEERA?
Al Jazeera English 
Mark LeVine (professor of Middle Eastern History at University of California, Irvine)
Aug. 7, 2017.   The present attempt by the government of Israel to close down Al Jazeera‘s offices in Jerusalem reflects a potentially far-reaching shift in the perceived power and role of critical media, not just in the Israeli occupation of Palestine, but across the Arab world and larger Middle East and North Africa.
___The move is particularly odd since Al Jazeera and Israel have long had a symbiotic, if often adversarial, relationship. Despite long-standing and often harsh criticism of the Israeli occupation and its policies, Israel has afforded the channel relatively wide latitude in its coverage. There have been repeated grumblings over the years, and threats to close down its bureaus, but it hasn’t prevented coverage and commentary by Al Jazeera‘s staff and contributing writers.    MORE . . .

• (Daily Report)  ISRAELI  VIOLATIONS  ACTIVITIES  IN  THE  OPT
  The Applied Research Institute – Jerusalem (on POICA – Monitoring Israeli Colonization Activities in the Palestinian Territories)
  Aug. 6, 2017.  The daily report highlights the violations behind Israeli home demolitions and demolition threats in the occupied Palestinian territory, the confiscation and razing of lands, the uprooting and destruction of fruit trees, the expansion of settlements and erection of outposts, the brutality of the Israeli Occupation Army, the Israeli settlers violence against Palestinian civilians and properties, the erection of checkpoints, the construction of the Israeli segregation wall and the issuance of military orders for the various Israeli purposes.   MORE . . .   (Note: the complete report is available daily at ARIJ .)

“GAZA, 2009,” BY JEHAN BSEISO
No matter flag.
No matter medicine.
No matter civilian.
No matter international community.
No matter your international waters.
No matter your sanctions, no matter your rhetoric and foreign policy.
Only 62 years status quo,
Everyday Nakba,
Subsidized settlements,
Even more walls-
Matter.
Children on the ICRC bus, visiting their Baba’s in your prisons―
Matter.
Food and medicine rotting at every border―
Matter
From the shadows, the silent majority watch water go on fire.

Jehan Bseiso
From: I  REMEMBER  MY  NAME:  POETRY  BY  SAMAH  SABAWI,  RAMZY  BAROUD,  JEHAN  BSEISO.  Vacy Vlazna, editor. London: Novum Publishing, 2016. Available from publisher.