#oxygen famine

[neamamhmd9]

Save My Family From the war nightmare in Gaza

Hello My name is Neama, I'm 24 years old and I'm trying to save my family from the war. I used to work for the medical staff and help treat patients and children through my profession as a medical analysis specialist. We are the ones who separate doubt and certainty, but the occupation came and we were displaced. Because of this harsh war, I couldn't continue my profession of helping and saving children, and this saddens me.

My father, Mohammed, is 69 years old, and my mother, Amal, is 60 years old. We are a family of 7 (Ahmed, 32 years old, Alaa, 36 years old, Mariam, 27 years old, Ne’ma, 24 years old, Mahmoud, 22 years old) and the family of my widowed sister, 38 years old, who has four orphaned children (Tulin, 10 years old, Obaida, 9 years old, Laith, 6 years old, Ghaith, 5 years old). We lived a life full of happiness. We had dreams that were shattered by the barbaric Israeli attack that does not differentiate between young and old. After our house was completely destroyed, we were displaced to the southern Gaza Strip in search of a safe life, but this enemy does not differentiate at all and targets us in the shelter tents and their harsh conditions of extreme heat, lack of privacy, abundance of insects, and scarcity of water and food. We are now suffering from famine because of this war.

My father, Mohammed, suffers from a chronic disease (chronic pulmonary obstruction and difficulty breathing), and his condition has deteriorated, making him depend on oxygen tubes. One of my sisters has special needs (quadriplegia), while my other sister is a widow with four orphaned children and suffers from a chronic illness (ulcerative colitis)

You can contribute in any way you see fit to move my family out of Gaza to get the necessary medical treatment and live in a safe environment, every effort creates a useful impact and contributes to making a real difference. Through financial donations, you can contribute any amount you see fit, whether small or large, via the link or share it with your friends and anyone who can help us

Thank you very much for your humanity and standing with us. We hope that the war will end and peace will prevail in the world. Thank you all in advance for your support. May God protect and bless us all

https://gofund.me/5c9c46ba

[rudspankow]

this was smth i wrote when i was bored, don’t hate me if it’s shitty, just wanted to post it for funsies ..

MDNI 18+

perv!!jj , smut

Context -

Your bestfriend is a sick perv who’s obsessed with you

He’s a perv, and you knew it the moment you found his eyes darting upon your cleavage longer than a friendly gaze should’ve. His greedy hands always finding a way to smush against the flesh of your hips or lace into the belt hooks of your shorts before ripping you into his harsh frame. Cuddling up to you in the Château and purposely crushing your body with his, in hopes to feel every ridge, curve, and pulse that you could grant. Feeling the blood rush straight to his cock that swelled between your legs from his perverted positioning.

Everybody saw JJ’s intentions, continuously telling him to leave your little innocent self alone. But he just couldn’t, not when you sat perked up like a pretty princess. Teasing the mutt he was with your small sundresses, hiding barely anything as your tits pooled out of the top, catching his attention every minute of everyday.

It’d take less than 40 minutes for him to rush off for a ‘leak’, ending up in the bathroom abusing his cock with his hand. Fastening his pace torturously as he imagined your silky pussy swallowing him whole, a bundle of whimpers he was. Submissive to his imagination as you ruled his entire fantasy.

JJ loved being a perv, it was his second nature.

“Jayj, you’re suffocating me. .” You choked up, slipping a small chuckle as he trapped you beneath his broad body. A grunt left his lips as he positioned himself between your legs, left cheek resting above your swollen tits. His cock began to expand, feeling the warmth that radiated between your legs as he sunk into your embrace. Completely subsiding the fact you were lacking oxygen and needed a breather.

“So comfy Y/N, can’t help it.”

You always loved helping JJ, heck. He was your best friend for crying out loud. There wasn’t a single thing you wouldn’t do for him, no matter the cost or consequence.

But nothing prepared you for the moment you stood in his room shutting the door behind you, eyes wide and pupils blown as JJ trembled before you. An aching pain of lust consuming his body as he held himself through his shorts, fighting the urge to breakdown from the intense pressure his member caused.

He was an idiot, and he knew the results when it came to taking something like E. So where did he go when he needed a quick fix, a sexual reliever?

The person he could always count on, his forever wet dream. You.

After 5 minutes of absolute blabber and begs, you sighed heavily with a silly feeling in your chest. Standing before JJ and giving him everything he’s wanted the moment you hit puberty, finally awarding the boy with the scene of your body on full display.

It was awkward, invading in a way. But nothing felt more right once his fingertips danced upon your burning skin. Letting his lips latch onto you and taste the desire that layered on your skin. JJ Maybank had officially sweet talked your pants off, caving into his puppy dog eyes and tearful pleas as he watched your body shudder with fear. Afraid this would falter your friendship heavily.

But none of that mattered after he had the privilege to slaver his pallet with your taste, ignoring every thought that urged him to step away. Guilt vanishing as you became everything he needed, suddenly his body was going through drought and famine until you rocked up, sitting pretty on a silver platter as he couldn’t wait to dig in.

“This won’t affect anything right?” You whimpered, feeling his hips buck into you fast and rough. Harsh thrusts connecting with the bruised flesh of your ass as you bent lower, feeling his fingers thread into your hair before pulling you up.

“Shh. . So sweet for helping me out Y/N—Shit! Yeah, always there for me.” He moaned, shoving you back down before hovering above you, drilling you into the bed. Your eyes rolled back as he impaled you with his cock, his hips never stuttering as he felt you flutter around him, motivating his body to impossibly fasten as you cried out his name.

“Shitshitshit,”

The feeling of your velvety walls sucking him deeper managed to throw him off the deep end, driven to the hardest release he’s ever had once your pussy leaked cum and smoothened every thrust. His girth soaked in your white sticky bliss as he fucked his salty seed into your cunt with no mercy, never stopping as he felt his greedy heart tempt him for another round.

Urging to feel your pussy pulse around his cock again and absolutely coat him in your cum.

“Such a princess for this, Y’know? Lettin’ your bestfriend stuff you with his cock because he needed help. Perfect little thing, can’t take you for granted.”

After that night you were sure things would continue forward, attempting to brush it aside and forget about the please he exhilarated through your body.

But it was so hard when all he did was watch, beg and act.

Act on every sexual desire once you entered the room.

“W-What’re you doing Jayj. .” You whispered, feeling your cheeks burn pink as your best-friend humped you under the covers. His hips rutting into your clothed core as he found home inside your arms once again, this time, you were surrounded by all the Pogues. Gathering together to watch a movie Sarah suggested.

When you pulled up in nothing but your skimpy pajamas, JJ felt every gear in his head turn as he bolted to cradle you towards the couch. Gently pushing you down before sinking between your legs and nestling his cock inside the gap ontop of your sweet, warm pussy.

“I’m gonna cum, just let me. .” He whispered into your ear, letting his head fall into the crook of your neck as he drowned his sounds with a chaste kiss across your skin. You bit your lip feeling his length rub against your core, the friction he caused turning you on crazily as you listened to his quiet sinful songs.

“So pretty Y/N, jus’ need you so bad.” He whimpered before releasing into his boxers, stuttering his hips as he came hard and fast. The wet patch seeping through his fabric and all over your clothed heat, you fought the urge to groan in annoyance. Having to stay seated with the remnants of his cum splattered on both of your crotches.

He made sure you would stay there for the rest of the night, knowing how dirty it was for you to sit there covered in his cum. It made him almost want to coat you in another load.

It was the weirdest thing, realising the boy who you’ve known since third grade desired you everyday. JJ was always attractive in your eyes, but you never seemed to step over that best-friend boundary in worry he’d reject you, or that your friendship would crumble to pieces once you squeezed it with hope for friendly affection replaced by love.

But he looked past all problems aside, just following the pathway of lust and determination as he made it his every mission to feel, touch, and talk to you. He was obsessed, crazed at himself for waiting so long.

He enjoyed knowing you flustered at his gazes, following your train of thought to the night he fucked your brains out, or the hours before where you’d let him eat your pussy. You wanted to help him, always needing to reassure JJ you were forever there.

Understanding his current home situation, you became his outlet the moment he realised how shitty his life was. Breaking down in tears and sobbing inside your embrace.

So, the boy took it one step further than just a place to stay or eating food you prepared. You became everything he needed, everything.

Eventually, one night turned into many, and friendly hugs turned into stolen gropes and whispered temptations.

“You need me to do what?” You repeated, feeling embarrassment flourish your blossoming cheeks as he stood in front of you, all teary eye’d. The scene of his sadness made you want to help him further, to draw him away from whatever bothered him so harshly. Knowing it was his piece of shit father who neglected his kindness, painting your perfect boy’s skin black and blue.

JJ sniffled, wiping his nose with his wrist before shrugging. As much as the interaction with his dad affected him, he knew he was putting on a more ruthless production, all in hopes you’d let him fall into you once more.

“JJ, i don’t know. I want to help you but, that just seems—,”

“I know, i know. I jus’ really want to feel you Y/N.” His voice croaked, and it sent a pang to your heart. Watching his lips quiver as he sat in front of you all weary and burdened, a sigh left your lips as you pulled him in. Closing a gap between the two of you as your arms wrapped around his shuddering frame.

“Okay.”

His eyes widened as you agreed, pulling away from the hug and peeling off every piece of clothing you wore. His cock jolted to life as he pushed himself against your head board, your body walking towards him seductively as you unzipped his shorts.

“This what you want J? My lips around your dick?” You murmured, mouth watering at the sight of his thick cock pulsing after your smooth mouth. He nodded vigorously as your mouth gathered his leaking tip, sucking on it gently before taking his entire length.

He was a mess before you, hands tangled into your hair as he moaned and fucked your mouth. Salvia trailing down your chin as his force picked up nailing into your raw throat.

“Just a blessing aren’t you? Gonna cum princess, keep doing that. .Shit!”

JJ breathed heavily, his body sizzling and mindset foggy as he released his hot white ropes of cum inside your mouth. Sliding across your tastebuds and falling deeper down your throat. You gagged as he shoved you lower, spilling every last drop into your mouth and keeping you there to watch you swallow his filth.

JJ made it very clear he was into you, publicly voicing his opinions whenever you were close. To your face or even just with Pope, wearing a large prideful smirk trying so hard not to spill your secret meet ups.

“Dude, you’re such a pervert.” Pope chuckled shaking his head slowly, JJ’s grin only widened as he watched you laugh alongside Sarah. Laid out on the beach towel soaking in the sun, glistened in tanning oil that ran down the valley between your tits.

“Can’t tell me you haven’t thought about hitting that, like really man! She’s a fucking sex dream, i mean look at her.”

His lips reddened from the way he bit it religiously, shifting in his position as he felt his cock swell at the sight of your half naked body. Pope grimaced at his comments, shaking his head at the boy again.

“Of course Y/N is attractive, but don’t you think you’re being a bit weird? That’s your best friend, y’know?”

“I’m not a child Pope, i’m simply appreciating her beauty—,”

“With a weird sex craze to it.”

JJ rolled his eyes.

“So what, i’m not gonna sit here and deny what i’m feeling. I’m as honest as they come Pope, who cares if i lust after my best friend. Can’t help she’s everything i want.”

[lorrekeeper]

The Enydreian Explosion

The Uridachian Period ended not with a bang, but with a whimper. As the primitive creatures of the age began to refine themselves, they evolved the first mouths, the first guts, and the first complex body plans. The evolutionary progression of these multicellular organisms proved to be so devastating to the microbial algal mats of the era, that the algae were forced into decline, only surviving in extreme conditions that couldn't be reached by other organisms. This famine of the natural world prompted the first major extinction event since the Great Oxygenation Catastrophe almost 2 billion years ago, forcing many groups into decline and several into outright extinction.

The survivors, however, were forced to adapt to a new world of scarcity and competition. In the wake of the Global Famine, a new class of organism has evolved - the first predators. The appearance of these predators has prompted the appearance of the first means of protection - body armor, sensory organs, defensive behaviors -, which has forced the predators to further refine their methods to counteract the defenses of their prey. This has triggered an arms race between predator and prey, which has led to an explosion of biodiversity, the likes of which planet Astraea has never seen before, and will likely never see again.

It is now the Enydreian Period, and the ocean is in the midst of revolution. New species have been appearing at an incredible rate, and competition between these various organisms has turned the seas into a battleground. Whatever the outcome of this period of rapid evolution, the face of life on Astraea will forever be changed from it...

[palestinegenocide]

Israel blocks entry of vital medical machines and ventilators

CNN has reported that Israeli forces have set up “arbitrary and contradictory criteria” regarding what items are allowed to enter Gaza, blocking the delivery of anesthetics and anesthesia machines, oxygen cylinders, ventilators, and water filtration systems.

“Other items that have ended up in bureaucratic limbo include dates, sleeping bags, medicines to treat cancer, water purification tablets and maternity kits,” the report added.

Since 2007, Israel’s blockade over the Gaza Strip barred Palestinians, at varying periods, from importing products such as cumin, soft drinks, shaving cream, instant coffee, and cookies. Other items include wheelchairs, footballs, lentils, and tomato paste. At the time, Palestinians circumvented these draconian bans through the use of underground tunnels, which were mainly used for commercial purposes.

UN officials and humanitarian organizations have been warning of a famine in the Gaza Strip, enabled by Israeli forces’ siege and shooting at Palestinians gathering near aid trucks, seeking to get a share of the food.

Wafa news agency reported that since Thursday, Israeli forces shot and killed Palestinians waiting for aid to arrive at the Nabulsi roundabout, dong so twice in less than 48 hours, west of Gaza City. At least 117 people were killed and hundreds were injured.

[script-a-world]

Submitted via Google Form:

Does it make any sense to have a world that is entirely vegan because other animals are actually all extinct. You might think with no other animals, this be a world where cannibalistic practices occur more. Well, I never really thought of it because it's that's just nasty. But what would be realistic here? Sure, it may occur as an extreme survival method. But it shouldn't be a normal practice and condemned in every other way. But does make actually make sense in this world with animals going extinct? They do have excellent crops and plenty of ways of getting food. There is no issue with having adequate food supply except for impoverished places. And just like impoverished places in real life, people aren't just resorting to cannibalism as normal. Alright so... for a world with no more animals in its ecosystem... well, how is that even like?? Actually, why is this world even restricted to a planet? There would probably be a lot of people living on moons with no native life and space stations.

Addy: I'm in the middle of finals right now (is it okay to include that? Idk), so you're getting some straight-from-the-tap unpolished thoughts.

Are there insects? 'Cause if this is a post-extinction event, then you've got a whole issue of like... plants that used to be pollinated by insects (beetles, bees, moths, butterflies, ants, etc), birds, etc but now have to be pollinated by wind (which is way less efficient, so you'd probably get stuff that's like cedars or oak trees, where there's just pollen *everywhere*, and other stuff would at least have more difficulty surviving). And then there's... everything. The balance between plants, insects, etc, *everything* is very nuanced. This feels like it'd become the lawn garden equivalent of an ecosystem - alive, but not thriving. Like a garden laden with pesticides, you just... wouldn't get good growth, and that'd spur on its own set of issues.

Plus like. Grazing. Grazing is a huuuuge influence on grasslands, etc, so the removal of all herbivores would... man. That'd do a lot. I don't know if you could even *have* a grassland under this system. Like without grazing, the accumulation of plant matter + wildfire ecology (lightning strikes and all that) would mean huge blazes that would sterilize the soil. Instead of grassland growing back, you'd get like saplings driven on the wind or whatever. Probably.

(Something something Yellowstone when they brought the wolves back, every piece has a role to play)

If there *are* insects, then that'd have its own set of massive issues. Great Famine of China/Great Leap Forward kinds of issues. Like wow. Also insect predation on trees, that'd spur another wave of problems.... everything would be effected. Everything.

If you're on a space station, it's generally assumed that plants are being grown in a tightly controlled artificial environment. Humidity, "rain," light, nutrients, all of that under human (or at least sentient/sophont) control. It isn't expected to be a natural, thriving environment, and it's fairly small-scale. If you have some sort of space garden, it's generally either only plants or plants + some insects + small wildlife. A whole planet... man. Honestly a terrifying thought.

(You thought Silent Spring was bad)

(This is so much worse)

Also, what about fish? Is the whole ocean totally sterile? Are there even krill (or local equivalent)? Phytoplankton, I assume, would be around (also there's a scary thought about like the whole oxygen cycle wow), but... this is just a terrifying prospect for a world.

Oh, and coral! That's an animal, technically. Not really an edible one, but an animal nonetheless. Snails? Jellyfish? Detritivores? Anything to filter the water?

We have no reference for what this would look like. If they want to make a world like this, I'd say the best bet would be to imagine a world sanitized by fire and war and death and ecological omnicide and who-knows-what. Then, on the barren remains of the world-that-was, put a sentient/sophont species with a seed bank. Fern spores. Pollen and sprouts. Some great record of a sliver of the majesty that once was.

In the dust-filled deathworld, this remnant husk of what was once an emerald jewel, there is a structure, and in that structure, there is a person. They have a plot, they have nitrates, they have ammonium, they have potassium, they have phosphorus. They may have mycorrhize, if they're lucky. In that plot, they have a plant. Maybe a few. They save it all for replanting and propagation, and subsist off of freeze-dried rations made before the Happening. They are lucky to be alive.

The world outside is barren. There is nothing to hold together the topsoil. Anything that once was there has rotted and blown away (yay bacteria)(unless those are dead too). The Dust Bowl, on a scale of a world. The Sahara, in comparison, would be a fertile haven of life.

Recovery is slow. Plants, as they grow under the sheltered eye of humanity, decompose once again, cycling through generations as they build up organic matter, thick and lush and *whole*(it can never be whole, too much has been lost, the world will never, ever be the same). The structure expands. Nothing built before the Happening is sealed tightly enough to keep out the dust, microscopic in size as it is.

Coastal regions get some amount of moisture, from the fetid winds that blow off the heaving corpse-lungs of the ocean. Without zooplankton and other organisms to manage the growth of phytoplankton and algae, it is trapped in a cycle of explosion and eutrophication. Life survives in the deepest depths of the oceans, some think, though it, too, may be dead, suffocated by lack of oxygen. Without mollusks or corals or jellyfish or anything to filter the water, the upper layers are thick with rotting plant matter. Some of it sinks, some of it floats. It becomes nutritional matter for the next growth explosion, and that, too, will rot.

A garden is made, sheltered to the extent that it can be. Carefully-selected plants take root in the mulch of their ancestors. Rain is strange and violent, heaved against mountains by wind currents, which themselves are driven by the vast temperature differences of the unevenly-heated planet. There is no friction upon the ground to slow it down, excepting the husks of once-grand cities and their slowly-falling towers. Floods are frequent, in the places that do get rain. Drought prevails elsewhere. Even when rain falls, there is nothing to receive it but silt and clay and stone (and a few spare bacteria). Murky streams of water wind their way to the ocean. Inch by inch, plants come back. Nature will not return for a hundred million years. Until then, until some random quirk of genetics pushes organisms from microbial to sizable, who knows what will happen? If we are lucky, lichens and mosses remain in the great vault of humanity. If we are unlucky, every inch of un-desertification will take holes and effort and windbreaks and labor.

Basically the world kinda needs animals, at least through our understanding of it. Continents are big, and life as we know it has evolved in a web of give and take, push and pull, supply and demand. Without one half of that equation, it is a fundamentally different setup. Maybe algaes can be stable. Maybe they can't. I don't really know. I'd recommend looking into the hows-and-whys-and-whats of various extinction periods in Earth's history to get a better idea of how things happen. It won't capture a picture of what life without animals could look like, but hey, it's something.

Also, cannibalism (at least in humans) is generally only seen as a desperate measure for survival. Prion diseases are a genuine risk, along with whatever else may have killed the person. With how many plagues (and other afflictions) humans can carry, eating a dead person generally isn't worth the risk. Also also, human brains take a lot of protein. That can be obtained through non-animal needs, but it's less efficient (in terms of digestibility and protein density, not in terms of overall energy transformation efficiency of sunshine -> meal). If famine ever hits, a plant-only diet is far more vulnerable to starvation (in times of famine, fish have saved lives).

[workersolidarity]

🇺🇳⚔️🇮🇱 🚨

WHO REPORT CALLS AL-SHIFA HOSPITAL AN "EMPTY SHELL" AND DESCRIBES A GRAVE YARD

A newly published World Health Organization (WHO) report on the Israeli occupation raid on Al-Shifa Medical Complex, located in the Al-Rimal neighborhood of Gaza City, calls the hospital an "empty shell" and describes a ruined courtyard with "numerous shallow graves" filled with the bodies of murdered Palestinians.

According to the WHO, the organization tried on six different occasions to organize a mission to visit the hospital in order to evacuate patients, staff and displaced civilian sheltering inside, but were "denied, delayed or impeded" six times between March 25th and April 1st, 2024.

The WHO said the hospital, which had been Gaza's "largest and most important" referral hospital in the Gaza Strip and said it is now "nothing more than an empty shell," with no patients, no doctors and a majority of the hospital's equipment and facilities completely or partially destroyed, including the hospital's emergency department and its maternity ward, both of which were destroyed by "explosives and fire."

The Israeli occupation army also destroyed the hospital's oxygen plant, which the WHO says leaves only Kamal Adwan Hospital in Beit Lahiya, in the northern Gaza Strip, which was also damaged during a previous weeks-long Israeli siege and eventual raid back in December, 2023.

However, the horrific part of the WHO report comes when WHO personnel describe what they witnessed outside on the hospital grounds, writing in the report how, "numerous shallow graves have been dug just outside the emergency department, and the administrative and surgical buildings."

"In the same area, many dead bodies were partially buried with their limbs visable. During the visit, WHO staff witnessed at least five bodies lying partially exposed to the heat. The team reported a pungent smell of decomposing bodies engulfing the compound. Safeguarding dignity, even in death, is an indespensible act of humanity."

Further, survivors of the raid described to the WHO teams horrific treatment at the hands of the Zionist army, telling the WHO they'd endured "severe lack of food, water, healthcare, hygiene, and sanitation, and were forced to relocate between buildings at gunpoint."

"At least 20 patients have reportedly died due to the lack of access to care and limited movement authorized for healthcare personnel," the WHO added.

Despite the horrendous scenes the WHO teams were met with, they'd endured several delays, and even the illegal detention of a driver, before gaining access to the site and they also said more than half of all their missions to Gaza have been met with delays, impediments and postponements.

Worse still, the WHO says the loss of the Al-Shifa medical complex has "broken the backbone of the already ailing health system" in Gaza. This after the WHO worked to restore basic services at Al-Shifa after a previous Israeli raid inflicted damage to the hospital's functionality, saying in the report that all those efforts are "now lost."

Out of 36 hospitals functioning in Gaza on October 7th, 2023, only 10 remain at this time to serve over 2 million Palestinians, most of them displaced, and nearly 5% of Gazans dead, wounded or missing.

Meanwhile, with a looming Israeli invasion of Rafah, the WHO fears Gaza could be facing "unimaginable health consequences" from Israel's war and its "systematic dismantling of health care" in the Gaza Strip.

The report finishes by warning that, "as famine looms, disease outbreaks spread, and traumatic injuries increase, WHO calls for unimpeded access of humanitarian aid into and across the Gaza Strip, and a lasting ceasefire."

#source1

#source2

#source3

#photovideosource

@WorkerSolidarityNews

[cavalierzee]

Israel Is "Engineering Famine" In Gaza

Amnesty International says Israel is ���engineering famine” in Gaza. Organization head Agnes Callamard adds, “all states that cut UNRWA funding, sold weapons and supported Israel bear responsibility too.”

Yazan Al-Kafarna, a 9-year-old Palestinian boy with cerebral palsy, was forced to flee the Israeli invasion of Beit Hanoun with his family to southern Gaza. Recently, Yazan’s health deteriorated due to a shortage of food and oxygen.

Today, Yazan passed away due to insufficient healthcare and a lack of specialized food for his condition at Abu Youssef Al-Najjar Hospital, exacerbated by the Israeli blockade of Gaza.

Biden and Netanyahu did this. Media justified it. Institutions protected it. Protestors lost jobs and reputations fighting it. We will never forget. Or forgive.

Abdul Rahman Al-Dahdouh, an elderly Palestinian, died due to severe dehydration and malnutrition as a result of Israel’s continuous prevention of food convoys from reaching northern parts of Gaza.

Israel did this. With the full support of the US and Britain. We must ensure every criminal who played a role in this genocide faces justice.

Future generations will not forgive us if we don’t.

[p1nkcomet]

you are the sun and each morning i wait for you. like a starving man i yearn for your glance in my direction, praying for you to come and save me. when night falls, the bright stars almost recreate the lovely twinkle im your eye, yet you still outshine them. the moon is jealous i pay no attention to her; instead i count down the seconds until you rise again. in the midst of darkness, i reach for you, for even a blind man could see your beauty. as i wait for your beams to break the surface of the sky, i hear the birds flying in the distance, the sound of their flapping wings matching that of my heartbeat. you are the sun, a ball of fire and energy, you radiate warmth, and in the cold winter days people pray for you to come out for a chance to be purely grazed by your flames. i beg that you nourish me, feed me, save me. the universe orbits you, i spin around you, i trace your every move, i go where you go, like an obedient dog, i follow you. without you, the moon itself ceases to exist, a sliver of your reflection guides us even through the still hours of solitude; if you don’t see something, is its existence denied? you are the sun, and each time i hear the clock’s rhythmic tiks and taks i feel my pulse syncing with them. why do you stay away for so long? why do you make me wait? your presence lingers in the air, making it thick, unbearable, depriving me of oxygen, and ultimately suffocating me until your next appearance. why do you drag out each beat of a second, making us monumentally separate? when you rise, its a cue to the end of my heart’s famine, the very same heart that strains and tenses and twists into a feeling of hatred when you leave me to fend for myself. but even god himself knows i could never hate you, as he watches over me, he sends the wind to kiss my cheeks when you can’t. but i won’t be deceived, for you are the sun, the eternal smoldering, the everlasting blaze cast upon my soul. you are the sun, and when my wait is finally over, i ascent like i do each morning, ready to obey your trajectory. aristotle’s view states that all the heavenly bodies move in circular orbits in which each circumgyration is an exact repetition of every one that has preceded it, and even though my destiny of your trails serves a tragic end to it, and i know another will come to take the celestial place in which i stand, i will live out and devote my abiding loyalty to you, and only you, until it can burn into your skin the way your rays sink into mine.  

[hey-hamlet]

Quirk Analysis: Frog (Asui Tsuyu)

The quirks from My Hero Academia have always been my favourite bit, so I'm gonna have some fun doing some Izuku style quirk breakdowns. The science here will be both real and theoretical. Feel free to use any of this in fics. My science background is basically exclusively biology so expect that to be the basis for any of my fake quirk science. Have a quirk you wanna see next? Just tell me!

First things first - her quirk counselor should be dragged out into the street and shot - her quirk isn't frog - it's chameleon.

Now, you may say "but she looks like a frog" and true! She does! But so do her parents - Tokoyami's bird mutations are unrelated to his quirk, as are Spinner's Lizard-like traits, and were inherited from one or both parents. I'm sure Asui's are too, given both her parents have frog/toad like traits (another thing - frogs and toads aren't distinct types of animal, they are the same animal with different names based typically on aesthetics but without any taxonomic background. but. I digress.) Her other frog-like traits (regurgitating her stomach, mild toxins, etc) are likely also inherited mutations.

The tongue of a frog is attached at the front of the mouth, giving in the ability to sort of flap forward and back. It's very soft, sticky and actually rather short, but that forward attachment lets it extend quickly and a decent distance. This is nothing like Asui's long, flexible and muscular tongue. It more closely resembles a chameleon tongue, sans the bony support it has on the end, though she does seem to have a similar tongue pad. I'd actually say its a pretty even mix between the musculature and dexterity of a human tongue.

Her camouflage ability - its true some frogs can change colour, but its typically from one standard colour to another, often during the breeding season. A fine control over colour change is seen in chameleons, though its a communication tool rather than a camouflage. She has the ability to camouflage her uniform too, so we are just going to have to assume that's due to a DNA infused fabric or some sort of inbuilt translucency, otherwise she has a mild light manipulation quirk in addition to everything else and I don't want to think about it.

The colour change mechanism in chameleons is really cool too! They have a few layers of cells in their skin called chromatophores, each layer is either pigmented or reflects a certain colour of light (they have names, but just know the colours are red, yellow, black and blue, like a standard printer (yes i know its cyan and magenta not blue and red but my point still stands). The chromatophores can expand, showing more of their colour, or shrink, showing less giving us a a shade through optical colour mixing!

Blue is the colour that's only reflected light, not a pigment, it's colour is purely structural. This is true in all animals! Any time you see a blue animal (or admittedly a green one) the blue on them is due to a structural quality of their skin/scales/feathers. This is not true for plants (and possibly invertebrates? i don't know much about them).

So, basically, a more accurate description of her quirk is 'chameleon-like traits with frog-like vestigial mutations'.

Some extra questions

can she breathe through her skin? If she can, she'd be able to stay underwater/holding her breath much longer than any standard human, though it wouldn't be sustainable (surface area to volume ratio - she doesn't have enough skin to get enough oxygen to fulfill her needs).

cold triggers an involuntary hibernation - the idea she can hibernate at all is just wild. It requires a lot of very specific adaptions to do so, which we'd have to assume her quirk gave her. This means her heart-rate and metabolic rate can slow dramatically without any ill-effects - chilling her would be an effective way to stop her from bleeding out, or a way to conserve energy during a famine/siege.

some frogs which hibernate in areas that reach below freezing have natural mechanisms which prevent damage to tissues when frozen - a natural antifreeze. she should be highly resistant to frostbite and death by hypothermia. you could also cryogenicly freeze her and then defrost her at a later date.

chameleons can control both eyes individually, giving them a great degree of vision while sacrificing depth perception - could tsuyu? given practise, any human can do it, so it's not impossible, but the increase in visual field would be limited and not particularly practical.

[ask-thearchivists]

A Merriwixil just sounds like a human but with extra steps

The Coordinator: Ah, so humans are also covered in green pseudo-fur with four eyes and venom? Do they also have the ability to scale completely vertical surfaces without assistance or training? You simply must let me know if they absorb carbon dioxide and expel oxygen for a lesser form of energy that allows them to survive longer when faced with prolonged famine.

[graff1980]

Don’t breath in. This is not oxygen but the ashes of destruction you’re inhaling.

We are headed for a collision with Earth’s environmental protection system, the one that seeks equilibrium.

So to you humans who have been cultivating poisons, and treating this ecosystem as if it is a toy for men to continue destroying, those exploiting natural resources, you are invited to leave, because you are not what this biosphere needs.

Thus, there will be severe storm warnings, tornadoes incoming, and no place for you to keep running to.

There will be floods a plenty, famine, and droughts, cancer, and gout, toxic gasses to knock you out, and radiation to come that may make you sterile.

There will be limited time only viewing like a natural disaster B movie, before there is no home for humanity, and the best that we can hope for is that we don’t wipe out other species before we go extinct.

-2024

[girlboss-enthusiast]

When a radical feminist (or anyone, actually) points out that males are, on average, stronger than females, everyone gets up in arms. “You’re saying women are weak! You’re saying that women are biologically inferior! You think women are feminine little dolls who need to be protected by big strong men! Why do you hate women?!”

But, their bizarre leap from “less muscular” to “weak and feminine” aside, raw strength is not the only metric of physical capability. For example:

Women are much better at ultra-endurance sports, owing to:

Muscle composition—females have muscle fatigue and more slow twitch muscle fibers, resulting in better oxygen delivery [x]

Better ability to pace themselves and think ahead [x]

More body fat, allowing female bodies to oxidize more fat than carbohydrates, which is more effective and sustainable long-term [x]

The science of female endurance leads us to the next point: women are more likely to survive extreme situations like natural disasters, famine, and disease.

Estrogen increases immune reactivity, meaning women are more capable of fighting infections [x]

Women are more likely to survive serious physical trauma, also due to estrogen [x]

XX chromosomes provide genetic diversity and provide a “backup” allele in case of a deleterious mutation on one X chromosome, making females less susceptible to genetic disease [x]

Female infants are hardier than male infants due to the above, even in populations where sex preference for male children is high [x]

Increased body fat makes women less likely to starve or freeze [x]

Want to bring a little more neuroendocrinology into this? Women are more likely to remain cool under pressure, from direct threats to physical safety to emotional stress.

Cortisol affects the brain differently in females and males, causing males to take emotionally-driven risks while women evaluate threats more logically [x]

In fight-or-flight scenarios, testosterone increases the likelihood of violent or extreme reactions in males, while females release oxytocin instead—women are not as inclined to make extreme, snap decisions when faced with a threat [x]

tl;dr get a man if you need a hyperemotional brute to kick down a door. If your physical task needs durability and logic, a woman will be much more helpful.

[cobra-shy]

(Night. Harper appears. She is in a window seat on board a jumbo jet, airborne.)

HARPER: Night flight to San Francisco. Chase the moon across America. God! It’s been years since I was on a plane! When we hit thirty-five-thousand feet, we’ll have reached the tropopause. The great belt of calm air. As close as I’ll ever get to the ozone. I dreamed we were there. The plane leapt the tropopause, the safe air, and attained the outer rim, the ozone, which was ragged and torn, patches of it threadbare as old cheesecloth, and that was frightening... But I saw something that only I could see, because of my astonishing ability to see such things:

Souls were rising, from the earth far below, souls of the dead, of people who had perished, from famine, from war, from the plague, and they floated up, like skydivers in reverse, limbs all akimbo, wheeling and spinning. And the souls of these departed joined hands, clasped ankles, and formed a web, a great net of souls, and the souls were three-atom oxygen molecules, of the stuff of ozone, and the outer rim absorbed them, and was repaired. Nothing’s lost forever. In this world, there’s a kind of painful progress. Longing for what we’ve left behind, and dreaming ahead. At least I think that’s so.

(Angels in America Part Two: Perestroika. Act 5, Scene 8.)

[crmsnmth]

Meet Me at The End of the World

When every building in the cities comes crashing down underneath it's own weightless And as the fields burn in eternal flame feeding off it's own heat wind oxygen Famine shall rule the world

When the blue sky turns to fire torching feathers and clouds alike And down upon the ground Every tree petrifies and turns to stone War shall rule the world

When new beasts rise out of the depths With an unstoppable taste for human flesh And when the dead rise up from their graves Biting and rabid and feral and immortal Conquest shall rule the world

When the silence finally overtakes the ash And the moon is now just rocks in orbit The sun will be as black as tar and shine nothing And the world cannot get back up from it's wounds Death shall rule the world.

[workersolidarity]

[ 📹 In another atrocity committed by the Israeli occupation army, the IOF targets a group of civilians, activists and reporters in a drone strike, wounding a reporter in his hand and a young woman in her mid-section who is rushed to hospital by the group.]

🇮🇱⚔️🇬🇧 🚀💥🚑 🚨

💥ISRAELI OCCUPATION COMMITS 10 NEW MASSACRES ON DAY 133 OF GENOCIDAL WAR IN GAZA💥

On the 133rd day of Israel's war of genocide in the Gaza Strip, the Israeli Occupation Forces (IOF) committed 10 new massacres, resulting in the deaths of more than 112 civilians and wounding another 157 Palestinians over the previous 24-hours.

According to Gaza's Ministry of Health, large numbers of dead and wounded still remain under the rubble of homes and buildings, or strewn across local roads and streets as the IOF blocks ambulance and civil defense crews from reaching victims.

In the early morning hours, Israeli artillery, drone, missile and airstrikes targeting various areas of the Gaza Strip resulting in a number of dead and wounded.

In the southern Gaza city of Rafah, where the world awaits an immenent invasion by the IOF, occupation aircraft dropped several bombs targeting two civilian residences belonging to the Judeh and Zarub families in the central and northern areas of the city, resulting in the deaths of 11 Palestinians and wounding several others.

Yesterday, Israeli occupation forces raided the Nasser Medical Complex in Khan Yunis, forcing out hundreds of civilians sheltering inside, along with medical staff and patients.

The Israeli occupation launched a large-scale ground invasion in the south of Gaza, in particular in Khan Yunis, where they raided Nasser Hospital, forcing the relocation of 95 healthcare personnel, along with 11 of their family members, 191 patients, and 165 displaced civilians sheltering inside. They were all forced out of the supplied units of the newer hospital building and into the old Nasser building under inhumane conditions.

In a mockingly horrifying twist of imaginary accusations made years ago against Iraq, accusing them of leaving babies to die on the floors of neonatal units of hospitals in Kuwait, the bodies of several infants were found dead in Nasser Hospital after occupation forces forcibly evacuated the hospital of staff and refused to arrange for proper care or movement of the infants, ignoring the babies and leaving them to die.

Meanwhile, Israeli forces continue to besiege the few functional sections of the old Nasser Medical building, with occupation snipers staging on nearby rooftops targeting anyone moving near the complex and its surrounds.

According to Gaza's Ministry of Health, the Israeli occupation's raid of the hospital resulted in a power outage which led to the deaths of three patients dependent on oxygen tanks.

The Ministry also added that two Palestinian women gave birth under "dire and inhumane conditions, without electricity, without water, without food, and without heating, in the Nasser Medical Complex.”

Southeast of Khan Yunis, in the south of Gaza, Israeli aircraft launched several air raids on civilian areas, while occupation artillery shelling targeted the east of Beit Hanoun in the northern Gaza Strip.

Occupation warplanes also bombarded two civilian residences belonging to the Sabbah and Afana families on Al-Sika Street, east of Jabalia, killing several civilians, including a pregnant woman, and wounding a number of others.

Meanwhile, as Israel's siege of the Gaza Strip continues indefinitely, it has been reported that several children died at the Kamal Adwan Hospital in Beit Lahia as a result of disease, famine and a lack of potable water. Such easily preventable deaths are a direct result of Israel's unwillingness to allow humanitarian aid in to the Gaza Strip. More than 600'000 Palestinians are not receiving humanitarian aid in areas besieged by the IOF.

IOF warplanes are also targeting the Tal al-Zaatar neighborhood, as well as shelling the al-Mughraqa area in northern parts of the Central Governate and in the vicinity of the University college in the south of the al-Sabra neighborhood in Gaza City.

The Israeli occupation air forces also used warplanes to bomb the al-Sabra and al-Zaytoun neighborhoods of Gaza City, while artillery shelling by the IOF targeted the Sheikh Ajlin neighborhood in the west of the city.

Also in Gaza City, an Israeli airstrike bombed a civilian vehicle and group of civilians on al-Jala street, resulting in the deaths of three Palestinians and injuries to five other civilians, while also dealing significant damage to nearby properties and buildings.

According to local reports, medical staff, patients and the displaced trapped inside are without access to food, clean water or baby formula.

It has been reported that the Israeli occupation army has turned the main Nasser building into a military barracks for its troops as they continue bombing, shelling, and opening gunfire on civilians in nearby neighborhoods.

Meanwhile, the Palestinian Red Crescent Society (PRCS) is reporting the return of two of its medical doctors, Dr. Jamal Ayad and Dr. Nadez Qerm, after being abducted by the Israeli occupation army during its raid of the Al-Amal Hospital in Khan Yunis.

The two PRCS medical staff were kidnapped during the recent raid of the hospital. As of the time of publishing, 12 PRCS personnel, including 7 from Al-Amal Hospital, remain detained by the Israeli occupation.

At the same time, PRCS is also reporting that Israeli tanks fired shells towards the second floor of Al-Amal Hospital, resulting in heavy damage to two nursing rooms, though luckily, no one was injured in the attack.

According to the Red Crescent, occupation tanks have been stationed outside Al-Amal Hospital's entrance gate for more than two weeks now, preventing aid or supplies from reaching the hospital.

PRCS also mentioned that the Israeli occupation has seized the funds of the Red Crescent Society, along with its personnel and even that of their patients and their companions in the hospital, along with their personal belongings. They also confiscated computers and wireless communication devices used by hospital staff and those of the Society.

PRCS again issued a statement calling on the international community to intervene on behalf of its personnel working to save lives in the Gaza Strip, asking that they protect its staff, patients, and the civilians sheltering inside and on the premises.

As a direct result of Israel's ongoing war of genocide in the Gaza Strip, in excess of 28'775 Palestinians have been killed, mostly women and children, while another 68'552 civilians have been wounded since October 7th, 2023.

#source1

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#videosource

@WorkerSolidarityNews

[capybaracorn]

Anesthetics, crutches, dates. Inside Israel’s ghost list of items arbitrarily denied entry into Gaza

(Al-Zarqa, Jordan) - Humanitarian workers and government officials working to deliver urgently needed aid for Gaza say a clear pattern has emerged of Israeli obstruction, as disease and near-famine grip parts of the besieged enclave.

The Israeli agency that controls access to Gaza for the multi-billion-dollar aid effort has imposed arbitrary and contradictory criteria, according to more than two dozen humanitarian and government officials interviewed by CNN.

CNN has also reviewed documents compiled by major participants in the humanitarian operation that list the items most frequently rejected by the Israelis. These include anesthetics and anesthesia machines, oxygen cylinders, ventilators and water filtration systems.

Other items that have ended up in bureaucratic limbo include dates, sleeping bags, medicines to treat cancer, water purification tablets and maternity kits.

Israel’s throttling of aid came into sharper focus Thursday when its military opened fire as desperate Palestinians gathered around food aid trucks in western Gaza City, according to eyewitnesses. This triggered panic and some people were shot while others were plowed by trucks whose drivers tried to flee, eyewitnesses say. At least 112 Palestinians were killed and hundreds more were injured, according to health officials. The IDF said it had fired warning shots to disperse a crowd after seeing that people were being trampled.

A White House readout of a phone call between US President Joe Biden and Qatari Emir Tamim al-Thani on Thursday said both leaders agreed the horrific event underscored“the urgency of bringing negotiations to a close as soon as possible and expanding the flow of humanitarian assistance into Gaza.”

US Senator Chris Murphy said the situation was “a result of the complete breakdown in social order in Gaza, which is spiraling out of control without a massive influx of humanitarian aid and a pause in the fighting.”

[See article for embedded video]

For months, queues of trucks bound for the enclave have been backed up along the highway leading from the Egyptian town of Arish, a major logistical hub for aid, to the Rafah crossing with Gaza. In a satellite image from February 21, a queue of trucks can be seen stretching out for 4 miles from the crossing.

Across the border, Israel’s bombardment edges closer to some two million people hemmed in between the southern Gazan city of Rafah and Egypt’s frontier. Further north, at least six children have died in hospitals in recent days from dehydration and malnutrition, according to Gaza’s health ministry.

"It’s deliberately opaque, deliberately ambiguous" - Senior humanitarian official

“While there’s a war being fought in Gaza, we are fighting a different war here,” said one humanitarian worker at Egypt’s Rafah crossing with Gaza. “It is a war to bring humanitarian aid to Gaza.”

Most of CNN’s sources requested anonymity for fear, they said, of reprisals and further Israeli restrictions on an already choked aid pipeline.

Several sources said a substantial portion of the donations they handled were either rejected or held up by a long wait for clearance by Israel’s Coordinator of Government Activities in the Territories, or COGAT, which manages the flow of aid into the strip.

“It is perfectly engineered chaos,” said one CNN source who oversees donations from four different relief organizations at one of the transit routes. Over 15,000 tons of their relief supplies await Israeli approval to enter Gaza, the source said. More than half consists of food items.

“It’s deliberately opaque, deliberately ambiguous,” said another senior humanitarian official. “You can receive clearance from COGAT and arrive to find police or finance and customs officials who will send the truck back.”

In a statement provided to CNN after publication of this report, COGAT said that it had facilitated the admission of humanitarian aid to Gaza since the beginning of the war. It said that “dual use products for humanitarian infrastructures are not sweepingly denied entry,” but were subject to “security evaluation” to prevent them being used by Hamas. In relation to allegations that specific goods were denied entry, it said that these are subjected to security checks to ensure they are not used for “terrorist purposes.”

COGAT described the testimony given to CNN as “false accusations” and criticized the decision to go public with the claims.

“Israel assists, encourages and facilitates the entry of humanitarian aid for the residents of the Gaza Strip and for medical and other critical infrastructures in the strip,” the statement said. “Israel’s war is against the Hamas terrorist organization, not against the residents of the Gaza Strip.

Israel has long barred certain items from entering Gaza. In 2007, it imposed a blockade on the strip after Hamas took over. A year later, COGAT released a list of banned “dual use” items, making slight modifications to the document in the years that followed.

These are goods which, it said, could be repurposed for military use and would be barred from entering Gaza, such as concrete, agricultural fertilizer, certain chemicals and other miscellaneous items like binoculars, underwater cameras and water skis.

But those criteria appear to have been abandoned in the aftermath of Hamas’ brutal October 7 attack on Israel, which left about 1,200 people dead and over 250 people held hostage, according to Israeli authorities.

"We provide minimal humanitarian aid… If we want to achieve our war goals, we give the minimal aid" - Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu

The Israeli military responded with an intensive air, sea and land assault on Gaza that has sent the death toll soaring to over 30,000 people, according to Gaza’s health ministry, devastating most of the strip’s buildings and houses, as well as large swathes of its commercial sector and farmlands.

In a January 13 press conference, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu boasted about permitting “minimal humanitarian aid” to enter Gaza.

“We provide minimal humanitarian aid,” Netanyahu said. “If we want to achieve our war goals, we give the minimal aid.”

Palestinians flock around a truck carrying bottles of drinking water sent by the United Nations' children's agency, UNICEF, as civilians experience water and food shortages on November 21, 2023.Abed Zagout/Anadolu/Getty Images

Exacerbating the situation is an apparent ghost list impeding the delivery of a wide range of items.

“I’ve never seen a supply chain that ought to be so simple be so complicated,” said Save the Children US president and chief executive Janti Soeripto. “The level of barriers being put in place to hamper humanitarian assistance; we’ve never seen anything like it.”

Soeripto, who visited the Egyptian side of the Rafah crossing with a UN convoy in January, told CNN she saw several items that Israeli inspectors had turned back.

She said toys were rejected because they were in a wooden box rather than a cardboard box, sleeping bags were denied because they had zippers, and sanitary pads were turned back because a nail clipper was included in the hygiene kit.

In January, US Senators Chris Van Hollen and Jeff Merkley saw maternity kits and water filtration systems among the items Israel turned back from its inspection point in Nitzana.

“In no rational world could (these) be deemed dual use or any kind of military threat,” Van Hollen told CNN weeks after his trip to Egypt’s side of the Rafah crossing.

“We learned that when a truck with just one of those items is turned down, the entire truck gets turned around and has to go back to the beginning of the process, which can take weeks,” Van Hollen said.

“We talked to the heads of international aid organizations that had been working in conflicts worldwide for decades,” the senator added. “They said they’d never seen a more broken system.”

The situation prompted Van Hollen to spearhead US congressional efforts to hold Israel accountable for its handling of humanitarian aid, which he described on the Senate floor earlier this month as a “textbook war crime.”

Israel’s elusive guidelines on restricted items

Publicly, COGAT claims that it has abided by its 2008 banned items list. In private, COGAT has said that that document is now obsolete, according to a humanitarian official in direct contact with the Israeli unit.

COGAT enforced the 2008 list when the war first erupted on October 7, the official said. “About three weeks in, they said that list is not valid for this response. This is a different context. They said ignore the list.”

CNN’s weeks long investigation has documented multiple examples of the erratic process that followed, with officials sometimes falling back on the 2008 guidelines and other times citing them as redundant.

In one instance on February 14, COGAT rejected a truck-load of sleeping bags “because they were the color green, and green means military and according to the 2008 list, military is dual use,” the same humanitarian official told CNN.

“No one can argue that sleeping bags are going to win a war,” the official said. “We did push back on that and warned them that it would look pretty silly if this got out.”

Four sources described another incident when Israel rejected a shipment of dates – a rich source of nutrients desperately needed by a hungry population. Two of the sources said it was because the seeds were picked up as a suspicious object in the x-ray inspection imaging.

Other trucks carrying dates have been allowed into Gaza, according to UN data. But humanitarian workers have said they are worried about a repeat, and several have resorted to pitting dates prior to inspection.

Donations must pass two COGAT hurdles before entering Gaza. Aid organizations must first get clearance for their shipments from COGAT, then the trucks must clear Israeli inspection points. Items have been rejected at both of those stages, according to CNN’s sources.

COGAT provides a range of reasons for these denials. Sometimes it cites bureaucratic issues, such as an incorrect manifest, other times the items are in whole or in part deemed to be dual use, sources said. Some of the reasons provided to humanitarian organizations appeared to be expressly political. Most of the time, COGAT doesn’t provide a reason for the rejections at all.

“Where do you draw the line?” one humanitarian source involved in the aid operation told CNN, referring to Israel’s elusive criteria on dual use items.

The confusion prompted Israeli rights group GISHA to file a Freedom of Information Act request on February 7 asking the Israeli government to release details of any new restrictions on aid imposed since October 7.

“At the moment, there is very little transparency about the policy and procedures by which the government is operating,” Tania Hary, executive director of GISHA, told CNN. “We believe that Israel, as an occupying power in Gaza, has an obligation to provide for the civilian population’s needs in the strip.

“The Israeli public has a right to know what is being done in its name in Gaza.”

Anesthetics, crutches and other ‘frequently rejected items’

CNN has obtained documents from three major participants in the humanitarian operation that list what they called the “most frequently rejected items.” Among them are essential medical supplies: anesthesia machines and anesthetics, crutches, generators, ventilators, x-ray machines and oxygen cylinders.

For doctors and patients inside Gaza, the implications are excruciating. There are numerous reports of preventable deaths for lack of oxygen and ventilators. Over 1,000 children have undergone leg amputations in Gaza, according to UNICEF, some without anesthesia. That figure was compiled by UNICEF at the end of November and has not been updated since.

"There was no anesthesia. My anesthesia was the Quran which I was reciting" - Ahed Bseiso, 17, recalling her leg amputation

One doctor, Hani Bseiso, amputated his 17-year-old niece’s leg with a kitchen knife in his home, using only the clothes on his back to stop the bleeding and dish soap to clean her wounds. “An Israeli tank missile hit her when she was on the sixth floor of our building,” Bseiso told CNN. “I didn’t know what to do. I didn’t have anesthesia or any kind of medication.”

“There was no anesthesia. My anesthesia was the Quran which I was reciting,” the niece, Ahed Bseiso, later told a journalist working with CNN in Gaza. The amputation, carried out on her uncle’s dining table, was filmed and shared widely on social media.

Ahed Bseiso, 17, is seen weeks after her leg was amputated without anesthesia.Hani Bseiso

Medicines in Gaza began to run out shortly after the war erupted on October 7. Injuries from intensive bombardment skyrocketed while Israel stifled aid deliveries.

“Towards the end of my 43 days in Gaza, we had run out of anesthetic, and we were doing procedures with no anesthetic at all,” said British-Palestinian surgeon Dr. Ghassan Abu-Sittah from his clinic in London, two months after his return from Gaza.

“We were having to do extremely painful cleaning procedures to stop wound infections on children with no anesthetic and no analgesic.”

In the absence of appropriate medical supplies, Abu-Sittah concocted a solution to fight infection: dish soap mixed with vinegar and saline.

“I would pour that over the wound and scrub the wound down,” Abu-Sittah said. “It was probably the darkest moment of my life. The child was screaming. The parent was crying, and you’re trying to just block all of this out and do it as quickly as possible.

Dr Ghassan Abu-Sittah, a British-Palestinian surgeon, described working without essential medication and painkillers in Gaza as “the darkest moment” of his life.Alex Platt/CNN

Another humanitarian source inside Gaza said that in early February he witnessed a six-year-old child with burns covering 40% of her body. She was at a hospital in Rafah, the best supplied population center in Gaza, where medics could only give her aspirin to ease her agony.

Another woman, Um Adel, said her granddaughter died due to a lack of oxygen at a hospital in the southern Gazan city of Khan Younis.

“We were in Khan Younis. We couldn’t sleep during the day or the night because of the bombardment,” she told another journalist working with CNN in Gaza. “My granddaughter died because she was ill and there was no oxygen or any kind of medication for her. May her soul rest in peace.”

Israel’s restrictions have also impacted medicines for the chronically ill. For weeks, COGAT temporarily prevented insulin pens for children with diabetes from entering Gaza, according to the UN Humanitarian Coordinator for Palestine Jamie McGoldrick and one other source.

“On the goods that are being prohibited, it’s a full range,” said McGoldrick in a January 24 press conference. “Some of it is medical material such as basic drugs and material for treating not just trauma but for chronic illnesses.

“One example would be most recently the pens that are used for insulin for children,” he added. “In terms of the rationale for it, I really can’t explain it because I don’t know.

“These are essential commodities for us to address the emergency which is currently unfolding in a very dramatic fashion.”

An aid truck enters from Egypt en route to Gaza as seen from the Kerem Shalom crossing in Israel on December 22, 2023.Clodagh Kilcoyne/Reuters

At one of the waypoints of aid in Jordan, stacked boxes of donations extend for around eight miles, a backlog that would require around a thousand trucks to deliver, Jordan’s charity officials estimate.

The director of programs and planning for the Jordanian Hashemite Charity Organization (JHCO), Marwan al-Hennawy, slits open a box of food to show what should be reaching people in Gaza; this one contains rice, chicken stock, tuna and dates. It is enough to feed a family of five for two weeks.

Behind him are dozens of wheelchairs wrapped in dusty plastic. “We have 220 wheelchairs and we’ve been trying to get them in since the start of the war,” he told CNN during a rare tour of the warehouses of aid meant for Gaza.

Al-Hennawy scans the sea of boxes around him. “It’s painful to look around and see all this,” he says. “I feel like I’m trapped. I know Gazans desperately need this help but I can’t get it to them. It’s like a nightmare.”