I traveled from the U.S. to the West Bank on Oct. 2 to visit my Teta, my maternal grandmother, for a week. Instead, I stayed for one month to document my people’s fight for freedom, and witness their pain.

Reflecting on my time, in arguably the “safest” part of the West Bank, 50 miles from the Gaza Strip, torments me. As Amnesty International has documented, Palestinians—whether in the West Bank, Gaza, or Israel, are subjected to the same system of apartheid. Still, it can feel insincere: Ramallah, the occupied city I reside in, is just one drop compared to the ocean of erasure taking place right now in Gaza. 

However, my elders always remind me that we are one. Though I am as old as the first Oslo Accord—which now lingers as an emblem for failed Palestinian statehood and peace—I resist envisioning freedom in fragmentation. 

My photographs are what I witnessed in the 5 square miles around me in the West Bank, over the span of just three weeks, beginning two days after the Oct. 7 attack on Israel. Unlawful killings of teenagers, collective punishment, and genocidal violence in my own backyard. 

On Oct.  8, I entered Qalandia refugee camp to have dinner with my paternal family. One hour after we washed the dishes, news broke that Yasser al-Kasba, 17, had been shot and killed near the Qalandia checkpoint by an Israeli sniper while his back was turned.

More From TIME

On Oct.  12, I visited the Sarriyeh sports club, where there were upwards of 400 Palestinian workers from Gaza who were stranded in Israel after Oct. 7. One man received news that three of his family members were killed by an Israeli airstrike. “What about the others?” he screamed to his relative on the phone in Gaza. “We are still picking up the rubble,” he replied.⁣

Days later, when I went to the Redanna sports club, chants from dozens of other Palestinian workers from Gaza could be heard: “We declare from Gaza: uprising and victory.” A protest by Palestinian refugees, inside a refuge, within occupied lands.

A 60-year-old worker told me: “I just want to hear the voice of my grandchildren. You think we are happy here? We don’t want food or water, we want to go back to Gaza. We would die for our land.”

A friend and photographer from Gaza, Majd Arandas, texted me to ask if I could check on his brother-in-law, who was one of the workers taking refuge in Ramallah.

On Oct. 25, tear gas and rifle fire woke me up while in Qalandia refugee camp. I closed the windows of our home as my 6-year-old cousin had done during the previous raid. I woke up an hour later to the mosque’s speakers. The imam was not making the morning call to prayer, but announcing another killing, Ahmad Mutair—a high-school student and fourth-generation refugee was shot by an Israeli sniper while he stood on his roof to see what was happening. The Israeli government has not issued a public statement on Mutair or al-Kasba.

On Oct. 28, I walked into the aftermath of a home demolition in the Jalazon refugee camp, hours after dozens of Israeli soldiers raided the camp alongside a bulldozer. Six Palestinian families and three generations of refugees lost their homes at sunrise. Their bread for the morning was still laid out on their dining room table. Israel’s punitive home demolitions are a form of unlawful collective punishment and a grave breach of the Fourth Geneva Convention.  

On Nov. 1, I returned to the U.S. for a few weeks to be with my partner. While on the plane, I could not bear to look out of the window. I felt nauseous sharing the same view as the drones, Apache helicopters, and F-16 jets; my tax dollars bombing Gaza.  

I connected to the wifi in the plane and received a message about my photographer friend.

“Majd was killed.” His neighborhood was hit by an Israeli airstrike.

Hammad is a documentary photographer, based between Boston and Ramallah, West Bank. Hammad also works as a human rights researcher and campaigner.

Like everyone now in the Gaza Strip, Mohammed Zaanoun has been living breath by breath, in fear of what might fall from the sky, but he continues to send photographs and video clips to keep the spotlight on what people there are experiencing. Here is his latest dispatch:

27 November – Pause brings some respite

The good news is that Zaanoun, who reported being sick after drinking dirty water in his previous dispatch, is now feeling better after managing to get his hands on some medication. But one of his four children isn’t doing so well, possibly due to the lack of food or the pollution. Zaanoun also had to pull them out of the rubble, for a second time, as the house they were sheltering in was hit by an Israeli strike. That was before the four-day pause in fighting began on Friday, offering some respite. In this clip, Zaanoun shows the Abu al-Ruk family taking advantage of the lull to gather around a fire near the ruins of their home in eastern Khan Younis. Zaanoun says his own family headed there in a rush and has no winter clothes.

Back in May, The New Humanitarian began working with Zaanoun on a special project to explore what daily life looked like in Gaza – a place where, despite the sporadic media coverage, the impacts of decades of occupation and the effects of war were constants.

Everything changed overnight on 7 October, after a raid into Israel by Hamas gunmen left 1,200 people dead, many of them civilians who were killed deliberately, according to the Israeli authorities. Hamas, the political and militant group that governs the Gaza Strip, also took around 240 hostages back into the coastal enclave, according to the Israeli military.

Gaza has faced weeks of intense Israeli bombardment since. A total siege cut off water and electricity and blocked the entry of food, fuel, and medical supplies to the roughly 2.3 million people living there – some 80% of whom have now been displaced by the bombardment and an Israeli ground invasion that has cut the densely populated enclave in two.

Only a trickle of humanitarian aid made it into Gaza – through the Rafah border crossing with Egypt – before a four-day pause from 24 November saw aid organisations scaling up the delivery of much-need assistance. But due to the fuel shortages and sheer level of destruction, this is still failing to reach many people, especially in cut-off northern Gaza.

More than 14,000 Palestinians – mostly women and children – have been killed by Israel’s military operations, according to the Health Ministry in Gaza. At least 57 journalists and media workers have been killed covering the hostilities since 7 October, in addition to well over 100 aid workers, mostly from the UN agency for Palestine refugees, UNRWA.

Israel has vowed to continue its ground invasion after the pause, but there are hopes it might be extended if Hamas agrees to release more hostages. UN experts have warned that time is running out to “prevent genocide and humanitarian catastrophe”.

To view the snapshots from before 7 October, click here, and find more of Zaanoun’s latest dispatches below:

23 November – ‘We couldn’t find anyone to help us’

In his last filing before being struck down sick, due, he believes, to drinking dirty water, Zaanoun filed this report, interviewing Asma Ayad al-Rifi. Last month, she had been ordered, along with many other Palestinians, to evacuate from their neighbourhood in eastern Gaza to an area the Israelis said would be safe. “They were lying,” Al-Rifi says, as she recounts how an Israeli strike led to the roof falling on their heads in the middle of the night. She describes how two women and six children were killed instantly as they became buried in the rubble of the building where they were sheltering, in Nuseirat, in the central Gaza Strip. Al-Rifi had to pull others out, herself, by hand.

16 November – ‘It’s raining now in Gaza’

In this snapshot, we’ve combined Zaanoun’s photographs with an audio diary from Maha Hussaini, an award-winning journalist and human rights activist in Gaza. Hussaini was forced to leave her home in Gaza City on 13 October. In this voice note, she says that she loves autumn, winter, and the rainy weather that the colder seasons bring. But for the first time in her life she is praying that the rain will stop soon because it is making life harder for the around 1.6 million people in Gaza who have been displaced by Israel’s bombardment and military campaign. Many of the displaced are staying in tents. “I actually cannot imagine their situation now as the rain is pouring down,” Hussaini said. Listen to her full voice note below, and read her recent first-person article: In Gaza, death seems closer than water.

10 November – ‘Fellow journalists live in the same tent’

Zaanoun and other Palestinian journalists in Gaza continue to cover Israel’s bombardment and near-total siege of the enclave, even as they struggle to cope with the killing of dozens of colleagues and the effects of violence on themselves and their families. They are playing a crucial role by reporting from inside Gaza as Israel continues to bar international journalists who are not embedded with the Israeli military from entering the enclave. Many journalists in Gaza have been displaced from their homes and have sought refuge in hospitals, where they are able to charge their phones, laptops, and cameras, and where they have a better chance of connecting to weak internet signals to send their photos, videos, and stories to the outside world. If the dwindling supply of fuel for back-up generators powering the hospitals runs out, Zaanoun and others could find themselves completely cut off.

Back in May, The New Humanitarian began working with Zaanoun on a special project to explore what daily life looks like in Gaza, a place where occupation and the effects of war are a constant.

It all changed on 7 October after a raid into Israel by Hamas gunmen, who killed around 1,400 people, according to the Israeli Health Ministry, many of them civilians. Hamas, the political and militant group that governs Gaza, also took around 200 to 250 hostages back into the coastal enclave, according to the Israeli military.

Gaza has been under intense Israeli bombardment since, and on 9 October Israel announced a total siege that cut off water and electricity and blocked the entry of food, fuel, medical supplies, and humanitarian relief to the roughly 2.3 million people living there. Only a trickle of humanitarian aid has been allowed to enter Gaza from Egypt.

Israel also launched a ground invasion into northern Gaza on 27 October, but little independent information is known about how it is progressing because Israel and Egypt are not allowing international journalists into Gaza, and Palestinian journalists in the enclave are working under extremely dangerous conditions – at least 34 have been killed since 7 October.

More than 11,000 Palestinians – mostly women and children – have been killed by the Israeli bombardments, according to the Health Ministry in Gaza. As Israel’s military action in Gaza continues unabated, UN experts have warned that time is running out to “prevent genocide and humanitarian catastrophe”.

To view the snapshots from before 7 October, click here, and find more of Zaanoun’s latest dispatches below:

6 November – ‘My friend, his family was killed’ 

Dozens of people were killed in a blast in the densely populated al-Maghazi refugee camp in the central Gaza Strip on Saturday night, including the family of Zaanoun’s friend and fellow photojournalist Mohammed al-Aloul. The blast was one of several in refugee camps in Gaza over the weekend, as the death toll from Israel’s now month-long bombardment and siege of the enclave continues to spiral. The health ministry in Gaza, which is governed by Hamas, said at least 45 people were killed in an Israeli airstrike on al-Maghazi camp. The Israeli military has said it cannot confirm whether it was responsible for the blast. Four of al-Aloul’s five children were killed. His wife and one-year-old son survived.

3 November – ‘How long will we be removing bodies?’

Zaanoun reports from al-Shati refugee camp in the north of Gaza, where rescuers are digging through the rubble after an Israeli airstrike. It appears too late to find survivors, and they are now just working to retrieve the bodies of some of the children killed. One man tells Zaanoun that seven homes were destroyed and at least 14 children killed. His sister is among the dead. “How long will we be removing bodies in Gaza?” the man asks. “Until when? You have destroyed us, that’s enough.”

31 October – Shut off completely from the world

For roughly 36 hours, between 27 and 29 October, almost all cellular and internet service in the Gaza Strip stopped working amidst heavy Israeli bombardment and the beginning of a ground invasion. The communications blackout made it so people couldn’t call ambulances after airstrikes, speak with relatives, or deliver information about what was happening in the enclave to the outside world. Even as services have been restored, concerns remain over access to information. Israel and Egypt are blocking international journalists from entering Gaza, while at least 26 Palestinian journalists have been killed, most by Israeli airstrikes on the enclave. After communications were restored, Zaanoun was able to resume sending photos.

27 October – ‘We bid farewell to the family of our colleague’

Zaanoun goes to Al-Aqsa Hospital to share condolences with fellow journalist Wael al-Dahdouh, Al Jazeera’s bureau chief in Gaza, whose family were killed in an Israeli airstrike. He says people have been told to go to the south of the Gaza Strip, but then shows civilians bringing in their injured after a strike hit their homes near the Nasser Hospital in the southern city of Khan Younis. “There is no safe place in the Gaza Strip, and no safe road,” he says.

18 October – Gaza reels from hospital explosion

Zaanoun photographs the aftermath of the massive blast at al-Ahli Hospital in Gaza City on 17 October that killed nearly 500 people and wounded 300, according to the Gaza Health Ministry. Thousands of civilians had taken shelter from Israeli bombardment in the facility. Health officials in Gaza said an Israeli airstrike caused the blast. Israeli officials blamed it on a misfired rocket from Palestinian Islamic Jihad – an armed group based in Gaza that has denied any involvement.

17 October – ‘The smell of death is everywhere’

Before the al-Ahli blast, people in Gaza were already suffering the effects of Israeli bombardment and siege. In addition to those killed and injured, around one million people have been displaced from their homes, out of a population of roughly 2.3 million. Entire neighbourhoods have been reduced to rubble, and first responders and residents in Gaza have scrambled to dig people out from under flattened buildings, often only using their hands.

12 October – ‘Maybe this is the last message from me’

On the night of 11 October night, shortly after Gaza’s only power station ran out of fuel, and as Israeli artillery thudded nearby, Zaanoun took shelter in Gaza City’s al-Shifa Hospital, the largest medical facility in the enclave. Israel cut off the electricity it provides to the territory after Hamas fighters launched a deadly assault inside Israel on 7 October. Many Gazans have headed to hospitals and UN-run facilities hoping to find safety. 

11 October – ‘Civilians thought they were safe in their homes’

Zaanoun reports on the worsening situation inside Gaza. In his first video for our latest Snapshots series, the Palestinian photojournalist says civilian buildings have been destroyed by Israeli strikes that have killed dozens of people.

Videos edited by Ciara Lee. Text edited by Andrew Gully and Eric Reidy.

For Madisyn Jordan, a 10th grade student in Detroit, playing violin and participating in classes at Crescendo Detroit has helped her to feel more comfortable trying new things, approaching new people and expressing herself.

She says, through music, “I can play it whenever I am feeling happy, sad or stressed out, and that’s where I go to relax myself and everything.”

She was introduced to Crescendo in 2019 by her cousin, Jordan Harris.

Harris is what the Crescendo team refer to as a “legacy student” and has spent every summer with Crescendo for the past 10 years. Crescendo’s founder, University of Michigan alum Damien Crutcher, has known Harris’ mother since she was a student in a sixth grade band class he taught in 1991. They have stayed in touch through the years and she enrolled her son in Crutcher’s new venture when it was founded in 2013.

Now, Harris says he enjoys learning about all the different ways the value of music can be applied to his life.

“Music is important because it gives a sense of discipline that can be transferred everywhere, in all aspects of your life, not just music,” he said. “And it’s fun. It’s a good way to express yourself.”

With his eye on a career in engineering, Harris still believes Crescendo can help him prepare for the future he wants. He says the program is “rigorous, but you will come out of here a much more well-rounded person than you were before.”

Crescendo is an after-school program for children ages 5 to 18 that develops music and dance programming to promote artistic excellence and character building. With literacy and life skill courses, homework support and daily meals and snacks, the program uses a youth-centered approach that addresses the full life of the child that they believe can improve discipline, focus and self-esteem.

Crescendo was designed to address a lack in arts education in the city of Detroit.

“We started Crescendo about 11 years ago when we noticed that there were no kids walking home with instrument cases. We thought, ‘Well, this is weird.’ When I was growing up, everyone had an instrument case walking from school,” Crutcher said. “We wanted to make sure that our kids had access to music, instruments and dance. It’s important that they have that space. Could you imagine going to school all day and only having math and science and history?”

In many cases, enrichment programs are located near schools or in city centers requiring families to transport their children. This can create a barrier to participation for families without transportation access. For this reason, Crescendo opened up within the Dexter-Davison neighborhood of its participants, in close proximity to where they live.

Now, Crescendo has worked with roughly 125 students in Detroit and also has partnerships with institutions like U-M and the Detroit Symphony Orchestra. A group of students perform with the DSO Youth Orchestra, Symphony Band, and Jazz Band. They also participate in composition classes and the DSO’s Senza program, which is sponsored by the Mellon Foundation.

Crescendo also has a partnership with U-M in which participants visit the Ann Arbor campus regularly and work with music education students and attend performances through the University Musical Society.

“When we went to U-M for the very first time, being able to be there with college students and seeing the campus and being able to learn things from them was very, very cool,” Jordan said of one of her U-M visits.

“I remember when we last went, we went to the dance studio and we learned some African dances and it was very entertaining. You got to learn about a culture that not a lot of people knew about and she showed us dance moves and how much pressure they put into their dances and you got to learn a lot about their history.”

With additional visits to places like the cider mill for cider and hayrides, concerts at the DSO and an annual trip to Cedar Point each summer, the students have no shortage of opportunities for fun or learning.

As far as Crescendo’s aim to improve focus, discipline and self-esteem, one mother had this to say about her fourth grade daughter’s experience: “She wasn’t really that into school. She did the work. She did fine, but just enough to get by. This has made her more disciplined in what she intends to do in the near future. Before Crescendo, she never mentioned going to college. Now she’s talking about going to college, learning to play the flute and taking it overseas maybe, and even teaching.”

As the Ecommerce Editor for Digital Camera World, my main job is to check prices and make sure everyone who lands on the site gets a good deal or can order the latest photography products as and when they are announced.

But as the Cyber Monday camera deals continue to arrive, I’m always on the lookout for the best deal possible to help you make the best decision possible when parting with your hard-earned cash, so I have come up with seven of the best Cyber Monday deals under $50 that you can use as the perfect stocking fillers for Christmas or as gifts this holiday season

These are all tremendous stocking fillers, especially at these prices and if you think they might be great for the loved one in your life who loves photography I’d jump at them now.

Ahead of the World Athletics Awards 2023, a digital exhibition has been created featuring the 12 images shortlisted for World Athletics Photograph of the Year.

From the 134 images that were submitted, a panel of judges – comprising Valerie Adams, Raquel Cavaco Nunes, Joel Marklund, Pascal Rondeau and Blanka Vlasic – selected the below 12 shortlisted images and then the three finalists.

The finalists were announced on 21 November and the winning photograph will be announced on World Athletics’ platforms in early December, as part of the World Athletics Awards 2023.

Digital exhibition of shortlisted images

The men’s pole vault final during day eight of the World Athletics Championships Budapest 23 at the National Athletics Centre
Photo by David Balogh

Alexis Holmes of USA, left, on her way to winning the mixed 4x400m as Femke Bol of Netherlands falls at the World Athletics Championships Budapest 23
Photo by Sam Barnes, Sportsfile

Sha’Carri Richardson of USA crosses the line to win the women’s 100m final at the World Athletics Championships Budapest 23
Photo by Fabrizio Bensch, Reuters

Noah Lyles of USA celebrates winning the men’s 100m final at the National Athletics Centre, Budapest
Photo by Sandor Csudai

Gianmarco Tamberi of Italy winning gold in the high jump at the World Athletics Championships Budapest 23
Photo by Anton Geyser, South African Sports Images

Italy’s Gianmarco Tamberi celebrates winning the men’s high jump final during the World Athletics Championships at the National Athletics Centre in Budapest
Photo by Andrej Isakovic, AFP

Athletes set off during the women’s 100m final of the World Athletics Championships Budapest 23
Photo by Meng Dingbo, Xinhua News Agency

Leo Neugebauer of Germany in the decathlon pole vault at the World Athletics Championships Budapest 23
Photo by Mattia Ozbot, World Athletics Photography Workshop

Athletes compete in the men’s marathon as it passes through Heroes’ Square on day nine of the World Athletics Championships in Budapest, Hungary
Photo by Martin Rickett, PA Wire

Five men’s 100m finalists prepare for the race with different gestures and in search of the gold medal, with the public watching the action at the World Athletics Championships in Budapest
Photo by Felix Sanchez, Corredor

Kyle Blignaut of South Africa competes in men’s shot put qualification during day one of the World Athletics Championships Budapest 23 at the National Athletics Centre
Photo by Patrick Smith, Getty Images

Women’s high jump winner Nicola Olyslagers of Australia cheers after clearing a world lead and winning jump of 2.02m at the Diamond League, Athletissima, in Lausanne
Photo by Michael Stricker