#Dead Sea Spa Resort

[jontycrane]

The Red Sea and the Dead Sea

Jordan’s two seas couldn’t be more different. One is full of life and ships with the country’s only port, the other is almost completely devoid of life and the only boats belong to the military. Also only one of them is actually a sea… Jordan’s gateway to the Red Sea is the town of Aqaba, a popular holiday spot for access to the sea, and it has a reputation as a buzzy place. I stopped there for…

[miyin2]

Ruta 32 Día 8: De camino al Mar Muerto

Al despertar nos fuimos a desayunar en el hotel cuyo desayuno estaba incluido en la reserva. Al terminar el desayuno, bajé a la calle y me encontré con un amigable burrito que se acercó a mi para que lo acariciara. Era bastante curiosos, se mantuvo a mi lado un buen rato, moviendo sus largas orejas. El curiosos burrito Acariciando al burrito El plan para el día era visitar la Reserva de la…

[namism]

hii!

is it okay if i request zoro x immortal gn reader? like they're an immortal that wants to die so they beg him to try to kill them?

immortal heart | roronoa zoro

➳ categories: canonverse, gender neutral reader, post-thriller bark arc

➳ word count: 2.3k

➳ summary: Roronoa Zoro aspires to be the World's Greatest Swordsman, but he has to fight many enemies and defeat the current greatest to achieve such a title. Besides those things, is there anything else that he has to do? He doesn't think there is any until he's presented with an unusual challenge: to kill a dangerous immortal without his knowledge.

➳ notes: spa island was the island the straw hats visited for a filler arc. thanks for the request anon! 🧡

➳ cross-posted on ao3

Zoro hears the rustling of leaves.

In the dense dark woods, he can make out a shadowy figure meandering through the boreal trees, twisting and turning to avoid making any noise—but Zoro is observant when he puts his mind to it, so he does just that, going as far as to ignoring the temptation of the unopened bottle of sake in front of him.

Suddenly, the shadow disappears. Zoro decides to ignore it and enjoy his sake.

The next day, the Straw Hats arrive at Spa Island, a resort built on top of a ship that drifts in the sea. His mates have changed out of their regular clothes into swimwear, but Zoro refuses to leave his swords unattended, so he dresses himself in a white tank top and green shorts before setting foot on the resort.

Having decided against dipping into the swimming pool with Franky, boredom creeps into Zoro's mind the more he wanders about the unusual island. He tries to find something to entertain himself with, but nothing comes to mind.

That is, until the News Coo arrives.

Zoro seizes the newspaper that lands on top of his head, grunting at the gull that flies past him speedily. He stops dead in his tracks and opens the newspaper.

A wanted poster falls out.

Zoro picks it up from the ground.

'WANTED. ONLY DEAD: (Y/N).'

His eyes widen at your bounty.

'B 540,000,000.'

A bitter taste settles in his mouth. Your bounty is dangerously higher than his, which makes Zoro wonder what you could have possibly done to the Marines for them to give you such a number. He himself stood face-to-face with two Warlords at Thriller Bark, yet his bounty stays at 120 million berries. A number as huge as yours is an impressive nightmare.

He places your poster back inside the newspaper and tucks it in his armpit. Making his way to the restobar, he decides to meet up with Luffy in an attempt to find something more worthwhile to invest his time and effort in.

By the time the sun goes down, Zoro still has nothing better to do apart from drinking.

Luffy is beside him, stuffing his mouth with meat like a starved man, while the rest of the crew are hanging out by the open tent, individually sipping on their piña colada's and drinks that Sanji (for some odd reason) served them. When Zoro is spent on his drink, he decides to explore the resort after being warned by Chopper multiple times to be careful of his surroundings.

He snickers. It's just a resort, he thought to himself smugly.

He walks a great distance away from the restobar, scanning the giant swimming pools and waterslides at the park. The guests have wind down and the numbers have dwindled, leaving only staff and stubborn guests wandering about. Zoro figures he's one of those people, but he doesn't care and continues with his stroll.

Once the sun is out and the moon shines near midnight, Zoro is successfully lost in some part of the island resort with no clue of how to get back to where he came. He looks to his right, to his left, and curses himself bashfully when he realizes that he cannot decipher which way is which.

Ashamed, Zoro continues walking until he reaches the end of the island, overlooking the sea.

He relaxes at the sight, taking in the view.

Then he hears it again.

The rustling of leaves.

He whips his head to the direction of the sound and clutches the handles of his swords. A gust of wind blows past him and the rustling gets louder. It's almost eerie, but Zoro doesn't get scared easily. No, he isn't frightened.

So when he's ambushed by someone to his right, he blocks the hits successfully.

He doesn't struggle, but he's close. Adept with a sword, you advance forward in an attempt to topple him over, but Zoro has the upper hand with his two other swords supporting his strength. He resists your attacks and dodges your advances gracefully, looking for a way to defeat you through combat—but you resist with equal force, the inner flow of your energy imbuing the blade of your sword from the tip to its hilt. Zoro swings his sword across your chest, but you veer out of the way and angle your blade to block another hit.

To your misery, his third blade digs into your skin, deep enough to leave a wound past its outermost layer.

Your breath hitches, and your stomach turns.

Zoro pushes you to the ground, his blade centimeters deep, but you helplessly squirm in his grasp. He wraps his fingers around your throat and observes you intently, a stranger to your being but seemingly familiar with your face. You wriggle underneath him, but he tightens the chokehold.

That's right—you're the wanted pirate on the poster he found earlier, tucked in between the pages of today's newspaper. Your photo was an illustration, but it was badly drawn, almost like a century-old sketch with lazy coloring that rendered you unrecognizable. Now that he has a good look at your face, Zoro can confirm that it's really you.

At that second, Zoro wants to finish you off quickly so that he can regroup with his crew and they can leave the island as soon as they came. While he doesn't know what you do and what you came for, Zoro surmises that you're dangerous, a threat to him and his crew with your large bounty. Now that he has you restrained underneath him, he's bound to not let go.

However, in the split second he thinks to himself, a faint memory hammers in his head, one that he encountered not long ago.

"This place is a historian's nightmare," said Robin as she walked past the group, striding down the hallway of the Thriller Bark ship. She stood in front of a painting that hung on the wall, dusty and long forgotten, and ran her fingertips across the gold frame that enclosed the relic.

Zoro looked at the walls as he walked. He wasn't a fan, but a select few depicted dramatic movements and action, rich details and intricate poses of warriors in battle that piqued his interest. He walked ahead of his crew as he observed, passing Robin, who was deeply entranced by an old portrait of a figure—a young adult, not much older than Zoro himself, dressed in obsolete clothing that dated back to at least a thousand years ago.

When Zoro looks back at you, he catches a glint in your eyes that swirl with a bountiful of emotions—fright, desperation, and aggravation. Yet the corners of your lips twitch upward slightly, a subtle motion that he would have otherwise missed if only he wasn't attentive.

Suddenly, Zoro eases the force on your neck. He withdraws his blade, allowing the blood to drip down your skin and pool on the ground.

The twinkle in your eyes disappears just as fast.

Still holding you, Zoro demands, "You don't want to die, do you?"

"I don't!" You kick your feet desperately. "Let me go or I'll kill you and your crew! Let me go!"

His grip loosens on your neck.

In a bat of an eye, he pushes you to the ground and your head makes contact with the cold concrete. Afterward, he rises to his feet.

"Liar," he spits, watching you choke as you regain your breathing. "What are you here for?"

You cough on air, unresponsive. He watches you with a hard gaze.

Zoro has been in countless battles all his life—it's no question as the retired pirate hunter of the East Blue and the swordsman of the Straw Hat Pirates. In that regard, he can read his opponent expertly, seeing through their intentions and the inner workings of their minds akin to reading a book. The moment he looked at you, he recognized the emotions that smothered your face all too well, but something about the way you present them are baffling, unexpected.

The shine in your eyes was different. It was nothing he had ever seen before in battle, not even in the irises of his weakest enemy.

Zoro realizes that you're not desperate to live.

You're desperate to die.

"Answer me," he growls.

"I-I thought"—you cough—"I thought you were going to kill me..."

"I wasn't."

"But why? What stopped you, swordsman? Are you too feeble to kill another?!"

Zoro withdraws his blades into their scabbards. He notices the surprise in your eyes, the kind of emotion that shows disappointment. Your fright is gone, leaving only sadness to consume you.

"I don't kill without proper reason," he says. You glare at him. You're breaking character. "What are you here for?"

"I'm going to kill you," you mutter. Zoro is unfazed. "I'm going to kill you!"

At that very second, you grab your sword and activate your powers, coating the blade with the energy of your Haki. Zoro retaliates, but he resists your attacks eventually, careful enough not to hit you too hard.

Your wanted poster flashes in his imagination.

'WANTED. ONLY DEAD: (Y/N). B 540,000,000'

You tilt your sword and attack his side, your coated blade millimeters away from his bare skin. Zoro grits his teeth as he holds his defense.

'ONLY DEAD: (Y/N).'

'ONLY DEAD.'

"The Marines want you dead," he says. "Your bounty is higher than half of the Warlords, but you want to die in my hands. What do you want?!"

He pushes his blade toward you, shoving you far enough to regain his stance.

"A fight!"

You charge at him a second time, lunging forward too quickly that he misses the way you attack him. You lacerate the skin of his biceps with your hardened blade, and he gets a taste of your strength, the type to be expected of the pirate with half a billion berries— but Zoro refuses to go down with a pathetic injury, so he endures your advances and fights you off agitatedly.

As if in slow-motion, he swings his blade aggressively to your chest.

To his surprise, you move toward it, meeting the blade with your skin, the area closest to your heart.

His eyes grow large when his blade cuts into your body only to ricochet back into his hand, his attack backfiring as the force blows him away.

Zoro lands a few meters away from you upon impact, his swords thankfully still in his hands. He winces in pain, but he recovers immediately and lifts his head to look at you.

You drop your sword to the ground. You're bleeding terribly. Blood oozes from the area which the swordsman had cut, and it continues to pour down your body nonstop, slowly creating a pool of red liquid beneath your feet. Holding onto your chest, you walk toward the edge of the island.

"Now we wait," you mumble.

Zoro stands back up and charges toward you, but he forgoes his blades and instead grabs your wrist. He spins you around and pulls you away from the ledge, eventually throwing you to the ground once more.

Yet you lay there, unbothered, until you help yourself back up on your feet, completely ignoring the blood dripping down your body... like it's not painful at all.

Zoro watches in horror as you collect yourself in front of him, standing a few meters away with exhausted hooded eyes trained on the ground.

"Well," you say to yourself, "I'm still alive."

You look up from the ground and stare at the swordsman in front of you.

"Even if I had begged, it still wouldn't have made a difference."

You fall to your knees.

"Unless... I try..." you whisper. You crawl closer to Zoro, who backs away with every step you take closer to him. "Roronoa Zoro, is it? The swordsman of the Straw Hats, the man who faced three different Warlords in the past months?"

With quivering lips, you stretch your hands out to him.

"You're... you're strong. I know that you are. You may not be as wanted now, but the New World awaits your kind."

"Keep your distance," he orders.

You ignore him.

"I have to ask a favor." You crawl to his feet hastily, gripping his legs. His jaw falls ajar. "Kill me. Please, just kill me. Do anything in your power to make sure that I don't leave here alive."

He gulps. Zoro tries to wrest his legs free from your hands, but you don't let go of him.

"Please!" You cry. "You want to be the world's greatest swordsman, don't you? Why not put yourself up for the challenge and kill an immortal?"

Looking up at the sky, lightning strikes past the clouds as thunder erupts in your vast surroundings, defeating the sound of waves that crash on the island ship's foundation. Zoro stares at you. He shakes his head in confusion.

"Immortal?" he repeats aloud.

He looks down at your bloodstained garments. You have lost a lot of blood, but you remain strong and standing, almost as if you were never injured to begin with.

"I can't feel pain," you whisper. "I tried to fight you, but I couldn't get you to kill me unless I forced myself at the tip of your blades. I had to act. I had to pretend to be hurt."

You clench his hands in yours.

"Please," you cry, "please help me."

Zoro keeps quiet, gathering his thoughts for a second.

Your bounty, your wanted poster, your questionable strength, the portrait back in Thriller Bark dating over a millennium ago—everything begins to dawn on him at that very moment. Zoro's eyes go wide as he realizes the weight of the circumstances, and for the first time in his life, he feels a chill run down his spine.

"Roronoa Zoro, please save me."

He purses his lips together.

Pulling you to your feet, Zoro makes up his mind.

"Stand up. I'm bringing you somewhere."

-

thanks for reading! if anyone would like to continue this story/write their own take to the prompt, i would be happy to read it! i found the prompt easy to interpret at first, but i soon had trouble with it due to the concept of immortality (e.g. do immortal beings feel pain/get injured? do they have regenerative abilities? if they don't, do they just live on with damaged organs until they stop working? in that case, wouldn't immortal beings be capable of dying?) even the universe of one piece hasn't given much depth to this concept yet, so if you want to put your own twist to it, please be my guest :)

p.s., the ending was meant to hint at zoro bringing the reader over to luffy and crew (because the reader may have lived to witness the void century, hence the bounty), but you can interpret it whichever way you want.

[maulsscream]

SURVIVALISM | Chapter 03

(gif by unmaderedemption)

Krennic x f!Senator

Chapter 01 - Chapter 02 - Chapter 03 - ...

2951 words | M rated | Alcohol, sexual content

Summary: Her worst nightmare has happened and only Krennic seems able to fix it. She's forced to invite him to her home world, and it truly lives up to its reputation. Even he can't deny there's a certain something about the air that makes people release their inhibitions. This is going to be a long night.

A/N: Get in losers we're going to Cal Hantur! I love writing Krennic as an asshole, it does something to me that's not healthy. This is only gonna get sluttier and more twisted from here. Fashion reference

Let me know if you'd like to be added to/removed from the taglist! 🫶

@perceivedalbatross @sparklebunny57 @weneedwhiskey @chxelsxaa @natasha-roamingoff @forlornghosts @romaelia @icebearrrrr

"Thank you, Plunn, that will be all."

You pressed the intercom button to end the call and stared into the distance in muted silence as the holo disappeared. Your skin felt clammy, your pulse quickened on the verge of bursting your eardrums. This was a disaster. No matter how much you had spent mentally preparing yourself to the possibility, this reality was worse than you could have ever imagined.

You had been woken up in the middle of the night by an urgent call from your head of security, Plunn, who had worked himself into a panic. After weeks of failed attempts, the insurgents had finally been able to breach your data centre which hosted critical information about your guests. A significant percentage had been decrypted and copied before your team had been able to shut down the system. You could smooth it over with the richest of your patrons but some information on Military High Command had been stolen too. This would prove much harder to sweep under the rug.

Your head fell into your hands and the tips of your fingers reached into the roots of your hair to pull. Your nails leaving red tracks into your scalp. Your home was going to make headlines across the galaxy. You would either end up in prison under the assumption that you had helped the rebels, or worse... you could end up dead like your predecessor. It was clear now why he had preferred to drown himself in a hotel pool than face the consequences of his own actions.

Worst of all, you came to the conclusion that this was not a clean up job you could do on your own. You needed allies. Powerful ones, at that.

Smoothing your hair back in place, you straightened your posture. If sleep was not going to be an option for the rest of the night, you might as well be productive with your time. Your hand trembled as you reached for the intercom again to call your driver and aid this time. She answered immediately.

"I need you to find me a way to contact Director Krennic. Urgently."

It was time to go home to fix this.

-------------------

Cal Hantur was still asleep when you landed that morning. Most people would still slumber on for a couple more hours before heading to the various amenities that the city-wide resort offered; large heated pools, private spas, white sand beaches, bustling casinos, and high-altitude bars. You planned on heading for the data centre first to asses the damage from up close before resting for a moment if your nerves allowed. You had received word that you could expect an Imperial visit later that evening. A double edged blade if you'd ever seen one.

The simple comfort of being home lulled you into a much calmer state. The air smelt familiar, a mix of sea and greenery. Your clothes, much too heavy for the tropical weather, clung to you tightly as you made your way into the private elevator that would take you to your office and apartments from within the casino. Being outside with this many layers on immediately warranted a shower. You couldn't wait for the cool of the evening to settle on the city. Dusk had always been your favourite time of day.

Once inside, you selected a gown from your collection that was a mix of a light brown fabric and gold ropes. It exposed much of your back and torso, leaving your arms naked and your limbs feeling free. You were glad to shed the intricacies of your Coruscant wardrobe and to be back in garments that matched your status and power. This kind of dress would have gotten stares and whispers on the capital planet, but not here. Here it represented everything about Cal Hantur that you had always loved. Its nature just as much as its glamour.

You were certain that your guests would have comments about your choice of dress. You hoped he would.

Before making your way to the arrival platform, you took your time to observe the roster of guests from your datapad. There was a significant increase in Imperial presence both in and out of uniform from what you could see by glancing around. Had they suddenly all gotten a pay rise? This needed to be addressed. Perhaps bumping the prices by a few hundred credits would push out the low spenders to a less luxurious port of call. Cal Hantur had a reputation to uphold. If they wanted cheap and tacky gambling, they could go to Canto Bight. You were made for the elite.

-------------------

You arrived just in time to see the shuttle descend upon the platform like a looming cloud of bad news. The size of the party that would be joining you was uncertain and you had been unable to gain more insight on the transport. This was being kept under lock and key even within Military High Command it seemed. It did nothing to settle your nerves. And yet, if no one knew that the ISB was here, no one had a clue they should even be looking at Cal Hantur. Perhaps this was for the best.

You stood flanked by your security guards, a few attendants waiting behind your group in a single line with various drinks on platters. This was all in the hopes that you would appear the picture of calm and in charge. You needed these people to think they could have a good time, that there was nothing to worry about. Cal Hantur was a haven away from the business of their lives. You schooled your features into a radiant grin and imagined yourself welcoming a childhood friend to your home. You forced yourself to recall images of you and Lenn on your last outing. The two of you had laughed until your sides hurt at his terrible pronunciation of Twi'leki. You missed him more than ever now that you were about to face a nest of spiders in crisp uniform.

Krennic stepped down from the platform first, his cape whipping in the wind behind him as he made his way over to you slowly. Deliberately slowly. If his squadron of Death Troopers was anything to go by, this was a show of force for him the same way it was for you. You watched as his crystalline eyes settled on you, roaming your figure with barely concealed hunger. Yet his expression remained ever the picture of smug amusement. His predictability was a gift. Being lusted after by someone of his magnitude thrilled you even if should have frightened you. It had been too long since you had allowed yourself some terrible fun and he was gearing up to be the worst kind.

A few ISB members disembarked from the vessel and were immediately set upon by your attendants and security team. They had been told to meet any of their requests and show them the best that Cal Hantur had to offer... as soon as their job was done, of course. They were lead away just as quickly as they'd arrived, leaving you alone with the Director save for the oppressive presence of his guards.

"Senator.", Krennic greeted you as he looked around with curiosity.

"Director Krennic... Shall we?"

You were already stepping away, keen to put some distance between the two of you. The stares that passed between you every time you found yourselves alone were a heady mixture of distaste and greed. If it went on for much longer, you'd end up doing something regrettable.

"You're rather eager, aren't you?"

You were glad to have your back turned to him and allowed yourself to roll your eyes at the remark. There he is, you thought. Trust Krennic to get on your last nerve within a minute of being in his presence. It was as if he had a finger on the pulse of your temper. You looked forward to the day you could finally silence him.

"I wouldn't want you to miss a thing, that's all."

"Hmm, you know, I remember this place much more differently. It used to lack a certain... luster.", he mused.

"You've been to Cal Hantur before?", your head snapped back towards him over your shoulder.

The revelation came as a shock. Most Imperial personnel on Cal Hantur fit a very different picture. They were loud and overeager. They drank too much and spent credit like they burned a hole in their pockets. You assumed Krennic would have no time for galavanting across leisure planets. Had you ever been aware of his presence here? When was his last visit? You had been told from many trusted sources that he was married to his work and cared only for his projects, whatever those were presently.

"During my youth at the Future Program, yes. There were many covert excursions off world for me to partake in."

"Interesting. You don't seem the type.", you teased.

"And what type would that be?", he said with a chuckle.

"The social one."

You lead him through the casino entrance, handing him a drink from a tray and taking a sip from one yourself. The evening had only just started and you already needed a distraction from your racing thoughts. As worried as you were from the recent attack on your home, your attention was somewhere else right now. You felt stimulated for the first time in weeks. Such was the power of an attractive man lavishing you with attention and matching your verbal sparring effortlessly. There could be no harm in flirting if both parties knew what was at play.

"One can have a good time on one's own.", Krennic protested playfully, a hand at your back.

You didn't flinch this time and instead you tucked yourself closer to his touch. You hadn't noticed the lack of gloves until the moment his skin touched yours. His fingers felt soft yet direct. Like the touch of a man who knew exactly what he wanted and how to obtain it. Screw it, you'd gag him with his own cape if you had to. A handsome face like that couldn't go to waste. Still, you had to thread carefully. You allowed him to move his hand to your lower back as you pivoted to another alley between tables.

"But never as good as with company, correct?", you hummed provocatively.

Watching the innuendo sink in and settle on his features was delicious. The corners of his lips twitched up, an eyebrow raised questioningly at you. He could tell the mood had shifted. The blue of his eyes appeared to darken a fraction when he leaned over to whisper in your ear over the noise of the casino.

"I'm sure yours is very sought after these days, especially wearing that.", he purred as he plucked at a piece of rope at your side.

"Is that your professional assessment, Director?"

"A simple observation.", Krennic took a moment to mull over his words as if he were debating speaking at all. All part of the act, since you'd never known him to be uncertain.

"You look exquisite."

"That's awfully forward of you.", you stammered.

"I could be bluntly salacious if you preferred."

You had been ready to play but perhaps not so soon. Not so suddenly. The look he was giving you seared your skin. It was downright predatory.

A tray of drinks threatened to scrape his head and before you could stop yourself you had reached out to pull him closer with your hands at his back. He took a step into your personal space as you watched the attendant manoeuvre behind the pair of you. You had trapped yourself against a high table, Krennic's chest pressed against yours. You had the sudden urge to wrap your arms around his neck. Perhaps to strangle any more quips out of him.

"I think we'd be more comfortable in my office. This conversation should be private."

"Lead the way.", he conceded with a nod.

That damned grin. You turned away from him again and hurried towards your private elevator. It was a slow progress, and you could feel his fingers skimming the fabric of your dress each time you came to a halt behind a group. The slow heat that radiated from him only served to stoke your own appetite. You finally reached the elevator and stepped inside with him. The two of you remained silent as you ascended. He watched the casino, followed by the city, disappear from view during the climb. And you? You watched him take it all in, pride filling your lungs. All the advancements you had made over the past decade. The fruit of your hard labour.

"It's not that I haven't been enjoying our little back and forth, but did you bring me here to flirt all night?"

You made your way out of the elevator, making sure to sway your hips a little harder with each step. When you looked back over your shoulder, he was staring at your face with his hands clasped in front of him. Kriff. You were in trouble.

"Would that be a problem?", you said cooly. Act natural.

"Yes.", he replied without warmth.

"Why?"

Once you had reached your desk, you settled against it. Your hands smoothed over the edge, ankles crossed in front of you. The picture of ease. Krennic took a walk around the room. His hand was at his face, leaning into his fingers as if lost in thoughts over the artefacts you had amassed over the years for your private collection. You made no mistake about his demeanour; the was a shark hunting its prey.

"Don't play coy."

He came closer now. His boots echoing against the smooth stone of your floor.

"Do you know the kind of situation that is required for a man of my caliber to free his calendar, just to come here and mingle? Do you really think I'd come crawling to your rescue if I didn't see a benefit of some sort?"

You stiffened at his tone, your spine straight like durasteel. This was a business meeting and nothing else. No matter how many times your mind flashed images of his hands on you. No matter how his voice tickled your senses just right.

"Name your price then."

"Unlimited access to The Hedge. To study it, of course, nothing untoward... But I need full control of the operations. And your team."

"I can't simply let you--", you began to protest.

"Oh, I think you can Senator. You're not the only planet on my radar with an insurgence problem. You wanted my assistance? You have it. My undivided attention?"

He leaned into you fully this time. His breath ghosted over your neck as his face disappeared from view. You didn't dare look away from the settled point straight ahead.

"You have it.", he whispered in your ear.

His hands came to rest on the desk, framing your hips. Your legs parted automatically to let him in closer which he obliged. His face a mere few inches from yours. Your body felt like it had been dosed in fuel and set ablaze.

"For how long?"

Your hand was at his chest before you could stop it, unsure if it was to push him back and pull him closer. He seemed to want to answer a very different question. His tongue darted out of his mouth and ran along his lips, the motion catching your attention. You needed to taste it. You needed his lips on you. Right now. Nevermind all the threats he was making.

"However long it takes for you to beg me to stop. Though I don't think you're the type to quit while you're ahead, are you?"

"You're vile, and full of yourself.", you said with heat rising to your cheeks. A defense mechanism.

"Yes, I can see both attributes are doing absolutely nothing for you."

"Fuck you."

"You're about to.", he chuckled darkly.

You couldn't quite muster venom in your voice. Persuasion was a hell of a drug. Krennic ghosted his fingers from the base of your throat to your hip, hand hovering and never quite touching you. Your breath caught in your throat. You wanted him, so badly it was almost unbearable now. You were willing to forget his crimes and overreach if just he kept looking at you like he had already mentally peel off your gown and nestled between your thighs. His gaze a promise of what was to come.

"Our meeting at the gala last month, do you remember it? It took a great deal of composure not to ruin you as soon as I saw you... just like it does now."

You scoffed and rolled your eyes at him. The sound of his voice like liquid heat poured in your system. If only the words were sweeter, less of a gloat.

"Are you expecting congratulations for good behavior?", you replied, aggravated.

"A little fanfare wouldn't hurt."

The mischievous grin he wore was going to be the death of you.

"Stars, you're unbearable."

"Tell me to stop then.", Krennic murmured as his hand finally settled on top of your thigh, claiming space.

His cylinder beeped moments before you mustered the courage to throw yourself at him, caution and disgust be damned. Without moving from his spot between your legs, he answered like nothing at all was happening. Meanwhile your universe had just been shattered and rearranged at his whim.

"I'll be right there.", Krennic spoke in his cylinder.

He gave you a pitying look as he peeled himself from you and turned towards the exit. And just like that, he was gone without a word of goodbye.

[mariacallous]

In October, 2023, a few days after Hamas’s attack on Israel, a physician named Lina Qasem Hassan filled her car with medical supplies and drove from her home, in Tamra, a town in northern Israel, to the David Dead Sea Resort and Spa, in Ein Bokek. Tourism was about to nosedive throughout the country, but the resort was busy, scrambling to accommodate hundreds of evacuees who had just arrived from Kibbutz Be’eri, one of the communities near the Gaza Strip which Hamas had struck.

Qasem Hassan, a family-medicine physician, came to help at a clinic that had been set up on the hotel’s grounds. She was soon dressing the wounds of injured people and dispensing pills to evacuees who had fled their homes without their medication. The lobby, she told me recently, resembled a refugee camp, with donated clothes scattered in piles and shell-shocked families walking around aimlessly. Yet some of the new guests acted eerily normal, “taking towels and going to the swimming pool,” Qasem Hassan recalled. “It looked like they didn’t realize what they’d been through.” The clinic stayed open for nearly two weeks. Every day, members of the kibbutz gathered in a banquet hall to hear updates about neighbors who had been kidnapped or murdered or were still missing. Sometimes the names of multiple family members were read aloud. (Ninety-seven civilians were killed at Kibbutz Be’eri on October 7th.) Although Qasem Hassan was accustomed to treating people who had suffered trauma, the experience tested her emotional endurance. “We had to be there to assist people who couldn’t stand the situation,” she said.

The atmosphere would have been difficult for any Israeli physician, but for Qasem Hassan the challenge was compounded by her background and identity. She is a Palestinian citizen of a country that, in 2018, passed a law affirming that the right to self-determination was “unique to the Jewish people”; the law also made Hebrew the country’s sole official language, downgrading the status of Arabic. Israel had since installed the most right-wing government in its history, a coalition of hard-liners and extremists who were not likely to temper the rage, or the desire for revenge, that Qasem Hassan feared the October 7th attack would unleash—not just toward Hamas fighters but toward Palestinian citizens of Israel and residents of the West Bank and the Gaza Strip. In subsequent months, reports on the suffering of Gazans were drowned out in Israel by coverage of the hostages’ plight. But for Qasem Hassan the agony was immediate. On October 7th, while she was still at home in Tamra, she heard a piercing cry. It was her sister-in-law, who lived next door; she had just learned from a news report that her brother, Marwan Abu Reda, a paramedic in Gaza, had been killed when an Israeli rocket struck an ambulance in which he was travelling. Qasem Hassan had met Abu Reda and visited his family. He often sent her holiday cards. That evening, Qasem Hassan cooked dinner for her relatives and grieved with them. “It was terrible,” she said.

The clinic at the hotel was a collaborative effort that Qasem Hassan had launched with her peers at Physicians for Human Rights Israel, a nonprofit whose board she chairs. The organization, founded in 1988, produces reports on sometimes contentious subjects; a recent one claimed that Israeli prisons were systematically denying medical care to Palestinian detainees, resulting in a “widespread scabies infection,” among other problems. (The Israel Prison Service did not respond to a request for comment.) The group also provides medical care to people who lack access to it, both in the occupied territories and at a clinic in Jaffa that serves immigrants, asylum seekers, and refugees. In fact, at the time of the October 7th attack, Qasem Hassan and other P.H.R.I. members had been planning to visit Gaza the following week. With access to Gaza cut off, Qasem Hassan instead joined an emergency-response team and went to the Dead Sea, for reasons both personal and philosophical. “You can’t divide human pain,” she told Palestinian friends who questioned why she went to the hotel as the bombardment of Gaza intensified. “Whether you are Israeli or Palestinian, it’s the same pain.”

Before leaving the Dead Sea area, Qasem Hassan texted a photograph to a group of colleagues at a medical clinic where she worked, in Kiryat Bialik, a town on the outskirts of Haifa. It showed her standing in a white coat next to her fellow-volunteers. She added a note: “In the P.H.R.I. clinic we set up at the David hotel for evacuees from Kibbutz Be’eri.”

“Very nice!” a Jewish nurse at the clinic texted back. “Human rights for Israelis only!”

“For all people,” Qasem Hassan replied.

“Certainly not!” the nurse responded. “Hamas, Islamic Jihad, and anyone who collaborates with them don’t have rights, because they are not human beings.”

“For all innocent people,” Qasem Hassan texted.

Qasem Hassan would soon stop expressing herself so freely. Shortly after she returned to Tamra, where she lived with her husband, a sociologist named Sharaf, and their four children, a wave of arrests and investigations swept Israel. Dozens of Palestinian citizens were accused of inciting terrorism, often based solely on their social-media posts. To Jewish Israelis, the crackdown might have seemed like a necessary precaution after the worst massacre in their nation’s history. But it felt like unwarranted harassment to many of the targets, including Abed Samara, the head of the cardiac intensive-care unit at Hasharon Hospital, in Petah Tikva, who was suspended without warning for social-media posts that some interpreted as pro-Hamas, and for allegedly replacing his profile picture on Facebook with a Hamas flag after October 7th. According to Haaretz, the allegation was false—the image was of an Islamic flag, and it had been on Samara’s Facebook page since 2022. But, once the accusation spread, Samara was barraged with threats. He ended up resigning from the hospital, where he’d worked for fifteen years.

Qasem Hassan, who had sometimes posted opinions about politics on social media, stopped doing so, and she avoided discussing the war at work. But she kept her leadership role at P.H.R.I., which occasionally required her to speak to journalists. In February, 2024, she appeared on Channel 12, a popular Israeli news outlet, to discuss the humanitarian situation in Gaza. In an interview with Arad Nir, who hosts a program on international affairs, Qasem Hassan said that Israel had intentionally targeted Gaza’s hospitals, in violation of the Geneva Conventions, which accord medical facilities a special protected status. Nir pushed back, arguing that Hamas used these hospitals as command centers to launch deadly attacks on Israel. Qasem Hassan replied that this claim had not been verified by a third party, and that targeting health-care facilities violated international law.

As Qasem Hassan was aware, such views were rarely voiced on Israeli television. A couple of months later, three of her patients, who’d heard the interview, sent a letter to her employer, Clalit, Israel’s largest health-care organization. The statements she’d made about the bombing of Gaza’s hospitals were proof, they wrote, that her heart was “with her murderous Palestinian brethren.” The patients called for Qasem Hassan to be suspended “in light of her solidarity with, and support for, Hamas.”

Many sectors of Israeli society, such as the public-school system, are highly segregated. But, in Israel’s hospitals and health clinics, Palestinian employees actually have an outsized presence. In 2023, twenty-five per cent of doctors in Israel were Arab—more than double the level in 2010—as were twenty-seven per cent of nurses and forty-nine per cent of pharmacists. The Israeli medical system could scarcely function without them. After October 7th, a rabbi named Meir Shmueli released a YouTube video in which he portrayed this development as a dire threat. “Do you know how many Arab doctors, may their names be erased, are in the hospitals?” Shmueli asked. He claimed that these doctors were “killing Jewish patients,” a baseless charge that Zion Hagay, the chairman of the Israeli Medical Association, denounced. Such talk could “ignite a war within us,” Hagay warned, hailing the country’s health-care system as a “beacon of coexistence and tolerance where Jewish and Arab medical professionals work side by side from day to day and have one oath and one goal: saving lives.”

In recent years, many Jewish Israelis who might have entered the medical field have instead gravitated to the tech industry, sometimes after serving in intelligence units of the Israel Defense Forces. (Most Arab citizens are not required to serve in the military, and rarely do so.) Thabet Abu Rass, a political geographer at the Van Leer Jerusalem Institute, told me that Palestinians have rushed to fill the resulting openings in medicine. Abu Rass, an expert on Israel’s Palestinian minority, did not downplay the level of racism in his country. “If we take the issue of land and planning, there are over thirty different discriminatory laws within the system,” he said. “The discrimination in Israeli society is very structural.” But he noted that Israel has some striking contradictory tendencies. In recent years, the government has invested tens of millions of dollars in scholarships for Palestinian students seeking to attend universities, as a way of addressing poverty and unemployment in Arab communities. Abu Rass, a member of the steering committee that oversaw this initiative, told me that the number of Palestinian citizens seeking advanced degrees grew from twenty-four thousand in 2010 to sixty-four thousand last year.

In 2016, two nonprofits, the Israel Religious Action Center and the Israel Movement for Reform and Progressive Judaism, published “Heroes of Health,” a report heralding these changes. A photograph on the cover showed a group of medical workers holding up signs—some in Hebrew, others in Arabic—that read “Jews and Arabs Refuse to Be Enemies.” That year, a Pew survey found that nearly half of Jewish Israelis supported expelling Arabs from the country. The report argued that a spirit of collaboration and openness nevertheless prevailed in the field of health care. A physician named Suheir Assadi was quoted as saying, “I feel free in this system and I feel that I can develop and do anything.” Medicine, the report suggested, was a neutral space that hospital administrators kept insulated from the headlines—which, that year, were dominated by stories about stabbings of Jews on sidewalks and in markets. Such acts of violence (and retaliatory shootings by Israeli security forces) were not discussed at work, according to administrators at several hospitals. Osnat Levtzion-Korach, the director of Hadassah Mt. Scopus Hospital, in Jerusalem, said that medical staff were expected to “leave the politics at the door.”

In 2018, Guy Shalev, an Israeli anthropologist who is now the executive director of P.H.R.I., published a dissertation arguing that this egalitarian ethos was a fiction. While doing field work at two Israeli hospitals, he discovered that Jewish doctors routinely discussed politics. Only Palestinians had to avoid such talk, he found. To have any chance of getting promoted, a Palestinian medical student noted, people like him needed to convince their superiors that they were aravim tovim, or “good Arabs.” (The student in question had been arrested at a protest when he was a teen-ager, but had scrupulously avoided such activity ever since.) Although medicine offered Palestinian citizens an “entry ticket” into Israeli society, Shalev concluded, it came at the cost of having to mute their identities.

In a study published this past February, Ghada Majadli, a policy analyst at Al-Shabaka, a Palestinian think tank, argued that this burden has grown heavier since October 7th, as the atmosphere in Israeli hospitals has become more overtly nationalistic. A Palestinian doctor told Majadli that, at a staff meeting, a Jewish colleague said, “Let them annihilate Gaza” while staring at him. Many of Majadli’s subjects feared that pushing back on dehumanizing comments about Palestinians would cause them to be accused of disloyalty—or of supporting Hamas.

From an early age, Qasem Hassan was encouraged to speak her mind. She grew up in Nazareth, Israel’s largest Arab city. Both her parents were teachers, and her mother and aunts all earned advanced degrees. They were among the first Muslim girls from Nazareth to go to college, Qasem Hassan told me, reflecting their father’s belief that Palestinian citizens of Israel couldn’t afford to waste the opportunities offered by education. As a young girl, Qasem Hassan absorbed the same message from her mother, who drilled her with puzzles and brain exercises.

As Qasem Hassan got older, she received an equally formative political education. Her mother took her to rallies at a public square in Nazareth, where she heard speeches by the famous Palestinians Emile Habibi, a novelist and a member of the Knesset, and Tawfiq Zayyad, a poet and the mayor of Nazareth. (Her mother even made her memorize one of Zayyad’s poems, which she then recited onstage in front of local dignitaries, including the author.) The political culture of Nazareth was dominated by Hadash, an alliance of the Israeli Communist Party and several left-wing groups which championed socialism and Arab-Jewish coöperation. These values were shared by Qasem Hassan’s mother, who appeared at strikes even though teachers were not supposed to join picket lines. “She wasn’t afraid,” Qasem Hassan said.

After finishing high school, Qasem Hassan enrolled in Hebrew University’s medical program, inspired by the fact that a beloved aunt had died suddenly, at the age of thirty-one, from a cause that had never been determined. In 2000, during Qasem Hassan’s third year, the second intifada began after the breakdown of peace talks at Camp David. That October, Palestinian citizens of Israel flooded the streets in support of the uprising. The Israeli police opened fire on protesters, killing thirteen people, among them Asel Asleh, the brother of a medical student in the class below Qasem Hassan’s. Political activity was barred on the campus of Hebrew University Medical School, Qasem Hassan and her fellow-activists were told. Qasem Hassan, who was among the leaders of an organization called the Committee of Palestinian Students, challenged this policy. At one point, she asked the school’s dean to explain why he’d said nothing after Asleh was shot.

The events of October, 2000, confirmed Qasem Hassan’s belief that doctors needed to speak out about social issues that affected human health, from police violence to systemic discrimination. Like many members of her generation, she became radicalized, bristling at efforts to promote intergroup coöperation which masked discrimination and inequality.

During her time in medical school, however, Qasem Hassan found a mentor in David Applebaum, an ordained rabbi and an emergency-medicine doctor who was known for rushing to the scenes of suicide bombings to tend to the victims. Applebaum ran a clinic, Terem, that provided urgent care in an ultra-Orthodox community; Qasem Hassan started working there on Saturdays, when Jewish staff observed the Sabbath. Qasem Hassan suspected that she and Applebaum held radically different views on most aspects of the Israel-Palestine conflict, including Jewish settlers, several of whom worked at the clinic. But she admired his compassion. In 2003, when he and his daughter were killed in a suicide attack at a café, she was shocked and saddened.

It was unnerving to be studying in Jerusalem during the second intifada. “Every coffee shop was a danger,” Qasem Hassan said. To earn money, she worked at a restaurant in a mall where fans of the soccer team Beitar Jerusalem, who are notorious for their anti-Arab racism, sometimes celebrated after games. Qasem Hassan would hear them chant “Mavet la’aravim!”—“Death to Arabs!” Although Qasem Hassan did not wear a hijab and spoke Hebrew so well that people sometimes assumed she was Jewish, she was terrified of being outed and attacked.

One day at the Terem clinic, a woman humiliated a Palestinian colleague of Qasem Hassan’s by saying, “Don’t touch my child—you’re Arab!” At a different facility, Qasem Hassan overheard a nurse say, after an Arab patient had given birth, “Ah, you’ve brought us another terrorist.” Palestinian medical residents faced extra obstacles when competing for positions in such fields as obstetrics and gynecology, which was Qasem Hassan’s preference. She had strong grades and recommendations, yet she had a hard time finding a hospital that would admit her to its program. She later switched to family medicine, and was accepted at the Carmel Medical Center, in Haifa.

Not long after Qasem Hassan graduated from medical school, her mother died, of cancer. At the memorial, Qasem Hassan spoke about the moral values that had been instilled in her. In 2016, she decided to act on them by appearing before the Israeli Knesset to testify about the segregation of Jewish and Palestinian mothers in maternity wards. A scandal had erupted after Israel Public Radio aired a report on the practice, which is forbidden by Israel’s health ministry. The controversy grew when Bezalel Smotrich—then a far-right Knesset member, today Israel’s finance minister—affirmed that maternity wards should be segregated. “It is natural for my wife to not want to lie next to somebody who just gave birth to a baby that might want to murder her baby in 20 years,” he tweeted. At the Knesset hearing, various hospital administrators insisted that pregnant women had been separated only to respect cultural preferences. (It was noted that Orthodox women might not want someone next to them watching TV on the Sabbath.) But Qasem Hassan testified that she had frequently seen Palestinian patients receive separate, and demeaning, treatment, including on occasions when doctors who did not speak Arabic summoned male custodial workers to ask women about their sexual histories.

Back in medical school, Qasem Hassan had been doing a rotation in a pediatric ward when she’d overheard an exchange between a Palestinian woman from the West Bank and a Jewish doctor. The woman said that she had to cross a checkpoint to get to the hospital, and asked for a letter that she could present to the soldiers there, who often gave her trouble. The doctor provided the letter, and also advised her to contact Physicians for Human Rights Israel. Qasem Hassan had never heard of the organization. She rushed to a computer and found its website. She soon became a regular volunteer.

Qasem Hassan was shaken when she heard that some of her patients had written a joint letter accusing her of being a Hamas supporter, but she was not entirely surprised. After finishing her family-medicine residency, she’d spent a decade working at a clinic in a prosperous neighborhood of Kiryat Bialik. In 2022, she moved to her current clinic, which is in a poorer area; she was eager to serve a less privileged population, but the neighborhood surrounding the new clinic was fiercely conservative.

Qasem Hassan responded to the joint letter by sending Clalit photographs of herself treating evacuees from Kibbutz Be’eri. She also sent a link to a radio interview that she’d given shortly after October 7th in which she condemned both Hamas’s attacks and Israel’s retaliation in Gaza as war crimes. Clalit, after a review, decided to dismiss the complaint against Qasem Hassan. She was relieved, but the Clalit representative who relayed this news to her then noted that her accusers, unappeased, were threatening to stage a protest or go to the media. (The letter’s authors declined to speak with me.) Other patients warned her that they’d heard negative talk about her in the neighborhood surrounding the clinic; this prompted a security guard from Clalit to offer to walk her to her car at night. Sometime later, another patient at the clinic angrily confronted her about her support for the rights of Palestinian prisoners, and told her to move to an Arab country.

After this encounter, Qasem Hassan shut her office door and cried. Privately, she wondered if she could continue working in such an environment. But she didn’t quit. One morning in February, I visited the clinic, a low-slung building with metal bars over its windows. I passed through a hallway decorated with Israeli flags on my way to Qasem Hassan’s office, a small room appointed with family photographs and gifts that patients had given her: a Gaudí figurine from Barcelona, a souvenir from Dubai.

Qasem Hassan, who is forty-seven, with chin-length brown curls and a poised bearing, told me that, after the joint complaint was submitted to Clalit, her biggest fear was that a critical mass of patients offended by her politics would switch to other doctors, as the authors of the letter had done. Since her salary depended on the number of people she treated, this could upend her ability to earn a living. She also worried that Clalit might fire her, or that the controversy would damage her relationships with patients to whom she felt close, many of them with backgrounds that were radically different from hers.

One day, she invited me to accompany her on some home visits. Our first stop was the residence of an elderly couple, Holocaust survivors she’d been treating since 2014. They sat slumped in recliners in the living room of their apartment. The husband greeted Qasem Hassan with a warm smile. His wife was less animated. For years, she’d struggled with depression, a condition that she attributed to the murder of most of her immediate family during the Holocaust, when she was a child in Romania. After I shared that my maternal grandparents were Holocaust survivors from Romania, the man said, “My wife—they killed two sisters and an older brother and another.” Qasem Hassan asked the woman if she still thought about what had happened. “Of course,” she replied. Then she fell silent.

Afterward, in the car, Qasem Hassan said that she kept trying to get the woman to talk more about her past, since her refusal to do so seemed to exacerbate her suffering. Qasem Hassan had personal experience with victims who were wary of discussing traumatic experiences. During the 1948 Arab-Israeli war, seven hundred and fifty thousand Palestinians were expelled from Israel or fled their homes in fear; in the Arab community, this is known as the Nakba, or “catastrophe.” Another hundred and fifty thousand became citizens of Israel. Many of these “’48 Palestinians” were also dispossessed, including Qasem Hassan’s father, whose family was evicted from the village of Tira. Qasem Hassan told me that her father belonged to the generation of Palestinians who were afraid to talk about the Nakba, a fear reinforced by the fact that Israel kept Arab towns under military rule until 1966, and treated their inhabitants as an enemy within.

Before Qasem Hassan visited the home of her next patient, she pulled over at the crest of a hill and led me down a path to an open field strewn with rocks. These were the ruins of a cemetery in Al-Damun, a Palestinian village that, according to several historians, was destroyed by the Israeli Army in 1948. The village’s fifteen hundred inhabitants fled, among them the family of Qasem Hassan’s husband, who went to Lebanon before eventually returning to the region and settling in Tamra. Qasem Hassan and her husband had taken their wedding photographs by the village’s ruins. She showed me a well that had once supplied Al-Damun with water.

After visiting the cemetery, we continued along a highway that bisects the Galilee. As we passed Tamra, Qasem Hassan pointed out a restaurant and an auto-repair shop—locals sometimes said that these were the only reasons Jewish Israelis visited the town. “ ‘We come to Tamra to eat the food, to fix the car—this is coexistence!’ ” she said, laughing. In the towns where her Jewish patients lived, Qasem Hassan told me, the roads were smoothly paved and children played in parks. In Arab towns, there were few parks, and so children played in rutted streets. Discriminatory land policies had allowed Jewish municipalities to expand while places like Tamra grew ever more constricted.

The next house call Qasem Hassan made was in an Arab town called Kabul. After welcoming us inside, three women in head scarves plied us with cashews, dried fruit, and scented coffee. They were the daughters of Qasem Hassan’s patient, a woman in her seventies. While Qasem Hassan examined her in another room, I spoke to the patient’s husband. A small man with a white beard, he told me that in his youth he’d taught himself to weave and to paint tiles; because of these skills, he had managed to earn enough to raise five sons and five daughters. When I asked where he was originally from, he said Al-Damun, the razed town that Qasem Hassan and I had just left. Then he gestured toward the TV, which showed footage of children wading through rubble in Gaza, and said that it reminded him of his own youth. He was born in 1946, he said, and although he was too young to remember the 1948 war, he vividly recalled its aftermath, when his father was expelled to Jordan and he and his siblings were destitute. “I cried—I wanted bread,” he said. “No father, no bread.”

In addition to having a roster of patients, Qasem Hassan co-taught a medical-ethics class affiliated with the Technion Israel Institute of Technology, in Haifa. One day in May, 2024, the theme of the lesson was the challenge of preserving the dignity of patients. The students were given an article from Haaretz about a doctor who’d served at Sde Teiman, a facility in the Negev Desert that, after October 7th, was used to detain alleged Hamas fighters and other suspects taken from Gaza. In a letter sent to Israel’s health and defense ministers and its attorney general, the doctor wrote that he’d seen detainees blindfolded, made to wear diapers, and placed in painful constraints—conditions that, in his view, violated the Incarceration of Unlawful Combatants Law, which Israel amended in 2023. “Just this week, two prisoners had their legs amputated due to handcuff injuries, which unfortunately is a routine event,” the doctor stated. This was in “violation of Israeli law, and perhaps worse for me as a doctor, in the violation of my basic commitment to patients.” In a statement, the I.D.F. told me that any mistreatment of detainees is “strictly prohibited,” and that “concrete allegations” of abuse are investigated.

The class discussion was tense. A medical resident, who was of Palestinian heritage, said that he didn’t want to talk about the subject because he feared that it was too inflammatory and divisive; several Jewish students said that they shared his concerns. Another resident, a Jewish reservist who had served at Sde Teiman, insisted that during his time there the detainees had been treated appropriately and given proper medical care.

A week later, Qasem Hassan learned that the School for Continuing Medical Education in Family Medicine, which oversaw the ethics course, had received a letter from several residents in the class. In the letter, a copy of which I obtained, the students criticized the Haaretz article as biased. They also accused Qasem Hassan of dismissing the concerns of the resident who had served in Sde Teiman and of abusing her authority by imposing her political agenda on them.

Three days later, another group of students submitted a reply. They acknowledged that the topic was emotionally charged, but they insisted that the conversation had been respectful, and that the reservist had been encouraged to express his views. They also questioned why only Qasem Hassan had been singled out for blame—the class had two Jewish instructors as well, Gila Yakov, a medical ethicist, and Amos Ritter, a family-medicine doctor. (Ritter was not present that day, but he had helped prepare the lesson.) The letter was signed by four Palestinian residents.

The course had been visited by controversy before. Years earlier, after Qasem Hassan brought in a speaker from P.H.R.I. who used the term “occupied territories,” some students raised objections. Ritter, who admires Qasem Hassan’s outspokenness, told me that, ever since then, “Lina has been marked as a left extremist.” Now Qasem Hassan and her colleagues were summoned to meet with Adi Ivzori-Erel and Merav Sudarsky, who lead the academic program at the continuing-education school. The teaching of explosive issues should be coördinated with the school’s leaders in advance, the instructors were told, and the lessons should draw on scientific papers, not on articles in Haaretz, which, in Israel, is widely seen as left-wing. Ivzori-Erel and Sudarsky reiterated this in a statement to me. “While addressing sensitive topics is not prohibited, such discussions should rely on balanced, non-partisan academic sources,” they wrote. This was not the first time that concerns had been raised about “political bias in ethical discussions within the course,” they added. Yakov told me that, in hindsight, she wished the discussion had not focussed on the Haaretz article—it had, she said, “led some students, both Jewish and Arab, to experience it as a political debate rather than an ethical one.”

In Qasem Hassan’s view, bias was not the issue—rather, the fact of prisoner mistreatment had made some students uncomfortable. Since that day in class, she noted, far more graphic accounts of abuse at Sde Teiman had emerged, including an incident, caught on video, in which a group of soldiers appeared to sexually assault a male detainee with a baton. The faculty overseeing the course, she felt, wanted to muzzle discussion of a disturbing reality, which was itself a political choice. Qasem Hassan also felt that she’d been subjected to a double standard. Back in November, 2023, Mordechai Alperin, the head of the family-medicine program, had signed an open letter endorsing the bombing of hospitals in Gaza that, the signatories said, were being used by Hamas. Nobody had accused him of political bias, though several Palestinian students had privately complained to Qasem Hassan about it. (In a text, Alperin told me he doubted that the open letter had had any impact on the situation in Gaza, and argued that “there is no place for politics in the medical system.” Ivzori-Erel and Sudarsky noted that Alperin’s action did not take place “within the framework of the program.”)

Qasem Hassan had taught the ethics class for seven years. She had recently learned that Technion would award her a diploma for excellence in teaching. But she no longer wanted to teach the ethics class. “I can’t teach medical ethics with a sword on my neck,” she said.

Qasem Hassan’s concern for the dignity of patients in extreme situations evolved from her work with P.H.R.I. For years, she’d served as a doctor for Palestinian prisoners who launched hunger strikes to protest being held under administrative detention, meaning that they had not been charged with a crime or granted a trial. It was one way she could express solidarity with Palestinians who were denied the rights and protections that Israeli citizens had. Another way was dispensing care at the mobile clinics that P.H.R.I. operated in the occupied territories. (The conditions that Qasem Hassan witnessed on these expeditions helped convince her that Israel’s sixteen-year blockade of Gaza had turned the territory into an open-air prison, a situation that was bound to explode at some point.)

In early March, I met Qasem Hassan and a group of medics at a gas station in Tayibe, an Arab town near the Green Line, which separates Israel from the West Bank. A black van had been loaded with donations and supplies, and Qasem Hassan added a bag of winter clothing that two of her children had outgrown. After crossing a checkpoint, we followed a road flanked by sloping hills toward Danaba, a town near Tulkarm, where Israel had launched a major military operation in January. Its aim, according to Smotrich, the finance minister, had been to root out militants and bolster “protection of settlements and settlers.” The campaign had displaced forty thousand Palestinians—according to some analysts, the most in the West Bank since the Six-Day War, in 1967.

The van stopped outside a white concrete building facing a courtyard decorated with a mural of the Smurfs. It was a girls’ school. After the supplies were unloaded, Qasem Hassan pulled a medical smock over her black jacket and entered a classroom decorated with diagrams of the digestive system. A throng of patients had amassed outside. For several hours, Qasem Hassan tended to their medical needs, a task made harder by the fact that many had fled Tulkarm without any possessions. A diabetic man with mud-flecked shoes told her that he was missing both his insulin and his eyeglasses. A woman in a gray hijab said that she suffered from depression and anxiety but didn’t know what prescriptions she needed, because she’d left her medicine behind when soldiers evicted her from her home. Then she showed Qasem Hassan a picture of her son, which dangled from a chain around her neck. The son, a young man in his twenties, had been shot and killed by a soldier four months earlier, she said. She provided no additional context, but her grief was palpable. Qasem Hassan held her hand, which was trembling, and wrote out a prescription for her.

An elderly man in a dark thobe shuffled into the room, pushing a walker. He was with his daughter, who told Qasem Hassan that he had myasthenia gravis, an autoimmune disease. The man waved three fingers in the air, one for each of the times he’d become a refugee: 1948, 1967, 2025.

The last patient left at around 2 P.M.—it was the start of Ramadan, and everyone wanted to get home before sundown. Qasem Hassan sighed and admitted, “I can’t take any more of these stories.”

On the way back to Tayibe, we passed a hilltop where some caravans were visible. It was a settlement outpost, built with the Israeli government’s tacit consent. From Tayibe, I got a ride back to the Tel Aviv area with Daniel Solomon, one of the other physicians who volunteered at the mobile clinic. Solomon, an Italian Jew who moved to Israel in 2012, works at a hospital in a politically conservative town. The staff is mixed, and when the focus is on treating patients everyone gets along. “There is definitely some degree of coexistence,” he told me. But, as in most hospitals, the majority of the leadership positions are held by Jews, he said, adding that since October 7th the atmosphere had grown jingoistic. At the hospital’s entrance, staff had hung a banner bearing the slogan “One People: Together We Win.” A whiteboard and some markers were placed next to it, so that people could write messages. In no time, Solomon said, someone had written “Flatten Gaza” alongside “Am Yisrael Chai!” (“The People of Israel Live!”)

That evening, I visited Tel Aviv’s Democracy Square, where anti-government protests are held every Saturday. The demonstrations began in January, 2023, in response to a plan by the government of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu to limit the Supreme Court’s power. More recently, the organizers have been targeting the government’s failure to secure the release of all October 7th hostages, and the willingness of Netanyahu to appease his right-wing coalition partners by prolonging the war.

The streets were crowded with demonstrators, some of whom were dressed in “Crime Minister” sweatshirts, a reference to Netanyahu’s corruption trial, which centers on accusations that he accepted lavish bribes and discussed doing political favors for a media company in exchange for positive coverage. Others wore hats bearing the words “End This Fucking War.” The mood was more sombre at Hostages Square, near the Tel Aviv Museum of Art, reflecting the week’s events. A few days earlier, a funeral had been held for Kfir and Ariel Bibas, two children who were abducted on October 7th and died while in captivity. There had also been mounting indications (soon borne out) that the current ceasefire with Hamas would unravel. The protesters waved Israeli flags and held up signs—“59 More To Go,” a reference to the hostages still in Gaza—in both English and Hebrew. I did not see any signs in Arabic. Tamar Hermann, a senior fellow at the Israel Democracy Institute, told me that Arab citizens had been absent from the start. “One of the main concerns of the protesters was to show that they are very patriotic, that they served in the Army, that they are Zionists,” she said. “The inclusion of Arabs could have painted them as leftists, as collaborators and whatnot, so although certain Arab leaders were invited, they were not the more outspoken leaders. It was not a joint Jewish-Arab protest.”

Hassan Jabareen, the director of Adalah, a human-rights organization, told me that after October 7th Palestinian citizens concerned about the infliction of collective punishment on Gaza led a demonstration in the northern town of Umm Al-Fahm. A hundred police officers made eleven arrests. Since then, he said, licenses for protests in the north had been denied. Meanwhile, Netanyahu announced that the war now had four fronts: Gaza, Lebanon, the West Bank, and “within.” Scores of Palestinian citizens were brought before disciplinary committees or hauled into custody for alleged incitement.

Fears of internal violence weren’t unreasonable. In May, 2021, riots had erupted in some mixed cities, sparked partly in response to a government effort to evict Palestinian families from their homes in Sheikh Jarrah, a neighborhood in East Jerusalem. The lack of bloody clashes in those cities after October 7th suggests that the Hamas attack didn’t inflame the same divisions, and might even have initially fostered solidarity across ethnic lines. Two scholars at the University of Haifa, Doron Navot and Hanna Diab, are conducting a research project for which they have interviewed dozens of Palestinian citizens—teachers, lawyers, doctors, journalists. Their subjects’ statements provide some evidence to support this notion. Many of them said that immediately after October 7th they felt sympathy for the victims, some of whom were residents of their own communities. “We lost people,” a Bedouin from the Negev said. But being treated as an enemy soon created alienation and resentment. “I go into Jewish schools and hear the students whispering that I’m Arab,” one subject said. “This is racism that existed before October 7th, but now it’s out in the open.”

In January, 2024, aChord, an Israeli nonprofit that studies social psychology, released the results of a survey showing that, among Jewish Israelis, there had been a sharp rise in anger, fear, and hatred toward Arabs. Ron Gerlitz, aChord’s director, told me that it would have been surprising “if we didn’t see this.” Recent surveys indicate that the animosity has levelled off. But Gerlitz said another aChord survey found that almost sixty per cent of Jewish Israelis believe it’s illegitimate to identify as both Israeli and Palestinian. The message, Gerlitz said, was that Arabs in Israel “can’t be Israelis” unless they disavow a core part of themselves.

One of the participants in Navot and Diab’s study told them, “The Palestinian in Israel lives in constant tension between a desire to belong to the broader society and the realization that this belonging is always conditional.” Others said that they no longer wanted to belong, and felt that their citizenship was worthless. Navot and Diab draw a distinction between having formal citizenship rights, which Palestinians in Israel have, and being a citizen. “You can have citizenship rights without being a citizen because society excludes you or terrifies you or doesn’t recognize you,” Navot told me. “If you go to work or to your university and you are terrified to speak up, you may have citizenship rights but not feel like a citizen.” Aside from fear, the dominant emotions their subjects expressed were disappointment and anguish, fuelled by the widespread indifference they sensed from the Jewish public toward the horrors occurring in Gaza, where more than fifty thousand residents have been killed and millions have been displaced. Navot told me that nearly all the subjects of the study had expected Israel to respond harshly to the October 7th attack. “And they accepted this,” he said. “But they didn’t expect that so many Jewish Israelis would support the continuity of the reaction for such a long time. They are shocked by this, and it is one of the reasons they don’t talk—it’s not only that they are afraid but that they feel there is no one to talk to.”

I heard echoes of this from a Palestinian citizen of Israel I met one evening in Haifa. After October 7th, she locked her social-media accounts and stopped communicating directly with friends in Gaza, worried that even a benign text could make her the target of an investigation. “I understand what October 7th meant to the Jewish community—I understand their fears,” she said. “But I can’t understand losing your humanity.” In the past, few Palestinian citizens of Israel even considered leaving the country, emphasizing the principle of sumud, or “steadfastness,” and the imperative to remain on ancestral land. But the woman told me that many people she knew were planning to relocate; indeed, she and her husband were considering emigrating from Israel next year, once their daughter graduated from high school. “I can’t see a future here,” she said. In this sense, they had something in common with Jewish Israelis, thousands of whom have immigrated to Europe since October 7th because they felt despair about the future.

“This is where I belong,” Qasem Hassan told me in Tamra, where she and Sharaf reside with their children in a house bordered by olive trees. Every year, Sharaf’s aunts harvest the trees, which supply the family with food and oil. His family doesn’t have legal title to all of their land. The government hasn’t accepted their claim to it, even though they’ve lived there for many decades; at one point, they were forced to pay the government a fee to prevent their house from being demolished.

Living in Tamra isn’t easy. There are virtually no parks in the town, so when Qasem Hassan’s two young daughters want to play in one she often drives them all the way to Kiryat Bialik. Another local problem is crime, which has soared in recent years, fuelled by gangs and, many residents feel, by the deliberate neglect of the police, which since 2022 has been run, except for a short break, by Israel’s national-security minister, Itamar Ben-Gvir, an ultranationalist and unapologetic racist.

But Qasem Hassan wasn’t going anywhere, even as she acknowledged feeling increasingly isolated, not only from her Jewish peers but also from some of her fellow-Palestinians, including family members. Her older brother, a successful economist, and her sister, a government lawyer, have repeatedly warned her that her outspokenness could damage not only her career but theirs.

Qasem Hassan has also heard this from her father, who lives in Nazareth. She visits him often, in part to check on his health; he suffers from pulmonary fibrosis. One afternoon, she brought me along, stopping on the way to buy knafeh, a cheese pastry. When we arrived, her father was lying on a maroon couch in the living room, with a plastic breathing tube attached to his nose. He told me that he was a graduate of Mikveh Yisrael, an agricultural school that prided itself on educating the pioneers of the Zionist movement. At the same time, he noted, “I lived those ’48 years, and I saw the war with my eyes. I lived in Tira, in the triangle, near Kfar Saba. And until now”—tears welled in his eyes—“I can’t grasp how another people could throw me from my house and live in my place.”

Qasem Hassan told me that her father would sometimes express pride after hearing her on the radio talking about human rights. But then he’d urge her to censor herself. Qasem Hassan understood his conflicting impulses. “He’s a Nakba survivor, and he’s afraid,” she said. Lately, though, she hadn’t always been apprising her family of her media appearances. “I don’t want these comments,” she said. “I need support.” She summarized her dilemma: “If I speak up, I might damage someone—myself, the people around me. If I don’t speak up, I can’t live. This is what gives me purpose.”

Since October 7th, a source of comfort to Qasem Hassan has been the devotion of patients she’d feared would abandon her—people like Ellen and Shlomo, who live in Kiryat Bialik. Ellen, aged eighty-two, is originally from Philadelphia, and is the daughter of a passionate Zionist. Shlomo is a Sabra—an Israeli native—who grew up in Tel Aviv. They both told me that they adored Qasem Hassan. After Qasem Hassan discovered that Ellen had an atrioventricular block, she helped her get a pacemaker before the specialist who could perform the surgery left for the weekend. “I know she saved my life,” Ellen said. She and Shlomo were aware of Qasem Hassan’s political beliefs, which Qasem Hassan told me she didn’t conceal from her patients. (“I can’t hide who I am.”) Shlomo said to me, “We know she’s active.” It had never affected the quality of the care they received. “She doesn’t look at your color or your views,” Ellen said. “She just cares about you as a person.”

Qasem Hassan also leaned on such colleagues as Daphna Shochat, a Jewish endocrinologist I met in Jaffa, outside the office of Physicians for Human Rights Israel. She and Qasem Hassan were there to record videos that would accompany a new P.H.R.I. report, which incorporated interviews with twenty-four Palestinian medical professionals who had been held at Israeli detention facilities, where many of them said they had been tortured. According to the report, most had been captured while working in hospitals in Gaza, not while plotting acts of terrorism. (Both the Israel Prison Service and the I.D.F. denied the report’s allegations; the I.D.F. said that it detained only people “suspected of involvement in terrorist activities.”)

Qasem Hassan and Shochat—the granddaughter of Yafa Yarkoni, a legendary Israeli singer—were close, and their friendship had affirmed Qasem Hassan’s belief in the importance of forging alliances with Jewish Israelis who shared her values. Shochat, for her part, was impressed by the courage shown by Qasem Hassan, who was far more vulnerable to attack than were P.H.R.I.’s Jewish members, and by her gentle fierceness. “She somehow manages to say things as they are, without apologizing, without compromising, and without losing her dignity and compassion,” Shochat said. She quoted the poet Leah Goldberg—“Even in a time of war, the value of love is greater than the value of murder”—and said, “Lina really embodies that.”

Qasem Hassan was aware that plenty of people viewed her less flatteringly, including people in the Arab world who have seen Israel’s Palestinian citizens as betrayers. “We are not,” she insisted. “We are the people that stayed on our lands, we are the natives, and we had to pay a price for that.” She was constantly navigating encounters that pulled at the different strands of her identity. One day, a reservist came to the Kiryat Bialik clinic; he was experiencing P.T.S.D. after serving in Gaza. What would Qasem Hassan’s sister-in-law—the one whose brother was killed by an air strike—think of her helping him? Qasem Hassan pushed this thought aside and offered him care. “I never judge my patients,” she said, though she admitted that “it’s not easy.” It helped that Qasem Hassan believed that the violence of the conflict harmed not only the victims but also the perpetrators. In her view, a reservist with P.T.S.D. “is also a kind of victim.”

In recent weeks, Qasem Hassan told me, criticism of the Gaza war had intensified in Israel. She noted an editorial that the former Prime Minister Ehud Olmert published on May 27th, in which he declared, “What we are doing in Gaza now is a war of devastation: indiscriminate, limitless, cruel.” At the same time, Qasem Hassan was deeply concerned about a bill advancing through the Knesset. It proposed that foreign donations to human-rights groups—which are currently untaxed—be taxed at a rate of eighty per cent, a change that could cut P.H.R.I.’s budget by more than a third.

Qasem Hassan also continued to feel frustrated by the strictures surrounding the discussion of certain subjects at work. One day in February, she learned that the clinic would be decorated with orange balloons, in honor of Kfir and Ariel Bibas, the child hostages who had died, whose hair had been reddish orange. Their deaths appalled Qasem Hassan. “They are babies,” she told me. At the same time, she went on, “there are seventeen thousand children in Gaza who were killed, and no one really recognizes that it’s a crime to kill them.”

This is what Qasem Hassan had feared from the start—that the horrific violence inflicted on Israelis on October 7th would be used to justify a war without limits, dehumanizing all Palestinians. As a result, she had sometimes asked herself if going to the Dead Sea after October 7th had been the right decision. She ultimately decided that she was proud of it. She told me, “I did it for myself, because it put to the test the idea I was raised on—that all people are equal and that human pain is universal.” She paused. “I did it for myself and also for my daughters. I wanted them to understand that a human being is a human being.”

[mo-racca]

Predictions for Percy Jackson S2

So season 1 used chapter titles for the episode titles and it got me thinking about which SOM chapter titles will be used for season 2 and how the book will be split up over 8 episodes.

I'm gonna run on the assumption that the success of season 1 will mean more budget for season 2, including having episodes that are all at least an hour long.

Spoiler warning for Sea of Monsters (the book). Predictions are under the cut.

Episode 1: I Play Dodgeball With Cannibals

Comprising Chapters 1-3

Episode opens with Grover being chased by Polyphemus. He runs into a bridal boutique and dons a dress. Polyphemus shadow looms over him as he turns to look directly in the camera and says "Percy, you have to help me." Percy then suddenly awakes from the dream.

We'll then get our introduction to Tyson. Probably via him and Percy walking to school together. First class is gym!

Dodgeball match plays out more or less like the books.

Annabeth hails the Gray Sisters taxi & they ride to CHB.

Episode ends with them arriving a the bottom of the hill and staring on in horror as they witness mechanical bulls wreaking havoc.

Episode 2: Tyson Plays With Fire

Comprising Chapters 4-7

Opens back up to the horrified faces of Annabeth, Percy, and Tyson seeing the mechanical bulls. The fght with the bulls then plays out similarly to the books, including the Tyson is a cyclops reveal.

Tantalus is introduced & and announces the chariot races.

First chariot races occurs with the birds attacking. I genuinenly hope they "defeat" them in the same way as the books where they play Chiron's shitty music, but I'm not 100% they'll go that route.

Clarisse is chosen for the Golden Fleece quest. Percy is upset. I think they might slightly change this and have him choose to run off on his own to save Grover, and once he's on the beach, he runs into Hermes.

Episode ends with Hermes giving Percy the gifts, Annabeth and Tyson running over. And then the camera pans out to a cruise ship out in the distance (The Princess Andromeda!)

Episode 3: I Have The Worst Family Reunion Ever

Comprising Chapters 8-9

I think this episode will open with a flashback to Annabeth, Luke, and Thalia during their time with the Brooklyn cyclops. Probably not much will be revealed beyond Annabeth being young and scared and we won't see what it is that she's scared off.

Cut to the present: Percy, Annabeth, and Tyson are already on the ship. Probs some exposition dialouge about the name of the ship and "Why did Hermes want us to board this ship?"

We'll end up having the confrontation with Luke more or less how it happens in the book. Might have a couple more Annabeth flashbacks thrown in as well, but we don't ever see what she's running from.

Ends with them escaping on the emergency raft.

Episode 4: Clarisse Blows Up Everything

Comprising Chapters 10-11

Opens with them on the raft, probably talking or something, when suddenly a raucous noise draws their attention to Clarisse's ship.

The Charybidis & Scylla fight plays out more or less like the books except literally no one is sad about confederate ghosts dying (redying???)

I imagine we'll have some concurrent Grover and Polyphemus storyline throughout this episode.

Ends with everything being blown up and Percy believing Tyson is dead.

Episode 5: We Check into C.C.'s Spa and Resort

Comprising Chapter 12

Opens with Annabeth and Percy washed up on the shores of Circe's Island.

In the books, I'm pretty sure the island has an enchantment that is part of the reason they don't realize something is up right away and I would love for them to keep that for the show.

Percy's half of the story will play out similarly to the books with the guinea pig stuff.

We'll also get to see what Annabeth is doing on the island. I want it to be clear that she's trying to fight the enchantment, but is struggling (can an athena kid resist the temptation of knowledge?). Her concern for Percy is what helps to pull her out of it ("Where's Percy? What did you do to him?")

Annabeth rescues Percy like in the books with the Multivitamins. They escape to the boat. The escape scene could be drawn out a bit more than it is in the books for ~suspense~

Episode ends with them sailing off.

Episode 6: Annabeth Tries to Swim Home

Comprising Chapter 13

I think this episode will open up with another dream of Grover for Percy, to emphasize that time is running short.

Annabeth tells Percy she wants to hear the sirens.

I envision more Annabeth flashbacks this episode.

Annabeth dives, Percy saves her just like in the book.

They have a heart-to-heart about fatal flaws. Annabeth tells Percy about the Brooklyn cyclops, this is shown through flashback. We finally see what she's been scared of in these flashbacks the whole time. (We get to see baby Annabeth stab a cyclops in the foot bc she's a badass and we deserve to see it)

Episode ends with Polyphemus's Island coming into view and probs some line about "let's go save our friend".

Episode 7: We Meet the Sheep of Doom

Comprising Chapters 14-16

I think we'll open to Grover when Clarisse arrives to the cyclops lair and we'll watch her ruin his bride cover.

Then it switches to Annabeth and Percy on the island surveying the sheep and the fleece. After a moment, Annabeth says she has a plan.

Cut to Percy annoyed and hanging on the underbelly of giant sheep muttering about Annabeth's plan.

I think the ensuing Polyphemus confrontation will be pared down a bit for time, but will still include the initial fight in the cave, escaping across the bridge, and Tyson's triumphant return.

Episode ends with them leaving a wailing Polyphemus on the island.

Episode 8: The Fleece Works It's Magic Too Well

Comprising Chapters 17-20

They arrive on land, parse out Clarisse's prophecy and send her ahead with the fleece.

Luke and his crew show up. This confronation plays out similarly to the books with the IM message. Chiron and the Party Ponies arrive. Depending on their CGI capabilities, it might just be Chiron who arrives. Fighting ensues.

They get back to CHB where they witness Clarisse put the fleece on the tree. All seems to be well.

It's clear that some time has passed now. They do the second chariot race. Percy & Annabeth win. CHEEK KISS.

As they are celebrating, attention is drawn to Thalia's tree (maybe it's like glowing or something). The campers all head towards the tree to see what's up and find a girl lying against it. Her face is hidden. Percy asks her who she is and she looks up and we get to see her face for the first time.

"I am Thalia. Daughter of Zues." Roll credits.

I considered having the Thalia scene be a post-credit moment, but I think it's too important for setting up season 3 to not have as part of the main episode.

A good post-credit scene I think would be like Grover on the phone at Westover Hall and saying something like "All I know is that these two kids are powerful and they're in danger. I could use your help getting them to camp."

Anyways, I'd love to hear people's thoughts!

[the-bar-sinister]

Cracking the Mid-Life Crisis (3960 words) by thesavagesabretooth Chapters: 1/1 Additional Tags: Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, Found Family, Gecko Moria joins Cross Guild, Emotional Hurt/Comfort, Fluff and Humor, Angst and Humor, Humor, Father-Daughter Relationship, POV Perona

Summary: After Moria's punishing defeat by Luffy on Thriller Bark the warlord was discarded by the government and vanished from the world stage. When the warlord system is dissolved entirely, Perona goes on a mission to find her daddy and bring him back into the fold.

She finds him wasting away in margaritaville.

-

It had taken Perona quite some time after leaving Mihawk's castle to track down the man she was looking for, but now she had arrived at Yutsu Island, a resort island in the New World unaffiliated with the World Government and run as a tourist attraction for the elite and dangerous.

The World Government was cracking down all around them, Marine ships prowling the seas…affiliated islands setting traps in their ports as ‘bounty hunters’ and ‘traders’ pressed even deeper into waters the Government had no sway in.

Perona hated it. She hate, hate, hated having to skulk around after the dissolution of the Warlord system. After her own small ship was seized (she’d have to say sorry to Hawky later), she’d slipped away from the stupid marines to hitch ride after ride on friendly and unfriendly boats alike.

But she had to do it, she had to find her adoptive father to make sure he’d survived the beating the Marines had given him during that whole dumb war two years prior.

Her heeled boots clicked against the creaking wood of the dock as she stomped her way across with her parasol open to block out the hated sun. Lucky her, the roving ‘Gamble Pirates’ who’d taken her in for the trip weren’t the type to try to bully her into staying– she could save her energy for dragging her dad back from this overly bright and sunny place. 

The resort area glittered and gleamed just a stone's throw from the harbor– a mass of handsome buildings that glittered with colorful sea glass and some of the more modern architecture on the grand line. The place, she had heard, was run by a branch family of some deposed nobles from the North Blue– potentially related to the Vinsmokes. It was one of the many rumors she'd heard while gathering information about where Moria was.

And all the information she'd gathered said that he would be here; rumors and whispers that the former warlord was wasting away on cocktail island.

She puffed out her cheeks as she walked, her little ghosties leaking out from her parasol to surround her in swirling, lazy arcs that sent tourists stumbling away from their spectral giggling in fear of just what they might do.

It’d been two years…two years without a word while she thought he was dead. If it turned out he was getting DRUNK while Mihawk held his SUPER GOOD wine over her head for TWO WHOLE YEARS…

Well. She wasn’t actually going to complain about her time with the other warlord and Zoro…but STILL.

She was peeved about it enough for her horo horo ghostie friends to be manifesting in wiggly force. Not to mention this place really WAS too bright. “Wish I had sunglasses…” 

The light on the summer island was quite bright and warm, with hardly a cloud in the sky as she made her way through the crowds and toward the resort area. Stealthily she snuck through the lobby without a glance from security who were busy at the counter due to some woman who was yelling at the clerk there.

And once through the checkpoint she was able to access all the guest areas. The private beach. The restaurant. The casino. The spa. And who knew what else. It was a disgusting lap of luxury.

“And I didn’t even have a vampire maid or a handsome butler to make me bagel sandwiches an’ cocoa.” Perona pouted as she hugged Kumachi’s plush body to her side. Mihawk’s cooking was super good, of course, and Zoro would bring her things if she needled him enough and hung off his shoulders till he did it…but the principle of the thing was important! “This place looks…”

She stared down some well to do couple as they walked towards the beach with a sound dial blasting Uta’s latest single in hand.

“Pricey. And ostentatious. Dontcha think, Kumachi?”

Kumachi didn’t answer.

Perona followed the couple out onto the beach, which was a forest of brightly colored umbrellas and towels spread out over a blanket of glittering, beautiful white sand leading down to the bright blue ocean. People of all shapes and sizes wandered around in beach wear, holding colorful drinks being doled out by bartenders under thatched roof huts.

She sniffed disdainfully as she twisted her parasol over her head, taking to floating gently along instead of walking through the unsteady sand. 

“He couldn’t possibly be at the beach…”

“Horo horo” replied one of her ghosties, to which she giggled.

“I mean, obviously right? We didn’t even have a proper beach on Thriller Bark!” she waved her hand “he’s probably somewhere like the residential graveyard or something. Do resorts have graveyards?”

“Horo.” 

Perona practically tripped over him.

Moria was lying supine over an enormous beach lounge chair under an umbrella with a pair of opaque sunglasses covering most of his unmistakable face. He had a book across his chest, and a drink in the holder of his lounge. There was a sound dial sitting in the sand next to him and a wire trailed from it to one miniature speaker in his long pointed ear.

Tripping startled her once.

His loud snore startled her again.

“GAH!!!” Perona squeaked, stomping her foot on open air. “DADDY!! You IIIIIIIDIOT!”

She drew the attention of several beach-goers, but the moment she started hearing the whispering amongst them she sent her hollows to pass through them. Whispering turned to whines and whimpers of despair as she put her hands on her hips and looked down at the sleeping Moiria.

“....” She raised her leg and delivered a swift kick to his butt. “Wake up!!!” 

The kick didn't overbalance the lounge chair, but the startled jolt that rocked through Moria's body as he yelped in response and instinctively tried to roll away did. Former warlord, book, dial, all ended up sprawled in the sand, the drink splashing on top adding insult to injury.

“O-oops.” Perona looked from side to side. People were staring, but they were nobodies anyway. Nobody who mattered saw that.

She looked down at Kumachi with a sharp frown “Kumachi!! How could you do that? How could you kick dad like that??? When we get home you’re going in the iron maiden!”

Kumachi hung in silent understanding of just what he’d done and how he’d have to atone. 

Moria was already clambering up into a sitting position, wiping the drink off his face, and pushing the offending lounge chair away. He hissed and bared his fangs, looking around.

"Who dares to disturb the slumber of the mighty— Perona?? Whoah, what are you doing here?" His menacing snarl turned immediately into a cheerful grin that really emphasized how much sand and cocktail was still stuck to his face.

Perona clasped her hands together as if she didn’t just kick him into the sand like the Vinsmokes in the “Sora and the Sand-Castle of the Beach King” storyline from the papers.

“Daddyyy!! You’re alive! I’d heard you’d died ya know!” her hollows swarmed around her as she leaned down to offer him a hand up. “Gosh, you got a cocktail all over your face!” 

He took her hand with his large claw and grinned bashfully, trying to wipe off his face as he stood. "Yeah, whoops! Guess I got a little startled somehow."

Moria carefully stood up to his towering height, carefully ducking out from under the umbrella and Perona got a better look at him.

The lanky, long limbed pirate had certainly healed from the injuries she'd heard he'd received two years ago, and the light of the summer island seemed to have darkened the glimmering pale of his complexion just a little. The old stitch-mark scars down his face from where Kaidou had nearly cut him in half didn't show up quite as intensely any more. 

His red hair had grown out– possibly the entire two years– shaggy and loose around his horns, and he looked like he'd been taking care of himself, surprisingly. The muscles on his body were defined– save for the softness around his stomach that was clearly from an overabundance of cocktails.

All that was easy for Perona to take in– since he was only wearing a pair of beach shorts with a pattern of pumpkins on them, and a pair of sandals.

“....” She crossed her arms with Kumachi hanging from them, her lips petulantly pursed as she brushed her long, and now quite expertly curled even in the difficult situation she’d been traveling in, pink hair from her shoulders.

“I can see that! You look…” she trailed off for a moment. “comfortable? Looks like you’re healing up pretty good too! They said the marines blew you to pieces!” 

Moria rubbed the back of his neck and nodded rather limply. "They sure did. But hey! I'm back in one piece, huh? Cheated death again." He grinned but really, he just looked embarrassed about it. "It's great to see you, though! You look amazing! I heard rumors you were staying with Mihawk, was that true?"

“Uh huh. One of the World Government’s superweapons slapped me across the ocean and I crashed into his castle,” Perona put her hands on her hips. "He's been real nice to me, I even made a new close friend.” She emphasized it with a wicked little grin, “it was pretty nice, but ya know what woulda been better?” 

"Uhhhh?"

She pointed towards him. “Knowing my old man was still alive, dummy!!” the hollows around her tittered and laughed. 

"I wish I could have let you know, kiddo!" he said, holding up his hands with another fanged smile. "The government's after my ass though. If they find out where I am they might send a few fleets you know? and I was worried they'd try to use you as bait to get to me."

Perona pursed her lips, cheeks puffed out and her hands on her hips as she floated a little higher. 

“Hmmmmmmmmmmmmm!!! What, ya think they’re gonna do that Buddy Call thing of theirs? Or kidnap me? They couldn’t, ya know! I’ve been training with Hawky and Zor—-”

She almost let her special friend slip…one of the straw hats who’d defeated her father and their pirate gang. He wasn’t ready to know.

“Y. Zory.” 

Moria blinked slowly at her with only dim comprehension. He put a hand on her shoulder.

"How about we head up to my room, get a couple of drinks, and you can tell your ol' dad all about it."

Perona glared dubiously at him for a long moment. The nobodies were beginning to talk again. She shut them up with another round of hollows to really ruin their vacations.

“Alright. But only if I get to have sangria! Hawky wouldn’t let me make any with his wine ‘cause he was making Zor…m. Zorm go sober while he trained!”

After a moment she paused and punched her fist “SHOOT! I was calling him Zory! Not Zorm!” 

Moria blinked again.

"Who?"

Fifteen minutes later and Perona had a legitimate guest badge for the hotel and was mixing sangria in Moria's private beach-front suite with a view of the ocean.

“Geeze, papa. You’ve got a real sweet deal here. What’d ya do? Steal the manager’s shadow?” she asked as she mixed the sangria and tested it for taste. 

"I wish!" he laughed, folding himself over the bar and watching her. "You'll be disappointed, but your old man's paying the same as anybody else."

She poured more red wine into the mixture as she looked over her shoulder “with all of our treasure?” 

"Not all of it, obviously!" he sputtered. "But some, of my treasure. Yes."

“Oh!” Perona grinned at him “I mean, it seems to be going a long way, papa!” 

She looked over her shoulder at the immobile Kumachi “hey, Kumachi. D’ya want some sangria?”

He did not want sangria. He was a lame teetotaler like that.

“I hope you saved a bit of it, papa. I think we’re gonna need it.” 

Moria scratched his head, pushing his lengthened red hair back behind his horns, and gave her a curious look.

"You think? I mean, it won't get that much more expensive just to have you stay too."

Perona poured herself a glass of Sangria and turned to lean on the bar as she took a sip “not for staying here, papa! To buy our way into Mr. Hawky’s big plan! Or…I mean, I guess it’s not his big plan. He said somethin’ about…hold on..”

She stomped over to Kumachi and unbuttoned the top of his head to root around in there for a moment.

When her hand came out she brandished a flashy poster at her father with a big, ear to ear grin and a haughty “Horohorohorohoro!!! LOOK!”

The poster, she knew well, was of the Cross Guild. Captain Buggy, the newest of the former warlords before their dissolution loomed his manic smile over crossed swords– Sir Crocodile sneered from the right, Mihawk glowered from the left. 

And in each corner, another of the powerful warlords loomed. Boa Hancock with her cold glare matching the hungry serpent that curled over her shoulders in the upper right by Buggy’s overly prominent face, flanked on the other side by Doflamingo’s manic grin and the trail of strings from his fingers.

“We’re gonna join Cross Guild!” 

Moria boggled at the poster. Then he leaned in and squinted at it. Then he pulled back and boggled at it some more.

"What are all the warlords doing on that poster?" Moria demanded. "Who's the kid with the nose?"

“.....” Perona turned it around to look at it before she huffed. “who cares! I mean, if you wanna know it’s Buggy the Clown! He’s…I dunno , an old ex boyfriend of Mr. Crocodile and Mihawk’s or something. He grumbled about him once while he was drunk. They made him a warlord after you were gone, papa!”

"Aw man, maybe I should have been keeping up with the news after all," he grumbled, scratching his hair again. He gave the poster another dubious squint. "They made him a warlord? And now they've what, got some kind of extra club going?"

It was starting to sound as if somehow Moria still hadn't heard that the warlord system had been dissolved.

Perona sipped her sangria. She needed the strength. Oh, by all the powers of the dark lords and evil, did she need the strength.

After her sip she downed half the glass before dropping it on the bar and taking a deep breath….she floated up to grab him by the shoulders and practically shook him as she wailed.

“THEY DISSOLVED IT, PAPA!” 

Moria ducked under the strength of her shout, grimacing and pulling his face away. He held up his hands defensively.

"Whoah, whoah, whoah, kiddo! Simmer down! They dissolved what?"

“The whole frickin’ warlord system!!!” she chided “like, they turned on ‘em. A bunch of kings voted for it at their stupid king party and now they’re coming to kill everyone! There’s no more state-sanctioned pirates! Just pirates!” 

He stared at her. 

Suddenly, he was gripping her shoulders.

"They're doing WHAT?"

Half an hour later, they were several more pitchers of sangria in as Perona had brought her 'daddy' up to speed on current events.

“So yeah, we’re gonna need your treasure to buy into Cross Guild so I can join Hawky in this whole war against the World Government they got goin’ on!” she finished with a big smile.

He scratched his jaw thoughtfully and nodded. " You think they'd let me in? They had better let me in! I'd be pretty pissed off if they've started a former warlords club and they didn't want me in it. But…"

“I mean obviously they’ll let you in!” She huffed. “they probably want me there too! You were their buddy, right? I’m sure they’ll let you join up easy peasy!” 

"Maybe," he hemmed and hawed, and turned to lean his back on the bar, staring at his luxurious hotel suite. "But I don't know if I'm even ready to go back to being a pirate. I don't know if I'll ever be ready. I might just be retired."

“Noooo!” Perona stomped her foot. “Papa, that’s lame! Retirement’s lame! We didn’t even do our big plan at Thriller Bark! Luffy and Zor…..d…Zord and everyone else just beat us UP! We’re not done pirating at all!” 

".... wait isn't Zord that friend you were mentioning with Mihawk?" Moria blinked, having forgotten to protest the rest of it. "He was at Thriller Bark?"

“.............” Perona’s eyes widened as she looked at Kumachi for a save. Kumachi had nothing to say, being quite stuffed. “Maayyyyybe?” 

Moria grabbed the half empty pitcher of sangria and downed the rest of it in a long gulp.

Perona dropped her head into her hands. She knew…she knew this was going to turn into a big deal. She could only hope the booze would help rather than hinder her in her grand quest to explain to her father that the guy who cut his minions to ribbons was…like…

You know.

Kinda cool. 

They'd argued about it for hours. About Cross Guild. About the Straw Hats. About Moria feeling less capable now than he had ever felt before. First being destroyed by Kaidou, and then by Luffy– who was now Perona's friend by one remove.

Perona had argued with all her might, likely terrifying the neighbors in the other suites as she gesticulated wildly and sent her hollows flying here and there in her passionate pleas.

Who cared if the Straw Hats beat him up, from the news she’d heard they beat up like…everyone! And if they were friends now, through Zoro, then they’d be safe from Luffy’s violent frenzy.

Besides, it wasn’t as if they were going after the One Piece! She’d argued until she was blue in the face about it, as points flew between them.

At one point she’d accused him of holding onto a negative hollow while she was gone with how DOWN IN THE DUMPS he was about himself. 

"Perona," he said finally after a long silence between them. He rested his head on his arms, his gaze tilted toward her. "I think you're the only one who thinks I'm worth anything any more. Cross Guild would probably be happier if I just sent you back with what resources I've got left. You're young. You've got energy. you haven't been beaten by the world yet. What have I got?"

“Plenty!” Perona puffed out her cheeks and crossed her arms. “You've always been my hero, you know! You’re the master of shadows! You’re super strong, who cares if you lost twice? I got beat too, and I’m not worthless!” 

"Of course you're not worthless but– I don't know. I just feel like I'm not good enough. Every time I think I'm getting somewhere, I get thrown back to the start!"

It was the same thing of course, that she'd heard had happened to Mihawk. And to Crocodile. And to who knew who else among the warlords. But that was the thing– that was when they were working alone.

“You and the rest of the old idiots of Cross Guild,” Perona crossed her arms. “but you were all going it alone, weren’t you? But Cross Guild’s a bunch of you! All together, working together for something that ain’t the stupid World Government. Maybe together you can fight your way forward and NOT get thrown back to the start, huh??” 

"That's–" he blinked and sat up a little. "That's a good point. If we were actually cooperating. The problem is you never know who's about to throw you in the sea for a little gain in their own status…"

“From what Hawky was saying the whole point of Cross Guild is NOT to do that. Like…it’s named that ‘cause everyone’s on an equal level even with crossed purposes or some pretentious crap like that.” 

Moria stroked his chin. "That sounds like Mihawk. I wonder if we could really do it. If we actually teamed up against the government, we might actually be able to do something…"

Finally thinking about something other than his own self pity.

Perona internally sighed with relief as she pressed her advantage “I know, right? And everyone’s pooling their resources to do some really neat stuff! Like taking bounties out on the Marines! Striking back with the power of the people!” 

"Taking bounties on marines?" He grinned now. "That would sure be a way to put random people in the action instead of always risking your own guys…"

“Exactly!!” Perona pointed at him “and the people are happy because it gives ‘em power! And we’re happy because it’s one less Navy Bastard to deal with! And little by little we weaken the World Government!” 

"Alright. Alright! Damn it!" He slapped his hand on the bar, shaking the several empty pitchers and wine bottles. "I'll at least go and talk to them. …You know where they are, right?"

“Oh yeah they’re uh…I think they’re still on Buggy’s big clown ship or something.” Perona put her finger to her lips. “Ah well, they can’t be that hard to find right?”

He scratched the back of his neck and shook his head. "Well. We'll make it work, whatever. Hey–" 

Moria reached out a hand toward her.

Perona grinned and leapt forward to squeeze his arm just over his hand. “Yeah?” she asked, hovering as she dangled from his arm. 

He smiled a fanged smile at her, soft, despite the bristle of pointy teeth. "Thanks for coming all the way out here to find me, kiddo. And for talking me up."

“Always, papa! Someone’s gotta be your hype man, and it wasn’t gonna be fucking Hogback!” She squeezed his arm tightly in a hug, her bright eyes and ear-to-ear smile turned his way. “I wanted to look for you for two years, I just thought you’d died– so I came right away to find ya as soon as I heard the whispers.”

Moria chuckled and pulled her into a proper hug. "Guess we've proven it takes more than that to kill me, huh? Alright. Let's take just a little more vacation. I'll show you around the place and when we sober up, then we'll make some plans on getting out of here."

Perona squeezed him tightly with a squee of joy. 

“Alright! Alright! A lil’ more vacation but I’m NOT getting any sun! The sun’ll melt me away!” She grinned widely as she bobbed her head “and then it’s CROSS GUILD HERE WE COME!”

Kumachi was excited. She could tell from the way he slowly flopped over and rolled onto the ground with the weight of his overstuffed head.

"Cross Guild here we come! Maybe third time's the charm with his whole pirate gig."

He put her on his shoulders, and out they went.

Hours of exploration of the resort followed as they let their heads clear save for dreams of the future. With satisfaction, Perona got to experience the absolute bliss of a spa, and of a meal not served on the table because Hogback’s poor assistant was traumatized by plates…and also by being a kidnapped spirit who hated him.

The beautiful resort island was a paradise– but it wasn’t half as perfect as the prospect of their future as part of the powerful Cross Guild. Compared to fighting side by side with Hawky and his friends and taking the fight to the world government…how could a vacation island even hope to stack up?

It was almost depressing against the glaring light of the future ahead. 

[virtualnews360]

Um médico palestino em Israel trata as pessoas de ambos os lados

Em outubro, 2023, alguns dias após o ataque do Hamas a Israel, uma médica chamada Lina Qasem Hassan encheu seu carro com suprimentos médicos e dirigiu de sua casa, em Tamra, uma cidade no norte de Israel, para o David Dead Sea Resort and Spa, em Ein Bokek. O turismo estava prestes a cair em todo o país, mas o resort estava ocupado, lutando para acomodar centenas de evacuados que tinham acabado de…

[jasminespadubai]

Rejuvenate Your Mind and Body with Luxurious Spa Treatments in the United Arab Emirates

In today’s fast-paced world, taking time to unwind and care for your well-being is more essential than ever. The United Arab Emirates (UAE), known for its luxurious lifestyle and world-class hospitality, has become a hotspot for indulgent spa treatments. From ancient healing traditions to modern wellness innovations, spas in the UAE offer something for every kind of relaxation seeker.

Whether you're visiting Dubai, Abu Dhabi, or any other emirate, the country offers an oasis of calm with premium spa experiences tailored to locals and tourists alike.

Traditional Middle Eastern Spa Treatments

One of the highlights of the spa scene in the UAE is the availability of traditional Middle Eastern therapies that blend culture, history, and healing. One such treatment is the Hammam, a ritual rooted in Turkish and Moroccan traditions. The Hammam involves deep cleansing with black soap, steam, exfoliation with a kessa glove, and a refreshing rinse — leaving the skin glowing and rejuvenated.

Other popular Middle Eastern-inspired spa treatments include Argan oil massages, dead sea salt scrubs, and rosewater facials. These therapies use time-tested ingredients native to the region and are designed to detoxify, hydrate, and revitalize the skin while providing a deep sense of relaxation and cultural connection.

Modern Wellness Therapies and Techniques

The UAE is not just about tradition; it’s also a hub for cutting-edge wellness therapies. Many spas now offer a wide range of modern treatments such as hot stone massages, Swedish and deep tissue massages, LED facials, and lymphatic drainage therapies. These services are performed by highly trained therapists using state-of-the-art equipment in serene, world-class settings.

Additionally, aromatherapy, Thai massages, and reflexology have become increasingly popular among residents and tourists seeking both physical and mental relief. These therapies not only help release muscle tension but also promote better sleep, reduced stress, and improved circulation — ideal for countering the effects of a busy lifestyle or long travels.

Luxury Spa Experiences in the UAE

If you’re looking to immerse yourself in true luxury, the UAE offers an exceptional array of five-star spa resorts and standalone wellness centers. From spas in high-rise hotels in Dubai to desert retreats in Ras Al Khaimah, each location offers a unique and memorable experience.

Imagine indulging in a sunset massage with views of the Arabian Gulf, or a full-day wellness retreat featuring yoga, hydrotherapy, and customized skincare treatments. Many luxury spas offer exclusive packages that include body wraps, facials, massages, and access to pools, saunas, and relaxation lounges — making for the perfect escape from daily stress.

For those looking for a couples’ escape, prenatal care, or even grooming treatments like manicures and waxing, spas in the UAE cater to a wide clientele with services that blend professionalism and indulgence.

Experience Personalized Care at Jasmine SPA

If you're in the UAE and looking for a spa that blends traditional values with modern wellness practices, look no further than Jasmine SPA. Known for our serene ambiance, skilled therapists, and personalized treatments, Jasmine SPA is dedicated to providing a holistic and rejuvenating experience. Whether you're seeking a calming massage, a revitalizing facial, or a full day of pampering, our wide range of spa treatments is designed to meet your individual needs. At Jasmine SPA, we believe that wellness is not just a luxury — it’s a necessity. Visit us to discover a sanctuary where tranquility and luxury meet.

[midwestseacompany]

Elevate Your Brand with Natural Body Scrub Wholesale and Quality Wholesale Body Care Products

In today’s wellness-driven marketplace, consumers are leaning into natural, effective, and luxurious body care products. Whether it’s exfoliating scrubs, soothing bath soaks, or nourishing lotions, customers are no longer satisfied with just any off-the-shelf option — they want purity, performance, and a touch of indulgence. If you’re a brand, spa, salon, or wellness entrepreneur, offering high-quality natural body scrub wholesale products can be a game-changing move.

Let’s explore why natural body scrubs and bulk body care offerings are not only good for your customers but also great for your bottom line.

What Are Natural Body Scrubs?

Natural body scrubs are exfoliating products made from plant-based and mineral ingredients like sugar, sea salt, essential oils, fruit extracts, and herbal blends. They’re used to slough off dead skin cells, improve circulation, and leave the skin feeling soft, renewed, and radiant.

Unlike chemical exfoliants or mass-produced formulas, natural scrubs are free of harmful additives and often infused with skin-loving nutrients that hydrate and repair the skin barrier — making them ideal for all skin types, including sensitive and dry skin.

Why Choose Natural Body Scrub Wholesale? Purchasing natural body scrubs at wholesale allows businesses to access premium-quality, ready-to-sell products at cost-effective prices. Whether you’re launching a skincare line or upgrading your spa inventory, wholesale natural scrubs offer flexibility, affordability, and premium results.

Key reasons to source wholesale:

Cost Savings — Reduced per-unit pricing helps boost your profit margins. Customization — Add your own branding and labels to create a signature product. Time Efficiency — Save on formulation and production — products are ready to use. Clean Beauty Appeal — More customers are seeking products with safe, recognizable ingredients.

Unlock Growth with Wholesale Body Care Products Beyond scrubs, businesses are expanding their collections with full lines of wholesale body care products — from body butters and bath bombs to shower gels and lotions. Offering a variety of products helps increase order value and enhances brand loyalty.

When you source from trusted manufacturers like Midwest Sea Salt Company, you gain:

High-Quality Ingredients — Think shea butter, coconut oil, jojoba, essential oils, and botanical extracts. Consistency — Uniform quality across all batches for a professional finish. Private Label Options — Launch your brand with professionally formulated and packaged products. Ready for Retail or Spa Use — Perfect for beauty retailers, boutique spas, and gifting businesses.

India is no stranger to natural skincare. In fact, the demand for Ayurvedic and botanical-based products is surging. By offering natural, cruelty-free, and plant-based body care products, businesses can connect deeply with Indian audiences.

Consider:

Including popular Indian ingredients like neem, tulsi, rose, sandalwood, and turmeric.

Packaging gift sets for festivals like Diwali, weddings, and birthdays. Targeting wellness resorts, yoga retreats, and ayurvedic clinics for bulk orders. Selling through Indian eCommerce platforms like Amazon India, Flipkart, and Nykaa.

Why Midwest Sea Salt Company? Midwest Sea Salt Company has built its reputation on quality, transparency, and a wide range of handcrafted products. They specialize in premium bath and body care, offering custom private labelling, bulk orders, and a variety of natural formulas that appeal to both global and niche markets.

From small startups to luxury spa chains, Midwest supports businesses of all sizes with reliable, effective, and natural products — all manufactured in the USA under strict quality controls.

Final Thoughts: Scrub, Soak, and Sell The beauty and wellness industry is growing fast — and businesses that tap into the demand for clean, natural, and sensory-driven products will always have an edge. Whether you’re just starting out or scaling your existing line, sourcing natural body scrub wholesale and wholesale body care products is a smart, strategic move.

Don’t just sell products — offer experiences that make your brand unforgettable. Start building your product line with Midwest Sea Salt Company today.

[sakib554]

Spa in Dhaka: A Journey to Relaxation and Rejuvenation

Spa in Dhaka: A Journey to Relaxation and Rejuvenation

Dhaka, the bustling capital of Bangladesh, is known for its vibrant culture, rich history, and fast-paced urban life. Amidst the chaos, finding moments of tranquility and relaxation can be a challenge. However, the city offers a variety of luxurious spas where you can escape the stress and indulge in a soothing experience. These spas provide the perfect setting for both locals and tourists looking to unwind, recharge, and rejuvenate.

The Rise of Spa in Dhaka

As the city has grown in recent years, so has the demand for wellness and self-care services. People in Dhaka are increasingly seeking ways to relax and maintain their well-being, and spas have become a popular solution. Today, the city boasts a wide range of spas, from high-end luxury resorts to boutique wellness centers, offering a diverse array of services tailored to meet the needs of every individual.

Types of Spa Services Available in Dhaka

Traditional Massages One of the most popular treatments in Dhaka’s spas is the traditional massage. From Swedish to deep tissue, hot stone to aromatherapy, these massages help alleviate stress, relieve muscle tension, and improve circulation. Many spas also offer traditional Bengali massages, known for their therapeutic benefits and unique techniques.

Facials and Skin Care Treatments For those looking to rejuvenate their skin, many spas in Dhaka offer a wide range of facial treatments. From anti-aging facials to deep cleansing and hydrating treatments, the facials available in Dhaka's spas cater to all skin types. Spas use high-quality skincare products to ensure a fresh, glowing complexion.

Body Scrubs and Wraps A body scrub or wrap is a great way to exfoliate your skin and remove dead cells, leaving your body feeling smooth and rejuvenated. Many spas offer body scrubs with natural ingredients like coconut, sea salt, or coffee, which help cleanse and nourish the skin. These treatments often include a relaxing massage afterward to enhance the experience.

Aromatherapy and Stress Relief Aromatherapy is becoming increasingly popular in Dhaka’s spas due to its calming and stress-relieving effects. Spas offer essential oil massages that help balance your mood, ease anxiety, and promote relaxation. The calming scents of lavender, eucalyptus, and chamomile, among others, are used to create a peaceful environment.

Spa Packages for Full Relaxation For those who wish to experience the ultimate indulgence, many spas offer all-inclusive packages that combine multiple services into one luxurious experience. These packages often include a massage, facial, body scrub, and access to amenities such as saunas, steam rooms, and pools.

The Best Spa in Dhaka

The Westin Dhaka Spa Known for its luxurious atmosphere and world-class service, The Westin’s Heavenly Spa offers a range of treatments designed to relax and rejuvenate the body and mind. From massages to facials and body wraps, the spa is ideal for those seeking a high-end experience in the heart of Dhaka.

Radisson Blu Dhaka Water Garden Spa Located in the serene water garden of Radisson Blu, this spa offers a wide selection of treatments, including traditional Ayurvedic massages and beauty therapies. The tranquil ambiance combined with expert therapists makes it an excellent choice for anyone looking for an oasis of peace in the city.

Spa at Pan Pacific Sonargaon Dhaka This luxury hotel’s spa provides a range of treatments that blend traditional techniques with modern wellness practices. Whether it’s a relaxing massage or a rejuvenating facial, this spa guarantees a premium experience.

The Spa at Le Meridien Dhaka Le Meridien’s signature spa features a peaceful environment perfect for unwinding. Guests can enjoy a variety of treatments designed to relieve stress and boost overall well-being.

Oasis Spa For a more intimate and boutique experience, Oasis Spa is one of Dhaka’s hidden gems. It offers a range of treatments such as aromatherapy massages, body wraps, and facials, all provided in a serene and calming setting.

Benefits of a Spa in Dhaka

Stress Relief: The fast-paced nature of life in Dhaka can lead to stress and burnout. A visit to a spa can help reduce tension and promote mental relaxation.

Improved Health: Regular massages and spa treatments improve blood circulation, enhance skin health, and help with muscle recovery.

Detoxification: Spa treatments like body wraps, scrubs, and steam baths help remove toxins from the body, leaving you feeling refreshed and rejuvenated.

Mental Clarity: The peaceful and calming environment of a spa helps clear the mind and improve focus, making it easier to cope with the demands of daily life.

Conclusion

Dhaka, a city teeming with energy and life, also offers a quiet sanctuary for those in search of relaxation and rejuvenation. Whether you’re a local resident or a traveler, the spas in Dhaka provide a diverse range of treatments that cater to your wellness needs. After a visit to one of these serene retreats, you’ll feel refreshed, recharged, and ready to face the world again.

[ahmedz01]

 Jordan Tourism: A Complete Guide to the Pearl of Middle East

Jordan, a country where ancient history meets modern hospitality, stands as one of the Middle East’s most captivating tourist destinations. From the rose-red city of Petra to the therapeutic waters of the Dead Sea, Jordan offers visitors an unforgettable blend of historical wonders, natural beauty, and rich cultural experiences.

Must-Visit Destinations

 Petra: The Rose City

The ancient city of Petra, a UNESCO World Heritage site, represents Jordan’s crown jewel of tourism. Carved into rose-colored rock faces, this archaeological wonder features: - The iconic Treasury (Al-Khazneh) - An extensive network of tombs and temples - The magnificent Monastery (Ad-Deir) - Ancient Roman-style theater - The colorful Siq canyon entrance

The Dead Sea

The lowest point on Earth offers visitors a unique experience: - Natural spa-like mud treatments - Effortless floating in mineral-rich waters - Luxury resorts with wellness centers - Stunning sunset views over the waters - Year-round sunny weather

Wadi Rum

Known as the Valley of the Moon, this desert landscape offers: - Dramatic red sand dunes - Ancient rock inscriptions - Luxury desert camping - Bedouin hospitality - Stargazing opportunities - Adventure activities like rock climbing and hot air ballooning

Cultural Experiences

 Local Cuisine

Jordanian cuisine reflects the country’s rich heritage: - Traditional mansaf (lamb with rice and yogurt sauce) - Fresh falafel and hummus - Street food in downtown Amman - Traditional Arabic coffee ceremonies - Local wineries in the Madaba region

Historical Sites

Beyond Petra, Jordan boasts numerous historical attractions: - Roman ruins in Jerash - Mount Nebo’s biblical significance - The Crusader castles - Ancient mosaics in Madaba - The baptism site of Jesus Christ at Bethany Beyond the Jordan

Practical Travel Information

 Best Time to Visit

- Spring (March to May): Mild temperatures and wildflower blooms - Fall (September to November): Pleasant weather and fewer tourists - Winter (December to February): Cool temperatures, occasional rain - Summer (June to August): Hot but dry, ideal for Dead Sea visits

Transportation

- Queen Alia International Airport serves as the main gateway - Well-maintained highway system connects major tourist sites - Public buses available between major cities - Rental cars with international driving permits accepted - Organized tours with professional guides

Accommodation Options

- Luxury resorts along the Dead Sea - Boutique hotels in Amman - Desert camps in Wadi Rum - Heritage hotels in Petra - Budget hostels in major cities

Travel Tips

 Cultural Considerations

- Dress modestly, especially at religious sites - Learn basic Arabic greetings - Respect prayer times - Ask permission before photographing people - Accept hospitality when offered

Safety and Health

- Jordan ranks among the safest countries in the Middle East - Drink bottled water - Have travel insurance - Carry sunscreen and hat - Respect desert climate precautions

 Suggested Itineraries

Classic Jordan (1 Week) - Day 1–2: Amman exploration - Day 3–4: Petra - Day 5: Wadi Rum - Day 6–7: Dead Sea relaxation

 Extended Stay (2 Weeks) - Days 1–3: Amman and Jerash - Days 4–6: Petra - Days 7–8: Wadi Rum - Days 9–10: Aqaba for Red Sea - Days 11–12: Dead Sea - Days 13–14: Biblical sites and Madaba

 Conclusion

Jordan offers an exceptional tourism experience that combines historical wonders, natural beauty, and warm hospitality. Whether you’re an adventure seeker, history enthusiast, or wellness traveler, Jordan provides unforgettable experiences for every type of visitor. With proper planning and respect for local customs, tourists can explore this remarkable country safely and comfortably while creating lasting memories.

Book now and enjoy a journey filled with excitement and wonder!

[keralatourpackagesindia]

Kerala Tours - Attractions & Tourism

Situated on the tropical Malabar Coast and arched aboard the azure sea, Kerala is one among the foremost charming states and common traveller destinations in India. It attracts a giant variety of tourists and vacationers from the various components of the globe. Glorious for lush inexperienced landscapes and serene ambiance, Kerala Family Holiday Packages may be a paradise for vacationers and tourists. The National Geographic somebody magazine has named it one among the highest 10 paradises within the world and one among the highest fifty should visit places of time period. Sprawling plantations, soothing climate, palm fringed stunning beaches, lush hill stations, exciting backwaters, historic cultural monuments, colourful fairs festivals, exotic life parks sanctuaries, beautiful lakes falls, etc have created Kerala one among the foremost visited destinations in India. This state is splendidly referred to as the God's Own Country.

Some of the highest attractions of Kerala business are:

Kovalam: AN Internationally far-famed Beach city

Kovalam has 3 semi-circular beaches separated by rocky outcrops. they're light-weight House Beach, Hawah Beach and Samudra Beach. Today, Kovalam is one among the best beach resorts within the world. Superficial water widening for many metres area unit ideal for swimming and water fun activities. There are a unit many desirable beach resorts in and around Kovalam providing vacationers terrific chance for enjoying their vacation in dead soothing ambiance. There are a unit many Ayurvedic body massage centres, spa centres and Ayurvedic saloons on the pristine beaches of Kovalam providing a good kind of Ayurvedic treatments for vacationers. In brief, Kovalam is one among relish attractions of vacation in Kerala, India.

Kochi - the Port town of India

Kochi is a vital town and one among the foremost visited traveller destinations in Kerala. it's glorious for its heritage monuments, enthralling backwaters, colonial homes, forts, palaces, temples, churches, spice markets, etc. Kochi may be a to not be lost attraction in God's Own Country.

Backwaters ; Houseboats

Backwaters and houseboats area unit price enjoying attractions of Kerala business. Alleppey, Kumarakom, Kollam, Kozhikode, Fort Kochi, Thiruvallam, etc area unit a number of common backwater destinations within the state. Kerala backwaters area unit glorious for distinctive serenity and copious nature beauty. The charm of backwaters may be best experienced  by flatboat cruise. On flatboat keep tourists have sensible chance to get pleasure from the character at her best and additionally luxury accommodation like deluxe hotels.

Munnar: The Cashmere of South India

Located within the Idukki district of Kerala, Munnar is one among the foremost common hill stations in entire South India. it's glorious for sprawling plantations, lush inexperienced landscapes, mesmeric foliage, mountain scenery, distinctive serenity and funky refreshing air. Nature blessed this hill city unambiguously and it's usually referred because the "Kashmir of South India". it's favorite destination of honeymooning couples, nature lovers and journey enthusiasts. In general, it may be the foremost attractive destination on your Kerala tours in South India.

Wayanad: Nature at Her Best

Wayanad may be a stunning district in Kerala glorious for made flora & fauna, scenic beauty, mountain serenity, spice plantations, lush landscapes, gushing waterfalls, exotic life and historical importance. There area unit variety of resorts in Wayanad situated in scenic close that ravish vacationers and supply fabulous vacation expertise within the lap of nature. In general, Wayanad may be a excellent destination if you really cautious concerning exploring the character at her best on your tours to Kerala in South India.

Trivandrum: The Capital of Kerala

Trivandrum is that the capital town of the state. it's a requirement visit destination for each traveller returning for travel and business in God's Own Country. There area unit uncountable attractions to go to, see, explore and luxuriate in within the town. a number of attractions area unit Shri Padmanbhaswamy Temple, Trivandrum installation, Shri Chitra gallery, Attukal Bhagavathy Temple, Government Art deposit, Science & Technology deposit, solon deposit, etc. Kovalam, Varkala and Ponmudi area unit at the terribly short distances from Trivandrum. So, town of Trivandrum may be one among the should visit destinations of your Kerala Family Packages in India.

Well, if you too wish to relish the attraction of Kerala business, select a right Kerala Tour Packages that covers suggested attractions during this article.

[joeledsouza-12]

The 5 popular nightlife hotspots in Jordan

Jordan is an enchanting country located in the Middle East that is famous for its history, stunning natural beauty, and friendly people. Though the Great Wonder of Jordan is the city of Petra, the desert of Wadi Rum, and the therapeutic waters of the Dead Sea, the nightlife of Jordan is no less exotic to the country’s rich and diverse culture. While lively cafes and bars can be found on the streets of Jordan, one can also find quiet and beautiful resorts that welcome a breathtaking sunset.

At night, people of this fascinating country and tourists use different kinds of entertainment to spend their time. Regardless of whether one is looking for a laid-back evening in a shisha lounge or the entertainment of a cultural show in an old-style amphitheater or a beach party at the Red Sea, Jordan has it all. Welcome to this interesting series where we shall be taking you through five of the best places to be during the night in this enchanting country.

Below are five great places that you should not miss visiting when in Jordan at night.

1. Amman’s Rainbow Street:

Overview: Rainbow Street is in the central region of the capital and is popular among both the residents and visitors. It is a popular center of business and leisure, with an abundance of various cafes, restaurants, and shops to make an evening in this street vibrant.

What to Expect: Even at night, Rainbow Street is well illuminated and invites you for a walk. There is an opportunity to taste Jordanian food, both typical and exotic food: mansaf (lamb with rice) and different kinds of international cuisine. Most of the restaurants have provision for an open terrace, so you get to dine under the stars.

The street also features several shisha lounges where you can sit back and have a real conversation with friends as you puff on flavored tobacco. It is also possible to come across musicians who perform on the streets of the district or graffiti that contributes to the overall atmosphere of the region.

Tip: Remember to also check on the small stores along the street in order to find some traditional gifts or artwork.

2. The Dead Sea Resorts:

Overview: The Dead Sea is not only a natural phenomenon of being the lowest point on the surface of the earth, but also an attractive destination for luxurious hotels that are famous for their exclusive nightlife. The opportunities for rest and recreation at the resorts situated along the coast make the place ideal for vacation.

What to Expect: When the sun goes down, the beachfront resorts are active. Many of them feature beautiful beach bars and lounges where you can simply relax with your favorite cocktail or some non-alcoholic beverage while marveling at the beauty of the Dead Sea. Most of the resorts organize theme evenings. For example, entertainment programs at the pool or a night in a traditional African village with entertainment programs.

It is also possible to visit a spa in the evening and get a variety of special evening offers, which let the client have a good rest in a calm atmosphere. Music and the sound of waves are used in the background, and the atmosphere is quite lively but very relaxed.

Tip: Make a reservation for dinner at one of the resort restaurants for dinner with a view of the beautiful setting sun.

3. Jerash’s Ancient Theatre:

Overview: Jerash is called the city of ancient Roman structures, and among them, the Ancient Theatre occupies a special place. This amazing structure has an approximate seating capacity of 3000 and represents the history of the city.

What to Expect: At some point in the year, the theater has cultural shows, concerts, and theatrical performances that make it an interesting mix of history and culture. How can one watch a traditional music concert, a play, or even a movie in a venue that is as old as the Roman Empire?

The atmosphere at the place is sometimes romantic because lights are put up at night to brighten up the venue. Look up the local calendar to see if there are any shows you might catch while you are in town.

Tip: Make sure to get there on time to go around the archaeological site before the show starts and to take some good photos of the place.

4. Aqaba’s Beachfront Bars:

Overview: Sited in the south of Jordan, Aqaba is famous for its elongated beach of the Red Sea and the boulevard of its nightclubs. This seaside city is all about the nightlife, but not in the way one might initially expect.

What to Expect: Unfortunately, the nightlife in Aqaba is not very vibrant, but the beachfront bars and lounges are ideal for a drink and some relaxation after a long day of sun tanning or scuba diving. Some of these eating places provide terrace dining, which offers beautiful views of the Red Sea, making the eating places very welcoming. Patrons can savor a selection of cocktails and other alcoholic beverages accompanied by live music or dance music from disc jockeys.

Aqaba’s nightlife can be as late as the beach events or discotheque, and during the day, it can be the water activities, which can continue well into the night. It is a great place for socializing and to interact with other travelers around the world as well.

Tip: It is advisable to try to get to one of the beach bars in the evening in order to witness one of the most beautiful moments—the sunset.

5. Petra’s Cave Bar:

Overview: If you are looking for a blend of history and an amazing place to hang out at night, Petra’s Cave Bar is the place to be. Overlooking the ancient city of Petra, this bar is located in a cave and has that unique setting close to the entrance of the city.

What to Expect: The Cave Bar is well known for its splendid looks and historical background. On the menu there are cocktails, wines, beer, and other alcoholic and non-alcoholic beverages served in an atmosphere surrounded by natural rock formations. It is popular for organized live music performances and themed nights, and as such, the bar is frequented by both residents and visitors.

The magical atmosphere of the cave and the historical background of Petra make for an unforgettable nightlife. No matter if you want to relax after sightseeing in the ancient city or go out for a night of fun, the Cave Bar is great for that.

Tip: Look at their calendar to see whether there is something special or a show going on that you could attend while you are there.

Conclusion:

Jordan’s nightlife is a colorful tapestry created by the veils of its tradition, history and globalization. Whether you are strolling around the Rainbow Street in the centre of Amman or lying on the Dead Sea beach at night or dancing in Aqaba clubs, all of these sites provide a different insight into modern Jordanian society. These are not only places to have fun but also places which offer the ability to interact with the people and feel the famous welcoming heart of the Jordanians.

To those who are into a tour, the nightlife in Jordan is also a must-try. In order to fully appreciate these moments, make sure that you have all your travel papers in order, where and if a Jordan visa is required. Jordan at night, and every night is an opportunity to get acquainted with the atmosphere and traditions that are inherent in this country.

It is hence important to make arrangements for your trip through this fascinating country to be in a position to enjoy the nightlife. From cultural dances in prehistoric theaters to beach festivals today, Jordan’s nightlife experiences can be memorable. Thus, no matter if you are an evening person or maybe just tired after the day spent exploring the country, Jordan’s nightlife will definitely enchant you and make you desire to come back for more.

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The Ultimate Guide to Visiting the Dead Sea

The Ultimate Guide to Visiting the Dead Sea — Best Resorts, Travel Gear, and More

The Dead Sea is one of the world’s most unique and breathtaking travel destinations. Nestled between Jordan and Israel, this natural wonder is famous for its incredibly salty waters, mineral-rich mud, and therapeutic properties. Whether you’re planning a relaxing getaway or a day trip, this ultimate guide will help you make the most of your visit to the Dead Sea, from choosing the best resorts to packing the right travel gear. You can book here

Why Visit the Dead Sea?

Visiting the Dead Sea is an unforgettable experience, both for its extraordinary landscape and for its health benefits. The water is ten times saltier than regular seawater, making it impossible to sink, and the mud is known for its restorative properties. The region’s dry climate and low altitude also provide therapeutic relief for respiratory conditions, making it a wellness haven.

Quick Facts About the Dead Sea:

Location: The Dead Sea is at the lowest point on Earth, 1,410 feet below sea level.

Salinity: It’s one of the saltiest bodies of water in the world, with a salt concentration of around 34%.

Best Time to Visit: The best time to visit is during the spring (March to May) and fall (September to November) when the weather is pleasant.

Best Resorts at the Dead Sea

If you plan to stay for a few days, booking a resort by the Dead Sea offers a luxurious way to enjoy the area’s natural beauty and wellness benefits. Here are some of the top Dead Sea resorts to consider.

you can book here

1. Kempinski Hotel Ishtar Dead Sea

This 5-star luxury resort offers panoramic views of the Dead Sea, spacious rooms, and a world-class spa. With its private beach, infinity pools, and Dead Sea mud treatments, it’s an ideal choice for relaxation and rejuvenation.

Key Features: Private Dead Sea access, luxury spa, infinity pools

Why Choose It: Offers luxurious amenities and wellness treatments in a serene environment.

You can book your stay at the Kempinski Hotel through Trip.com.

2. Mövenpick Resort & Spa Dead Sea

Combining traditional Jordanian architecture with modern facilities, this resort offers excellent hospitality and an award-winning spa. Its secluded setting makes it perfect for a peaceful retreat.

Key Features: Award-winning spa, Dead Sea mud therapy, multiple dining options

Why Choose It: Ideal for travelers seeking a combination of luxury and cultural charm.

For exclusive offers, book the Mövenpick Resort through Trip.com

3. Crowne Plaza Jordan Dead Sea Resort & Spa

This family-friendly resort offers multiple swimming pools, a spa with Dead Sea treatments, and direct beach access. It’s perfect for families or couples looking for a mix of adventure and relaxation.

Key Features: Family-friendly, direct Dead Sea access, modern amenities

Why Choose It: Great for families and those looking for an active vacation with lots of amenities.

You can secure your stay at Crowne Plaza Dead Sea Resort through Trip.com.

Must-Have Travel Gear for the Dead Sea

Packing the right gear for your Dead Sea adventure is essential to make the most of your trip. Here’s a list of what you’ll need:

1. Sunscreen

The sun at the Dead Sea is strong, even though the lower altitude means slightly reduced UV radiation. Pack high-SPF sunscreen to protect your skin, especially if you’re planning to float for

long periods.

2. Water Shoes

The shores of the Dead Sea are lined with salt crystals that can be sharp underfoot. Water shoes will protect your feet and make wading in the water much more comfortable.

Recommended: Water Sports Shoes

3. Moisturizer

The Dead Sea’s salty water can leave your skin feeling dry after a swim. Be sure to pack a rich moisturizer to rehydrate your skin after floating.

Recommended: Moisturizing Cream

4. Quick-Dry Towel

A quick-dry towel is perfect for drying off after your time in the water without carrying too much weight around.

Recommended: Microfiber Towel

5. Waterproof Phone Case

Capture the magical moments while floating in the Dead Sea without risking damage to your phone. A waterproof phone case is a must-have for water photography.

Recommended: Waterproof Phone Case

Top Things to Do at the Dead Sea

Beyond relaxing in your resort and floating in the saltwater, there are plenty of activities to enhance your Dead Sea experience.

1. Float in the Saltwater

The main attraction is, of course, the unique experience of floating effortlessly in the Dead Sea. The high salinity makes the water incredibly buoyant, allowing you to float on the surface with ease.

2. Apply Dead Sea Mud

Don’t miss the chance to slather yourself in the famous black Dead Sea mud. This mineral-rich mud is known for its therapeutic benefits, including improving skin elasticity, detoxifying pores, and soothing skin conditions.

3. Visit the Baptism Site of Jesus

A short drive from the Dead Sea lies the site where Jesus was baptized by John the Baptist. This UNESCO World Heritage Site is a significant destination for Christian pilgrims and history enthusiasts alike.

4. Take a Day Trip to Mount Nebo

Combine your Dead Sea trip with a visit to Mount Nebo, a historic location offering breathtaking views over the Jordan Valley. It’s also believed to be the place where Moses viewed the Promised Land before his death.

5. Enjoy a Sunset at the Dead Sea

The sunsets over the Dead Sea are breathtaking. As the sun dips below the horizon, the sky is painted with vibrant hues of orange and pink, making it a perfect time for photography or peaceful reflection.

To explore these activities and plan excursions, check out Trip.com for the best deals.

Health Benefits of the Dead Sea

The Dead Sea is renowned for its therapeutic properties. Visitors flock here not only for relaxation but also to experience the numerous health benefits, which include:

Skin Health: The minerals in the Dead Sea’s water and mud, such as magnesium, sodium, and potassium, are excellent for treating skin conditions like psoriasis and eczema.

Respiratory Benefits: The air around the Dead Sea is low in allergens and has higher levels of oxygen, which can benefit those with respiratory conditions like asthma.

Pain Relief: The buoyancy of the water, combined with the minerals, helps ease muscle

and joint pain, making it a favorite destination for those with arthritis.

For health retreats and spa packages, explore Trip.com to find the best deals.

Final Thoughts

Visiting the Dead Sea is a once-in-a-lifetime experience that combines natural beauty, health benefits, and luxury. Whether you’re planning a day trip or an extended stay, you’ll leave feeling rejuvenated and enriched by this incredible destination.

For those looking to enhance their visit, consider booking a stay at one of the luxury resorts and packing the essential travel gear mentioned above. Don’t forget to take in the stunning views and enjoy the healing powers of the Dead Sea mud and water.

Book Your Dead Sea Adventure Today!

Ready to experience the Dead Sea for yourself Trip.com to book your stay at one of the top resorts and enjoy exclusive deals on travel gear and guided tours.

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Top 6 Best Places to Visit in Jordan with Family

Jordan is an interesting combination of beautiful scenery, friendly people, and old-world heritage, making it the perfect place for family holidays. With varied attractions and rich history of culture, Jordan has something to offer the whole family. The best places to visit in Jordan promise incredible adventures, to the beautiful desert scenery of Wadi Rum and the amazing ancient city of Petra. Find the top six locations that offer the ideal balance of relaxation, learning, and adventure, making Jordan an excellent option for an unforgettable family vacation.

Jordan is a great choice for a family holiday because it is a country rich in culture, history, and beautiful scenery with plenty of family-friendly attractions. There is no shortage of attractions, places to visit in Jordan including the historic ruins of Petra, the beautiful desert vistas of Wadi Rum, the restorative waters of the Dead Sea, and the busy streets of Amman. Make sure you have all the travel paperwork you need before starting this expedition, including a Jordan visa, which is easily obtained online or, for many nations, upon arrival. This guarantees simple and joyful trip while you take in all of Jordan's interesting and varied sights.

Here are the top 6 best places to visit in Jordan with family:

1. Petra:

Jordan's most famous monument is without a doubt Petra, sometimes known as the "Rose City" because of its beautiful pink sandstone cliffs. Petra is an essential must-visit for families. Situated away in mountainous setting, this ancient Nabatean city provides an original combination of adventure and history. The trip starts with a walk through the Siq, a small canyon surrounded by high cliffs that leads to the beautiful Al-Khazneh (The Treasury). Both kids and adults will find the complex designs and imposing architecture to be attractive.  

2. Wadi Rum:

The expansive desert region of Wadi Rum, commonly referred to as the Valley of the Moon, offers a singular combination of adventure and natural beauty. This UNESCO World Heritage site is characterised by its huge areas of sandy beach, petroglyphs carved into the rocks, and towering sandstone and granite rock formations. Families can enjoy camel rides to experience the traditional Bedouin way of life, thrilling vehicle drives across the amazing environment, and rock climbing and sandboarding.  

3. Dead Sea:

Family vacations to the Dead Sea, known for being the lowest point on Earth, are memorable and healing. Swimming is nearly difficult due to water's excessive salinity, yet floating on the surface is an exciting and fun experience for people of all ages. Numerous resorts provide spa treatments that integrate natural materials, and the mineral-rich mud of the Dead Sea is well-known for its therapeutic qualities. Families can explore neighbouring landmarks like the historic stronghold of Masada and the Mujib Biosphere Reserve, as well as relax on the beaches and take mud baths.  

4. Amman:

Jordan's lively capital city of Amman offers a variety of family-friendly attractions while skilfully fusing modern and ancient elements. Roman Theatre and the Amman Citadel, two of the city's historic attractions, offer amazing insights into the rich past of the area. Families can visit the lively souks, or markets, where a sensory feast of bright textiles and the scent of spices awaits them. For younger tourists, Children's Museum in Amman is an excellent place to go because it has interactive exhibits and educational events. In addition, there are many of green areas for outdoor activities and picnics in the city's parks, like King Abdu llah II Park and Al Hussein Public Parks. 

5. Aqaba:

The only seaside city in Jordan, Aqaba, is a sun, sea, and adventure lover's dream come true. Situated on the Red Sea coast, Aqaba is well-known for its bright coral reefs and pristine seas, making it an ideal spot for diving and snorkelling. Water sports for families include windsurfing, jet skiing, and glass-bottom boat cruises that let them see the undersea environment without getting wet. Aqaba is also home to lovely sandy beaches where families may relax and take in the sun while their kids play and construct sandcastles. Family-friendly amenities and activities are available at the city's several resorts and hotels, guaranteeing a relaxing and pleasurable visit. 

6. Jerash:

The remarkably well-preserved Roman remains of Jerash provide an interesting look into antiquity. The city, sometimes called the "Pompeii of the East," is home to imposing temples, huge colonnaded walkways, and a beautiful amphitheatre that is still used for concerts. Families can tour sites like the Cardo Maximus, the Oval Plaza, and the Temple of Artemis while walking through the historic streets and envisioning life in the Roman Empire. Jerash is an interesting and captivating travel destination for families since it combines historical exploration with live entertainment.

Conclusion:

A family vacation top places to visit in Jordan finest attractions promises to be an amazing journey full of engaging and educational encounters. Every location, from historic wonders of Petra to peaceful Dead Sea coastline, presents different chances for fun and exploration. There is something for everyone, including the striking scenery of Wadi Rum, the interesting historical sites of Jerash, the beautiful beach town of Aqaba, and the energetic city life of Amman. Jordan is an ideal location to develop enduring family experiences and explore the delights of this amazing country together because of its unique combination of history, culture, and natural beauty.