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Around noon today, December 16, 2023 a sniper of the IDF murdered two Christian women inside the Holy Family Parish in Gaza, where the majority of Christian families has taken refuge since the start of the war…. Seven more people were shot and wounded as they tried to protect others inside the church compound. No warning was given, no notification was provided. They were shot in cold blood inside the premises of the Parish, where there are no belligerents. Earlier in the morning, a rocket fired from an IDF tank targeted the Convent of the Sisters of Mother Theresa (Missionaries of Charity). The Convent is home to over 54 disabled persons and is part of the church compound, which was signaled as a place of worship since the beginning of the war. The building’s generator (the only source of electricity) and the fuel resources were destroyed. The house was damaged by the resulting explosion and massive fire. Two more rockets, fired by an IDF tank, targeted the same Convent and rendered the home uninhabitable. The 54 disabled persons are currently displaced and without access to the respirators that some of them need to survive. —Latin Patriarchate of Jerusalem, December 16, 2023 |
The US vetoed a ceasefire in Gaza.
Rushed more weapons.
We are not allowed to use the word “genocide.”
In Bethlehem the nativity scene is piled
with rocks and debris. More than 20,000 killed. Biden is angry
about poll numbers. Paul asked me to bring poems next time that rhyme.
The newspaper yesterday said, “More Americans own stocks.”
Homeowners are installing heat pumps this winter.
The US advised Israel to be more surgical. Hospitals and schools
were targeted with precision. Two churches, damaged. Doctors were arrested.
An Israeli official said “There are no churches, no Christians in Gaza.”
People were sheltering in the church. Hospitals and schools, targeted.
Anything that moves. The US vetoed. In Bethlehem.
poems that rhyme. not allowed. Poll numbers. demolished
more surgical next time. Rocks and debris.
The US vetoed a ceasefire in Gaza.
Bonnie Naradzay's manuscript will be published by Slant Books next year. She leads weekly poetry sessions at day shelters for homeless people and at a retirement center, all in Washington DC. Three times nominated for a Pushcart, her poems have appeared in AGNI, New Letters, RHINO, Kenyon Review, Tampa Review, EPOCH, Split This Rock, Dappled Things, and other sites. In 2010 she won the University of New Orleans Poetry Prize—a month’s stay in the South Tyrol castle of Ezra Pound’s daughter, Mary; there, she had tea with Mary, hiked the Dolomites, and read Pound’s early poems.
