The dramatic story of Israel’s birth in 1948 following the <a href="https://archive.nepalitimes.com/article/Nepali-Times-Buzz/holocaust-memorial-sara-atzmon,1986">Nazi Holocaust </a>captured the wonder and admiration of the world. Its founders claimed that Israel would be a light to the nations. But the Jewish state’s identity has now gone from being the <a href="https://nepalitimes.com/opinion/the-loss-of-an-identity">victim of genocide</a> to perpetrator in less than two generations. Israel’s Likud government stands accused of <a href="https://nepalitimes.com/editorial/crime-against-humanity-in-gaza">genocide in Gaza </a>by a UN Special Committee, the World Court’s admission that the accusation is plausible, and recently by 28 nations acting in concert to declare Israel in violation of International Humanitarian Law. What happened? Rather than face the truth of 75 years of injustice to Palestinians that led to the terrible slaughter and hostage-taking by Hamas in 2023, most Israelis support the daily overkill in Gaza, now nearly two years long. After <a href="https://nepalitimes.com/opinion/mortality-in-the-gaza-israel-war">more than 100,000 casualties</a> under constant bombing of the civilian population with no one shooting back, famine has begun. Israel as a society and government have performed exactly the opposite of what David Ben Gurion declared: The State of Israel will foster the development of the country for the benefit of all its inhabitants; it will be based on freedom, justice and peace … Israel lost its soul by becoming racist, then racialist, with the doctrinaire view that Jews are by nature and divine right superior to other races. This has led to <a href="https://nepalitimes.com/opinion/the-world-s-moral-failure-in-gaza">suppression of the Palestinians</a>, and, if given the opportunity, to their extermination, as is now evident in Gaza. Why under its decades-long military occupation of Palestine, have Arabs been killed, imprisoned, wounded, neighbourhoods bombed, houses destroyed, streets ploughed up, families imprisoned behind concrete walls, and an entire population denied the <a href="https://nepalitimes.com/here-now/history-of-female-im-mobility-in-nepal">right to travel</a>?&nbsp; The Zionist’s answer to these questions may be that the Palestinians under decades of military rule are not actually citizens of Israel. That is a distinction without a difference, because the occupying authority has legal responsibility for the population under occupation, including the West Bank and <a href="https://nepalitimes.com/opinion/saving-what-is-left-of-gaza">Gaza</a>. True, there are areas declared to be administered by the Palestinians alone, but no one pretends that the Palestinian territory is truly free and independent. The occupied territory and its people remain wards of the Israeli state. Even though the UN created Israel, its various governments have long denied any right of the UN to curtail its expansionist aims and war-making powers.  <figure> <img src="https://publisher-publish.s3.eu-central-1.amazonaws.com/pb-nepalitimes/swp/asv65r/media/20250730090744_f0e965da3702f8d2cea081e607d40a09249dceedf4e6fd725f9fd139c2132ecf.jpg" data-media-id="editor_7" data-image-id="20250730090744_f0e965da3702f8d2cea081e607d40a09249dceedf4e6fd725f9fd139c2132ecf" data-rendition-name="original" width="1500" height="805" loading="lazy" alt="How Israel lost its soul"> </figure>  Jewish Holocaust survivor Raphael Lemkin coined the word ‘genocide’ and made it his lifelong task to see it implemented in international law. The Genocide Convention was ratified by the United Nations in 1948, but is being deliberately flaunted by Israel in Gaza. Genocide is a serious charge, but its terms in <a href="https://nepalitimes.com/news/un-faults-nepal-s-war-crimes-bill">international law</a> are clear: no killing or setting up conditions for the destruction of a people group just because they are members of that group, no forced expulsion or transfers of that group, and no public advocacy to do so, which is a key provision already violated by Messrs Netanyahu, Trump, Galant, and others. Read also: <a href="https://nepalitimes.com/opinion/guest-editorial/the-international-order-is-dying-in-gaza">The International Order Is Dying in Gaza</a>, Mohamed ElBaradei In January 2024 the International Court of Justice (ICJ), joined by an Israeli ad hoc Judge, Aharon Barak, voted to urge punishment of those advocating expulsion or transfer of the population of Gaza. The citizens of Israel bear collective responsibility for the actions of their government, but not as individuals unless they specifically vote for or advocate genocidal actions. Israeli opposition figures, of which there are very few, are courageous and deserve praise. What about the citizens of the United States where both Democrats and Republicans have long aided and abetted Israel’s violence toward those under its protection? Governments and citizens everywhere must join forces to prevent famine from claiming more children in Gaza.&nbsp; Citizens must raise our voices now or be forever classed with those who allowed and abetted today’s Genocide. (Inter Press Service) James E Jennings PhD is President of <a href="http://www.conscienceinternational.org/index.php" target="_blank">Conscience International</a>, and Leader of US Academics for Peace delegations to Iraq, Iran, Syria, Sudan, and other countries. He taught Middle East History, Archaeology, and Religion at US universities. <h2>Bearing Witness</h2> The Associated Press, AFP, BBC News and Reuters this week issued this joint statement:&nbsp; We are desperately concerned for our journalists in Gaza, who are increasingly unable to feed themselves and their families. For many months, these independent journalists have been the world’s eyes and ears on the ground in Gaza. They are now facing the same dire circumstances as those they are covering. &nbsp;&nbsp; Journalists endure many deprivations and hardships in war zones. We are deeply alarmed that the threat of starvation is now one of them. It is essential that adequate food supplies reach the people of Gaza.

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How Israel lost its soul

During President Trump’s tour of Gulf monarchies last month, he mentioned Gaza only two times. The first time was in Doha, when he expressed his desire to make Gaza a “freedom zone.” Gaza’s 2.1 million residents, nearly half of whom are children, would like that, too. Just as the Israeli hostages being held by Hamas in violation of the Geneva Convention have the right to immediate and unconditional freedom, Gazans also have the right to live free of the inhumane and illegal collective punishment they’ve been forced to endure for more than 600 days.&nbsp; They would like freedom from the brutal bombardment, starvation, forced displacement, siege, and blockade of Gaza. They would also like the freedom to safely collect food and basic humanitarian supplies from the UN and other legitimate and experienced aid providers, the freedom to return to their communities to search for and bury their dead with dignity, and the freedom to rebuild Gaza even if it takes a generation. The survivors of Hiroshima and Nagasaki, Dresden, Stalingrad, and Le Havre, were free to rebuild their cities. Why should this freedom be denied to Gazans? When President Trump mentioned Gaza for the second time during his Gulf tour, he was in Abu Dhabi, where he briefly acknowledged the humanitarian crisis. He said, “We’re looking at Gaza. A lot of people are starving.”&nbsp; The world now knows that President Trump’s words were nothing more than a virtue-signaling smoke screen. He wasn’t actually seeing the scale of the human suffering in Gaza, which the United States helped create.&nbsp; Instead, he was talking about the so-called Gaza ‘Humanitarian Foundation’, a cynical and deadly tool designed by Israeli and U.S. officials to replace an established, functioning, independent, and credible international aid system in order to accelerate the ethnic cleansing and annexation of Gaza.&nbsp; Since its launch ten days after Trump made his comments in Abu Dhabi, the G.H.F. has delivered more death than food and proven itself to be anything but humanitarian.&nbsp; It’s just another lethal weapon in Israel’s vast Western-subsidized war arsenal and a way to appease Israel’s patrons in the U.S. Congress. How, after all, can “Hamas tunnels” and fighters hide beneath the emaciated, dying, and dead bodies of Gaza’s starved children?&nbsp; President Trump had a real chance to prove that his concerns for Gaza and his persistent claims of being a peacemaker were genuine during the 4 June U.N. Security Council resolution calling for an immediate, unconditional, and permanent ceasefire and full, unhindered humanitarian access.&nbsp;  <figure> <img src="https://publisher-publish.s3.eu-central-1.amazonaws.com/pb-nepalitimes/swp/asv65r/media/20250629130620_9c616feb2c9ed3e7a33a0eadb639dd82058bbf39325ad9319a40c3ccb4b976c4.jpg" data-media-id="editor_0" data-image-id="20250629130620_9c616feb2c9ed3e7a33a0eadb639dd82058bbf39325ad9319a40c3ccb4b976c4" data-rendition-name="original" width="1170" height="530" loading="lazy" alt="Gaza school"> <figcaption>Aftermath of a 6 May Israeli airstrike on an UNRWA school turned-shelter in Gaza where dozens of people were reportedly killed, including women and children. Photo: UNRWA</figcaption> </figure>  Like President Biden before him, President Trump instructed his Acting U.N. Ambassador to cast the lone, shameful vote against a resolution meant to prevent the further loss of life in Gaza, including for the remaining Israeli hostages whose families have been pleading for a lasting ceasefire every day since November 2023.&nbsp; This U.N. resolution wasn’t a political call for sanctions or an arms embargo against Israel. Nor was it a call to recognise the State of Palestine. It was simply a call for humanitarian action in order to get life-saving aid into Gaza at scale and to get the hostages out of captivity.&nbsp; The political wisdom and courage to vote in favor of this ceasefire was the bare minimum President Trump and his administration could have offered. More importantly, it’s what a majority of American citizens have wanted for some time now, including those who voted for President Trump. According to a March 2025 AP-NORC poll, 60% of Republicans now believe that ‘it’s essential’ for the U.S. to ‘facilitate a permanent ceasefire in Gaza’, and in May, a Data for Progress poll showed that 76% of Americans across political lines are in favour of an immediate ceasefire and would like to see the U.S. do its part to de-escalate the crisis in Gaza.&nbsp; By voting against the ceasefire and providing numerous misleading reasons for doing so afterward, President Trump ignored the views of a majority of Americans towards the increasingly desperate situation faced by Gaza’s besieged and starving population. The urgent question now is whether the 14 sovereign states that voted in favour of the resolution will quickly honour their votes with meaningful action. There’s so much that can be done, from pausing trade talks and relations to arms embargoes and sanctions, but the following three measures will send a strong, immediate message that there’s serious determination behind the condemnation. European, U.K., Turkish, and regional Arab States should join forces to provide a no-fly zone over Gaza. This action is the fastest way to stop Israel from prosecuting its deadly daily air strikes. I witnessed how it saved lives and paved the way to peace when NATO enforced a No Fly Zone over Bosnia for a thousand days between 1993 and 1995.&nbsp; A no-fly zone over Gaza will help calm tensions in the region and build a political and humanitarian space for more seasoned mediators to ensure the safe release of the Israeli hostages and for legitimate humanitarian aid actors to resume operations through the Karem Shalom, Erez, and other crossings into Gaza.&nbsp; Simultaneously, the deployment of French, Turkish, British, and Russian naval hospital ships already in or near the Mediterranean should sail to Gaza immediately, especially towards the North of the strip where no fully functioning hospitals remain and where people are dying for lack of basic medical supplies and infrastructure.&nbsp; This action will help save lives and lift the burden from Gaza’s devastated healthcare system until it’s given a chance to recover. Furthermore, the governments that voted in favor of the resolution must pressure Israel to facilitate immediate access for international journalists into Gaza.&nbsp; If a small sailboat in the Mediterranean and the thousands of ordinary citizens from 32 countries presently marching towards Gaza through Egypt can try to break Israel’s unlawful siege and blockade, surely the most powerful governments and navies from the Eurasian continent can do their part. (IPS) Melek Zahine is an international humanitarian and disaster response expert.

Saving what is left of Gaza

Israel’s ongoing war of annihilation in Gaza has wiped out hospitals, schools, homes, water, and food, reducing the Palestinian territory to a wasteland and leaving a death toll of more than 53,000 people. But an equally lethal campaign has been unleashed against the foundations of Palestinian society and identity.
The Israeli Defense Force (IDF) has targeted libraries, repositories, and institutions of Palestinian culture and heritage in a mission to eradicate the history, literary accomplishments, and political and social existence of Palestine as a place and people.
“The losses in Gaza are vast, incalculable, as we are still in the throes of a genocidal war that has already destroyed 70% of the Gaza Strip and killed or maimed 10% of its embattled population,” says Raja Khalidi, Co-Administrator of the Khalidi Library, an Arab public library founded by the Khalidi family in East Jerusalem more than a century ago. “So has the Israeli war machine in Gaza and the West Bank wrought indiscriminate destruction that threatens erasure of Palestinian written, architectural, and archaeological cultural heritage.”
In a recent report on the destruction of libraries, archives, and museums in Gaza since the conflict erupted in 2023, the solidarity organisation <a href="https://librarianswithpalestine.org/wp-content/uploads/2024/02/LAP-Gaza-Report-2024.pdf">Librarians and Archivists with Palestine</a> (LAP) stated that “the destruction of cultural heritage in Gaza impoverishes the collective identity of the Palestinian people, irrevocably denies them their history, and violates their sovereignty.”
“The greatest loss remains the normalisation of the daily massacres of Gazans, including children. Every Palestinian life is a record, a history. The Zionist war machine realises this and the targeting of children, in particular, is an attempt at destroying the future narrative of Palestine,” says Ahmad Almallah, a Palestinian poet who grew up in Bethlehem and now lives in Philadelphia in the United States.
Bordered by Israel to the east and the Mediterranean Sea to the west, Gaza comprises 365 square kilometers of land that is home to about 2.1 million Muslim and Christian Palestinians who have lived under siege for more than half a century. Many Palestinians fled to Gaza following Israeli dispossession of their villages and homes during the Al-Nakba, or the ‘Catastrophe,’ in 1948. Then the territory was part of Egypt. Israel subsequently seized Gaza during the Six-Day War of 1967 until 1993, when the Oslo Accords made way for it to be administered by the Palestinian Authority.
The Islamic resistance organisation, Hamas, then took power in 2005. Its launching of a <a href="https://nepalitimes.com/news/nepalis-confirmed-killed-in-hamas-attack">raid and attack within Israel in October 2023</a>, which resulted in the death of 1,200 Israelis with 251 taken hostage, triggered the current Gaza war. Since then, the IDF has sustained a relentless military onslaught leading to the obliteration of every facility for human habitation in Gaza and the escalation of a <a href="https://apnews.com/article/hamas-israel-gaza-crisis-hunger-palestinians-war-9caf8f6eb19efe038c1fd50aa1d2d8ec">humanitarian crisis</a> due to lack of food, water, shelter, and medical services.
While a ceasefire began on 19 January, disputes between Israel and Hamas about progress in hostage and prisoner exchanges led to the <a href="https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/cq6yp5d5v9jo">ceasefire fracturing on 18 March</a>. The IDF resumed its offensive with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu further threatening to <a href="https://www.nbcnews.com/news/world/israel-gaza-hamas-katz-annex-idf-palestinian-witkoff-rcna197434">annex parts of Gaza</a>.
This month <a href="https://www.unesco.org/en/gaza/assessment">UNESCO</a> reported that Israel had destroyed 107 important cultural sites in the Palestinian enclave, including historic buildings, mosques, churches, and museums. And last year, LAP detailed the damage and destruction of <a href="https://librarianswithpalestine.org/wp-content/uploads/2024/02/LAP-Gaza-Report-2024.pdf">22 libraries and archives</a>, including Gaza’s Central Archives, which contained valuable documentation of the enclave’s 150-year history. 
The Diana Tamari Sabbagh Library, which held tens of thousands of books, was also destroyed, as was the Omari Mosque and Library, which was built in the 7th century and held a major collection of rare books dating to the 14th century. Four university libraries in Gaza also suffered damage, including the Al-Quds Open University Library and the Jawaharlal Nehru Library of Gaza’s Al-Azhar University. Historical records destroyed in Gaza include those that proved Palestinian land and property ownership.‘
Several years ago, the occupation destroyed the National Library in Gaza, razing its towering structure to the ground. With its destruction, the dream of creating a repository for both ancient and modern Palestinian works was obliterated. The site that once promised to preserve a rich cultural heritage became little more than a platform for displaying political party flags and leaders’ portraits,’ Palestinian novelist <a href="https://internationaleonline.org/contributions/the-library-and-the-massacre-a-novelists-testimony-on-the-destruction-of-libraries-in-the-gaza-strip/">Yousri al-Ghoul</a> wrote in January.
The current conflict continues attempts to erase Palestinian history and identity that began during the <a href="https://theconversation.com/the-nakba-how-the-palestinians-were-expelled-from-israel-205151">Al-Nakba</a> when Palestinian homes and their contents were looted and destroyed.
“As a child of the first intifada in Palestine, even words, the raw material for books, were very dangerous toys to play with. The Israeli occupation banned using the word ‘Palestine,’ and children and teenagers caught inscribing the word on a wall were either shot dead or arrested and subjected to torture. But that didn’t stop Palestinians from writing the word and piling on it poems, literature, and personal and natural history,” adds Almallah.
Together with this loss, Palestinian writers, intellectuals, artists, and journalists have been killed, putting in jeopardy the continuity of knowledge and culture within society and its transmission to the next generation. Those who have lost their lives since 2023 include the writer <a href="https://www.all4palestine.org/ModelDetails.aspx?gid=7&amp;mid=121099&amp;lang=en">Abdul Karim Hashash</a>, who has written many books on Palestinian poetry and culture, and <a href="https://madisonrafah.org/meca-colleague-and-friend-doaa-al-masri-killed-in-gaza/">Doaa Al-Masri</a>, Librarian at Gaza’s Edward Said Library.
In 2016 the International Criminal Court identified the desecration of a people’s cultural heritage as a <a href="https://news.un.org/en/story/2016/09/541172">war crime</a> in a case about Islamist attacks on UNESCO-protected monuments in Timbuktu in Mali. Subsequently, in 1954, <a href="https://www.unesco.org/en/heritage-armed-conflicts/1954-convention">the Hague Convention</a>, an international treaty stipulating the protection of cultural property in armed conflicts, was established and has now been signed by 136 countries.
More recently, <a href="https://www.bbc.com/news/world-middle-east-67922346">South Africa</a> included allegations of cultural dispossession in the case it launched in 2023 of genocide by Israel in Gaza in the International Court of Justice (ICJ). It will likely take the court years to reach a ruling. But in January last year, it issued initial orders to Israel to prevent and punish acts and public incitement to commit genocide by its military, an order that Israel continues to ignore.
“The international community has failed Palestinians, it has failed Gaza now. It has not done anything to stop the genocide and the massacring of children. I don’t expect they will do anything to save our books. But despite all Zionist attempts to silence them, we are witnessing Palestine becoming part of world heritage; Palestine is now everywhere,” says Almallah.
In the meantime, there are important institutions in the region taking action to ensure the tactics of erasure will not succeed. In Jerusalem, the <a href="https://www.khalidilibrary.org/en">Khalidi Library</a>, which is home to a rich collection of thousands of books and Islamic manuscripts representing an Arab literary heritage over many centuries, is a testament to cultural resilience. It also conducts extensive manuscript conservation, restoration, and digitization work and has been a pillar of vibrant Palestinian scholarship, thought, and writing since the early 20th century.
Khalidi emphasised that, looking ahead, in any reconstruction plan for post-war Gaza, “the first task will be for competent organisations, such as UNESCO, to launch a proper survey of the destruction of cultural heritage in Gaza… then ensure the future preservation and restoration or digitisation of salvaged collections.”
<a href="https://www.ipsnews.net/2025/05/palestinians-call-out-israels-mission-to-destroy-their-history-and-cultural-heritage-in-gaza/">Republished</a> under an arrangement with Inter Press Service (IPS).

The loss of an identity

Following the 7 October 2023 attack on Israel by <a href="https://www.pbs.org/newshour/world/more-than-29000-palestinians-have-been-killed-in-gaza-since-wars-start-health-ministry-says#:~:text=RAFAH%2C%20Gaza%20Strip%20(AP),of%20the%20Israeli%2DPalestinian%20conflict." target="_blank">Hamas-led militants</a>, Israel’s response has led to unprecedented high mortality levels in Gaza. The Palestinian death toll over the 12 month period is among the <a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/investigations/interactive/2023/israel-war-destruction-gaza-record-pace/" target="_blank">highest</a> civilian casualty rates in the 21st century. During the first seven months of the war, Israel is estimated to have dropped more than <a href="https://www.aa.com.tr/en/middle-east/amount-of-israeli-bombs-dropped-on-gaza-surpasses-that-of-world-war-ii/3239665" target="_blank">70,000 tons</a> of bombs on Gaza, far <a href="https://www.trtworld.com/middle-east/amount-of-israeli-bombs-dropped-on-gaza-surpasses-that-of-world-war-ii-18169607" target="_blank">surpassing</a> that of Dresden, Hamburg, and London combined during World War II, that includes <a href="https://www.lawfaremedia.org/article/legal-questions-answered-and-unanswered-in-israel-s-air-war-in-gaza" target="_blank">bombing</a> with 900 kg <a href="https://apnews.com/article/israel-gaza-bombs-destruction-death-toll-scope-419488c511f83c85baea22458472a796" target="_blank">bunker-busters</a>, which is one of the most intense civilian <a href="https://apnews.com/article/israel-gaza-bombs-destruction-death-toll-scope-419488c511f83c85baea22458472a796" target="_blank">punishment campaign</a>s in history. Despite US President Joe Biden’s declarations of <a href="https://www.npr.org/2024/05/29/nx-s1-4983786/where-is-the-biden-administrations-red-line-when-it-comes-palestinian-deaths-in-gaza" target="_blank">red lines</a>, calls for restraint and <a href="https://www.reuters.com/world/middle-east/biden-ultimatum-netanyahu-protect-gaza-civilians-or-else-2024-04-05/" target="_blank">ultimatum</a> for Israel to limit Palestinian civilian deaths, the president has experienced a <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2024/10/08/opinion/bidens-moral-failure-in-israel.html" target="_blank">moral failure</a> with his unwavering backing of Israel with unequal treatment and <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2024/10/08/opinion/bidens-moral-failure-in-israel.html" target="_blank">oppression</a> of Palestinians. While seeking peace, the president has <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2024/10/05/opinion/biden-israel-war.html" target="_blank">facilitated</a> the Israel-Gaza war. Dozens of <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/article/2024/may/30/two-more-us-officials-resign-over-biden-administrations-position-on-gaza-war" target="_blank">U.S. officials</a> have resigned over the Biden administration’s position in the conflict, accusing their own government of not telling the truth about <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/article/2024/may/30/two-more-us-officials-resign-over-biden-administrations-position-on-gaza-war" target="_blank">Israel’s obstruction</a> of humanitarian aid to Gaza. The reported levels of mortality provide a stark picture of the war’s lethal consequences on human life in Gaza and Israel. In addition to the mortality based on official reported deaths by Israeli and Palestinian authorities, higher levels of mortality have been estimated by health experts. According to Israeli officials, the number of Israeli deaths resulting from the attack in southern Israel on 7 October was <a href="https://www.inss.org.il/publication/all-fronts/" target="_blank">1,163,</a> with <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2023/11/12/world/middleeast/israel-death-toll-hamas-attack.html" target="_blank">70 percent</a> of the victims identified as civilians. The attack is considered to be Israel’s worst <a href="https://www.reuters.com/world/middle-east/israeli-military-opens-probe-into-reports-oct-7-friendly-fire-deaths-2024-02-06/#:~:text=Around%201%2C200%20Israelis%20and%20foreigners,240%20people%20were%20taken%20hostage." target="_blank">loss of life</a> in a single day since its founding in 1948.  <figure> <img src="https://publisher-publish.s3.eu-central-1.amazonaws.com/pb-nepalitimes/swp/asv65r/media/20241104061144_c20df646c520d048f8892ec4f0c060e13a43663da3f31d98167faa8b836a1e24.png" data-media-id="editor_17" data-image-id="20241104061144_c20df646c520d048f8892ec4f0c060e13a43663da3f31d98167faa8b836a1e24" data-rendition-name="original" width="1254" height="1180" loading="lazy" alt="Israel-Gaza war"> <figcaption>Source: Reported mortality from Israel Shin Bet, Gaza Ministry of Health and United Nations.</figcaption> </figure>  In addition to those deaths on 7 October, at least <a href="https://www.timesofisrael.com/a-year-of-war-idf-data-shows-726-troops-killed-over-26000-rockets-fired-at-israel/#:~:text=A%20total%20of%20728%20soldiers,the%20ground%20offensive%20in%20Gaza." target="_blank">728 Israeli soldiers</a> have been killed in combat since the Gaza ground invasion began, and <a href="https://watson.brown.edu/costsofwar/files/cow/imce/papers/2023/2024/Costs%20of%20War_Human%20Toll%20Since%20Oct%207.pdf" target="_blank">33 Israeli deaths</a> occurred in the West Bank. Given Israel’s total population of nearly <a href="https://www.haaretz.com/israel-news/2024-09-26/ty-article/.premium/israels-population-approaches-10-million-according-to-annual-census/00000192-2a51-d1f6-a596-6b594fac0000" target="_blank">10 million</a>, the number of Israeli deaths on 7 October and the subsequent twelve months represents about 0.02% of the country’s &nbsp;population, or 20 deaths per 100,000 population. The death toll in Gaza from Israeli military operations after one year following 7 October is <a href="https://english.alarabiya.net/News/middle-east/2024/10/07/health-ministry-gaza-says-war-death-toll-at-41-909-" target="_blank">41,909 Palestinians</a>. That number of deaths represents about 2% of the Palestinians in Gaza. Israel says the proportion of Hamas fighters among the Palestinian deaths is approximately <a href="https://www.inss.org.il/publication/all-fronts/" target="_blank">40 percent</a>. While the Gaza Ministry of Health does not identify whether the deaths are civilian or combatant, approximately <a href="https://www.aljazeera.com/news/2024/10/7/one-year-of-israels-war-on-gaza-a-simple-guide" target="_blank">two-thirds</a> are reported to be women and children. According to Oxfam, the war in Gaza killed more <a href="https://www.oxfam.org/en/press-releases/more-women-and-children-killed-gaza-israeli-military-any-other-recent-conflict" target="_blank">women and children</a> than any other war in the last two decades. The reported number deaths of Palestinians are deemed generally accurate and <a href="https://www.thelancet.com/journals/lancet/article/PIIS0140-6736(23)02713-7/fulltext" target="_blank">widely accepted</a> by international monitoring organisations, including Israeli and US intelligence agencies. Independent <a href="https://www.thelancet.com/journals/lancet/article/PIIS0140-6736(23)02713-7/fulltext#:~:text=The%20Gaza%20MoH%20has%20historically,an%208%C2%B70%25%20discrepancy." target="_blank">studies</a> of the deaths reported by the Gaza Ministry of Health show no evidence of inflated mortality figures. In addition to the nearly 42 thousand Palestinian deaths, Israel’s military action in Gaza has left many more <a href="https://truthout.org/articles/israel-has-killed-wounded-or-rendered-missing-10-percent-of-gaza-population/" target="_blank">wounded</a>, exposed to <a href="https://www.csis.org/analysis/gaza-impacts-famine-will-last-generations" target="_blank">famine</a> and disease and most of Gaza’s population <a href="https://www.reuters.com/world/middle-east/gaza-families-flee-again-shrinking-overcrowded-pocket-land-2023-12-05/" target="_blank">homeless</a>. With an estimated total population of approximately <a href="https://www.cia.gov/the-world-factbook/countries/gaza-strip/#people-and-society" target="_blank">2.1 million </a>in Gaza, the Palestinian death rate from the war after one year is 1,957 deaths per 100,000 population. That Palestinian death rate in Gaza is 100 times greater than the Israeli death rate. Applying the Israeli and Palestinian death rates to the United States, illustrates the striking differences in the mortality levels and their demographic impacts. When the death rate in Gaza is applied to America’s population, the resulting mortality would be nearly 6.6 million deaths. Similarly, applying the Israeli death rate to the US population yields close to 66 thousand deaths.  <figure> <img src="https://publisher-publish.s3.eu-central-1.amazonaws.com/pb-nepalitimes/swp/asv65r/media/20241104061144_93228568c2789f9034f3dac2ff7fd864a18c1cb844757dc104a9cdabfe687094.png" data-media-id="editor_31" data-image-id="20241104061144_93228568c2789f9034f3dac2ff7fd864a18c1cb844757dc104a9cdabfe687094" data-rendition-name="original" width="1250" height="884" loading="lazy" alt="Isreal-Gaza war mortality"> <figcaption>Source: Reported mortality for Israelis from Israel Shin Bet and for Palestinians from Gaza Ministry of Health, and the estimates of U.S. mortality levels calculated by author.</figcaption> </figure>  The true death toll in Gaza is likely to be <a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/world/interactive/2023/gaza-rising-death-toll-civilians/" target="_blank">higher</a> than being reported by the Gaza Ministry of Health because of the humanitarian catastrophe in Gaza with more than <a href="https://www.newsnationnow.com/world/war-in-israel/oct-7-how-many-dead-israel-hamas-war/" target="_blank">10,000 missing</a>, untold numbers buried under rubble and many experiencing disease and malnutrition, as <a href="https://time.com/6549715/history-israel-hamas-war-end/" target="_blank">humanitarian assistance</a> is limited by Israel’s <a href="https://www.aljazeera.com/news/2024/2/21/in-gaza-city-death-and-famine-take-hold-amid-israels-war#:~:text=About%20half%20the%20population%20of,As%20are%20meat%20and%20dairy." target="_blank">blockade</a>. <a href="https://www.gazahealthcareletters.org/usa-letter-oct-2-2024" target="_blank">One group</a> of 99 American health care workers returning from Gaza estimated that the true death toll there is at least <a href="https://truthout.org/articles/us-health-workers-back-from-gaza-estimate-death-toll-is-at-least-119000/#:~:text=As%20the%20anniversary%20of%20the,count%2C%20if%20not%20far%20higher." target="_blank">four times higher</a> than the official reported count, or approximately 119,000.  <figure> <img src="https://publisher-publish.s3.eu-central-1.amazonaws.com/pb-nepalitimes/swp/asv65r/media/20241104061148_c2c1bb65e66cd23d09b0e07dd5fedc6c9762c34e5c94c7630c7b8beb28a6d0a5.png" data-media-id="editor_38" data-image-id="20241104061148_c2c1bb65e66cd23d09b0e07dd5fedc6c9762c34e5c94c7630c7b8beb28a6d0a5" data-rendition-name="original" width="1250" height="912" loading="lazy" alt="Israel-Gaza war mortality"> <figcaption>Source: Reported: Gaza Ministry of Health; Estimated (1): Sidhwa; Estimated (2): Khatib, McKee &amp; Yusuf; Estimated (3): Sridhar.</figcaption> </figure>  A <a href="https://www.thelancet.com/journals/lancet/article/PIIS0140-6736(24)01169-3/fulltext" target="_blank">second analysis</a> by a team of three researchers published in <a href="https://www.thelancet.com/journals/lancet/article/PIIS0140-6736(24)01169-3/fulltext" target="_blank">The Lancet,</a> estimated that the number of deaths in Gaza by mid-year was about 186,000. The researchers estimated that the actual death toll could conservatively be about four times the reporting figure and that &nbsp;includes direct deaths due to bombings as well as indirect deaths due to the destruction of the health, food and sanitation systems in Gaza. A <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/article/2024/sep/05/scientists-death-disease-gaza-polio-vaccinations-israel" target="_blank">third analysis</a> of the deaths in Gaza by the chair of global public health at the University of Edinburgh estimated the death toll to be even higher. The number of deaths in Gaza twelve months after the 7 October attack is estimated at approximately 336,000, and that mortality level also took into account indirect deaths due to widespread disease and starvation. The mortality levels of the Israelis and the Palestinians in Gaza are both high and strikingly dissimilar. Over the past year, the reported number of Palestinian deaths in Gaza is about 20 times greater than the number of Israeli deaths. Also, the mortality rate of the Palestinians is 100 times greater than the Israeli mortality rate. In addition to direct reporting of deaths due to bombing and military operations, the crisis in Gaza has led to high levels of indirect deaths. Those deaths are mainly due to <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2024/02/29/opinion/gaza-israel-palestinians-starvation.html?campaign_id=2&amp;emc=edit_th_20240229&amp;instance_id=116455&amp;nl=todaysheadlines&amp;regi_id=26794078&amp;segment_id=159553&amp;user_id=238d32f2dc633f67c3b731d28b9421f3" target="_blank">malnutrition</a>, wasting, stunting and trauma reaching famine thresholds largely due to the <a href="https://www.nrc.no/news/2024/september/israels-siege-now-blocks-83-of-food-aid-reaching-gaza-new-data-reveals/" target="_blank">Israeli blockade</a>. UNICEF has <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2023/dec/29/health-organisations-disease-gaza-population-outbreaks-conflict" target="_blank">warned</a> that the lack of water, food, medicine, sanitation, road and electricity infrastructures is a bigger threat than bombs to the lives of thousands in Gaza. The true death toll in Gaza may not be known for many years, especially as indirect deaths are expected to exceed the direct death toll. However, based on reported and estimated mortality, it appears clear that the Palestinian death toll in Gaza is among the <a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/investigations/interactive/2023/israel-war-destruction-gaza-record-pace/" target="_blank">highest</a> civilian mortality rates of the 21st century. Joseph Chamie is a consulting demographer, a former director of the United Nations Population Division and author of numerous publications on population issues, including his recent book, <a href="https://link.springer.com/book/10.1007/978-3-031-22479-9?source=shoppingads&amp;locale=en-jp#toc" target="_blank">“Population Levels, Trends, and Differentials”</a>.

Mortality in the Gaza-Israel War

The Kathmandu Valley has attracted an exceptional number of outstanding and accomplished foreigners over the decades, but few as extraordinary as Marilyn Silverstone (1929-1999).&nbsp; Frances Klatzel’s book A Portrait of Ourselves, Marilyn Silverstone: From Photojournalist to Buddhist Nun, is a fitting and fascinating biographical celebration of this American woman whose life of unusual choices took her, as the title suggests, from an affluent Jewish childhood in Scarsdale, New York to becoming an acclaimed and adventurous Magnum photographer.&nbsp; Roving the world, her camera captured many of the most iconic events of the 20th century, her images were published in Time, Life, Newsweek, Look, National Geographic, Paris Match, Vogue and other magazines. Following the teachings of Dilgo Khyentse Rinpoche, Marilyn Silverstone devoted the last twenty years of her eventful life to living quietly and practising Buddhism in Nepal. Ordained as a Buddhist nun, she took vows in the sanctified Solukhumbu precincts of Thubten Choling with Venerable Trulshik Rinpoche in the spring of 1977. Living in Kathmandu until her death in Shechen Monastery, which she helped create, Marilyn wrote: ‘When I look back over the years, although I did not know it at the time, ending my life as a Buddhist nun was logical and inevitable.’&nbsp; Ani Marilyn was a familiar figure amid the sacred spaces of the Valley, the lanes of Boudha and even Kathmandu’s drawing rooms during my early years in Nepal, a large smiling presence draped in maroon robes, dyed sneakers, slightly whiskered, robust.&nbsp; As a wedding gift she gave Tenzin and I an inscribed copy of her slim volume, Ocean of Life, aptly named for the span of her achievements and expansive embrace – editor, translator, writer, filmmaker, photographer, journalist and Buddhist nun. Marilyn’s nephew wrote: ‘Her legacy was that she was always herself no matter what chapter of her life that she was living.’  <figure> <img src="https://publisher-publish.s3.eu-central-1.amazonaws.com/pb-nepalitimes/swp/asv65r/media/20260122100124_70d489c3d161f59668f315ede60cbb213d365357b0a9f2d7aad3b537a14dcb5e.png" data-media-id="editor_0" data-image-id="20260122100124_70d489c3d161f59668f315ede60cbb213d365357b0a9f2d7aad3b537a14dcb5e" data-rendition-name="original" width="1164" height="1600" loading="lazy" alt="Ani Marilyn"> <figcaption>Ani Marilyn as a Tibetan Buddhist nun at Shechen Monastery in Boudha.</figcaption> </figure>  Working with a wide range of impeccable sources, Frances Klatzel has assembled first-hand the personal recollections and unsparing insights from Marilyn’s most intimate friends. One of these, Jane Abell Coon, wrote the Introduction. She was a well-known person in 1980s Kathmandu whose husband Carlton Coon served as American Ambassador to Nepal and she simultaneously as American Ambassador in Bangladesh.&nbsp; The book begins with a rare message from the 14th Dalai Lama and a touching Foreword by Venerable Rabjam Rinpoche. It ends with exquisite excerpts from a Buddhist religious tract that Marilyn had translated from its traditional Tibetan text. Marilyn’s initial trip to India was to photograph Ravi Shankar in 1955, the classical sitar maestro. Increasingly fascinated by ‘the complex and compassionate culture’ of Tibet, her Himalayan archives include images throughout India, Nepal, Sikkim and Bhutan.&nbsp; The first internationally accredited photojournalist to base herself in India, from 1959 Marilyn lived in Bombay then Delhi, with her lifelong partner Frank Moraes, the Goan journalist, writer, commentator and first Indian editor of the Times of India after Independence. INDIAN INFLUENCERS I remember being taken to meet the legendary Frank Moraes in 1973, by then politically exiled in Marilyn’s elegant but chaotic London house, a magnet for South Asian intellectuals. She was not there, but Frank’s son the poet Dom Moraes was slumped desultory on a sagging sofa. My impression of Frank was well-dressed, polite and slightly distracted. Marilyn’s talent for friendship and wide network of Indian influencers and princely connections gave her unique access to historic events, as well as recording refugees, rituals, droughts, floods, famines and funerals. In addition to maharajahs and global leaders, her images portray personal moments, ordinary people, unflinching pain and flashes of joy. She said: ‘In my job, the closer you get to people, the better off you are.’ This book is illustrated with a thrilling trove of pictures of and by Marilyn, many of which reflect the impact of Henri Cartier-Bresson who signed her up as one of the first women to join his prestigious Magnum photo cooperative.&nbsp;  <figure> <img src="https://publisher-publish.s3.eu-central-1.amazonaws.com/pb-nepalitimes/swp/asv65r/media/20260122100124_6dfdef41da5945aea0a8bbd8c1514af5de2adb36361d4e20c29914c59f2039e0.png" data-media-id="editor_1" data-image-id="20260122100124_6dfdef41da5945aea0a8bbd8c1514af5de2adb36361d4e20c29914c59f2039e0" data-rendition-name="original" width="2124" height="1404" loading="lazy" alt="Ani Marilyn"> </figure>  Her assignments ranged across warzones in Vietnam, the Shah of Iran’s coronation, and Russian tanks rolling into Prague. Marilyn’s 1960s involved constant travel, her Magnum beat was the ‘Far East’, from Pakistan and Bangladesh to China, Korea, and Japan.&nbsp; With a knack at being in the right place at the right time, Marilyn was the only western woman journalist to record the arrival from Lhasa into ‘safety and exile’ of the young Dalai Lama in 1959. She was at Prime Minister Jawaharlal Nehru’s funeral in Delhi, the Chogyal of Sikkim’s marriage to Hope Cooke, and with Jacqueline Kennedy on a small boat at the Lake Palace of Udaipur.&nbsp; Marilyn snapped the Pope giving blessings in Bombay, Mother Teresa attending to the poor, and the Beatles on their way to meet the Maharishi. With Frank, she travelled to Africa and shot Emperor Haile Selassie in Ethiopia, Nigeria’s independence celebrations, and a very old and solar-topied Dr Albert Schweitzer in his jungle hospital in Gabon.&nbsp; A Portrait of Ourselves, Marilyn Silverstone: From Photojournalist to Buddhist Nun, is a highly recommended tribute to an inspirational life, told with discerning honesty and private perceptions by those who knew her best.&nbsp; Her monastic years living in Nepal continued to feature travel, hard work, undiminished curiosity, dogged fights for right, uncompromising support for others, disdain for conformity and battles with ill health, but all with her characteristic good humour. Marilyn leaves us with some sound advice in her own words: “I can say that I did it all. The secret though is just keep walking through life without analysing it too much or clinging to it too much. Just walk on.” &nbsp;&nbsp;  <figure> <img src="https://publisher-publish.s3.eu-central-1.amazonaws.com/pb-nepalitimes/swp/asv65r/media/20260122100140_dc0c465e462bd14e92b2a2e79b5349f23fa039bcda81cc02a9a70adbcee35c7b.jpg" data-media-id="editor_2" data-image-id="20260122100140_dc0c465e462bd14e92b2a2e79b5349f23fa039bcda81cc02a9a70adbcee35c7b" data-rendition-name="original" width="1136" height="702" loading="lazy" alt="marilyn silverstone"> </figure>

“Just walk on”

The pale green ice on the top of the lake gleams in the pale January sunlight. The dark waters beneath are visible through the translucent frozen surface. This is Thulagi Glacial Lake at the foot of Mt Manaslu in central Nepal, classified as one of the <a href="https://nepalitimes.com/here-now/danger-nepal-s-glacial-lakes-are-filling-up">most dangerous lakes </a>to appear in the Himalaya due to climate heating.&nbsp; The place is breathtaking not just because of its 4,050m altitude, but the scenery all around. The beauty belies the threat this expanding lake poses downstream along the Marsyangdi Valley. &nbsp; The lake lies at the terminus of the 4.5km long Thulagi Glacier. The local Gurung inhabitants call it Dona Tal. They say it started appearing in the 1960s. Local guide Chandra Bahadur Gurung, 47, has been ferrying trekkers to the spot for about 20 years.&nbsp;  <figure> <img src="https://publisher-publish.s3.eu-central-1.amazonaws.com/pb-nepalitimes/swp/asv65r/media/20260122100136_a34407fbb58b41554f08d392933ea32360649deaf712e2221686533f81507f58.jpg" data-media-id="editor_1" data-image-id="20260122100136_a34407fbb58b41554f08d392933ea32360649deaf712e2221686533f81507f58" data-rendition-name="original" width="1500" height="1125" loading="lazy" alt="Thulagi glof"> <figcaption>MELTING MOUNTAINS: Thulagi Glacial Lake in Manang has been identified among 47 lakes in Nepal at risk of an outburst flood because of climate breakdown. All photos: DURGA RANA MAGAR</figcaption> </figure>   <figure> <img src="https://publisher-publish.s3.eu-central-1.amazonaws.com/pb-nepalitimes/swp/asv65r/media/20260122100136_4d3c25c9b4f6eaff3e538b36346471c301d38338514bfdfa9ee63ccd77d20489.jpg" data-media-id="editor_2" data-image-id="20260122100136_4d3c25c9b4f6eaff3e538b36346471c301d38338514bfdfa9ee63ccd77d20489" data-rendition-name="original" width="1500" height="1000" loading="lazy" alt="Thulagi glof"> <figcaption>Yaks graze below Thulagi Himal (7,059m) and Mt Manaslu (8,163m) along the Dona Khola that drains the lake.</figcaption> </figure>  “Dona used to be small, but it has now grown bigger,” he says, gesturing to how the glacier has receded and shrunk. Trekkers used to be able to go to the other side, but now the glacier is riddled with ponds and boulders falling off the moraine that make it dangerous.&nbsp; Gurung adds rather matter-of-factly: “The lake will burst sooner or later.”&nbsp; Kathmandu-based International Centre for Integrated Mountain Development (ICIMOD) has been studying Thulagi for the past two decades. Topographic maps from the 1960s and early satellite images show the lake being much smaller.&nbsp; When the <a href="https://nepalitimes.com/news/nepal-s-resource-curse">Marsyangdi Hydropower Project</a> project was being built in 1994, the German Institute of Geology and Natural Resources with the Department of Hydrology and Meteorology measured the lake to be already 2km in length. More recent surveys show the lake has increased its size since then to more than 1 sq km. &nbsp; The lake is among 47 <a href="https://nepalitimes.com/here-now/meltpools-in-the-himalaya">dangerous glacial lakes in Nepal and Tibet </a>&nbsp;identified by ICIMOD in 2020 due to its size, the risk of landslides and avalanches, and the gradual collapse of the lake’s ice-core moraine dam.&nbsp;  <figure> <img src="https://publisher-publish.s3.eu-central-1.amazonaws.com/pb-nepalitimes/swp/asv65r/media/20260122100136_9b9fea3665494614c2d89e4202c735fd642a13552d67ca2be3da5c390320ca9b.jpg" data-media-id="editor_5" data-image-id="20260122100136_9b9fea3665494614c2d89e4202c735fd642a13552d67ca2be3da5c390320ca9b" data-rendition-name="original" width="1500" height="1000" loading="lazy" alt="Thulagi glof"> <figcaption>Local guide Chandra Bahadur Gurung has been taking trekkers up to Thulagi Lake for 20 years.</figcaption> </figure>  In 2018 a team of glaciologists led by Umesh K Haritasya <a href="https://www.mdpi.com/2072-4292/10/5/798">published a journal article</a> about the evolution of three glacial lakes including Thulagi, Lower Barun, and Imja. Even back in 1976, Thulagi was twice the size of <a href="https://archive.nepalitimes.com/article/from-nepali-press/Diverting-danger,3172">Imja glacial lake</a> in the Khumbu and six times the size of the Lower Barun. The team measured the lake’s depth at 79m, and calculated that it held 36.1 million m3 of water. Since then, Thulagi has been growing at a slower rate than the other two lakes because it is shielded by shadows of mountains. There is also not as much glacial calving in the narrow valley.&nbsp; Nonetheless, scientists and experts have long warned that a Glacial Lake Outburst Flood (GLOF) from Thulagi poses a big risk to four hydropower projects on the Marsyangdi and settlements like Besisahar and Dumre (map).  <figure> <img src="https://publisher-publish.s3.eu-central-1.amazonaws.com/pb-nepalitimes/swp/asv65r/media/20260125130136_eac3ccf38d2f91619825ab977bb21ea3eee84d6e87939721f9a8dbb7f0f22504.jpg" data-media-id="editor_8" data-image-id="20260125130136_eac3ccf38d2f91619825ab977bb21ea3eee84d6e87939721f9a8dbb7f0f22504" data-rendition-name="original" width="2076" height="1444" loading="lazy" alt="Thulagi map"> </figure>  The lake feeds into Dona Khola, a tributary of the Marsyangdi where the 49.9MW Dona Khola hydropower project is being built at a cost of Rs10 billion. Another 42MW Super Dona Khola project is planned on the river. “One of the trigger points that could lead to a glacial lake outburst could be the steep lateral moraine, which might be weakened by rapidly melting permafrost,” says Scott Watson, a University of Leeds researcher who was part of the team that conducted the 2018 study. Locals are already witnessing what Watson describes. They say that it was easy to reach Thulagi’s headwaters even until a few years ago, but that is now dangerous because of ice and rockfalls.&nbsp;  <figure> <img src="https://publisher-publish.s3.eu-central-1.amazonaws.com/pb-nepalitimes/swp/asv65r/media/20260122100136_217a1951a620e8efe11e5936600be172874976a0c04a1031495cf6687ce8f82c.jpg" data-media-id="editor_9" data-image-id="20260122100136_217a1951a620e8efe11e5936600be172874976a0c04a1031495cf6687ce8f82c" data-rendition-name="original" width="1426" height="1070" loading="lazy" alt="Thulagi glof"> <figcaption>The 50MW Upper Marsyangdi Hydropower Project station in Lamjung. A Thulagi Lake outburst would damage four hydropower projects on the Marsyangdi and its tributaries.</figcaption> </figure>  GLOF WARNING&nbsp; Glaciologist Rijan Bhakta Kayastha has been studying Thulagi since 1994, and was part of a team that discovered that the lake’s terminal moraine was made up of rocky soil on top and ice at its core.&nbsp; In 2020, Kayastha's team published a study that modelled the route of a possible GLOF. They found that if the lake burst, it would take 2.5 hours to reach Dharapani, and 4 hours to reach Bahundanda 39km downstream. The surge would be 13.7m high at Dharapani and 15m by the time it reached Taal, the village most at risk because it is situated only a few metres above the Marsyangdi. ‘Considering the size of the Thulagi glacial lake and its dam, it seems unlikely that a rock fall or avalanche would cause the lake to breach the moraine dam,” concluded the study. “But an earthquake or climate change would require a separate study. At present, there is no immediate or imminent threat of this glacier bursting.” MEMORIES OF 2021 Across Manang valley, residents are haunted by the memories of the <a href="https://nepalitimes.com/banner/himalayan-floods-a-sign-of-worse-to-come">2021 flood on the Marsyangdi</a> that swept away parts of Chame, Dharapani, Naso, and Taal villages.&nbsp; Kamarkali Gurung, grew up on the banks of the Marsyangdi in Dharapani, and had never imagined that the tranquil river she knew could become such a monster. She had saved up to build her own three-story property with 17 rooms.&nbsp; Her family was away that June evening when the flood swept away her hotel. “Not even a spoon remained, everything was gone,” says Kamarkali. “Losing the hotel hurt like losing a loved one. The Marsyangdi flows through my house now, I can never go back.”&nbsp;  <figure> <img src="https://publisher-publish.s3.eu-central-1.amazonaws.com/pb-nepalitimes/swp/asv65r/media/20260122100136_925087c286f18a0374f5d2fae5cc528b6e8b5a55e02813e470c49b923b4f193a.jpg" data-media-id="editor_11" data-image-id="20260122100136_925087c286f18a0374f5d2fae5cc528b6e8b5a55e02813e470c49b923b4f193a" data-rendition-name="original" width="1500" height="1000" loading="lazy" alt="Thulagi glof"> <figcaption>SURVIVORS: Kamarkali Gurung's hotel was swept away by the 2021 flood on the Marsyangdi. She now operates her hotel from a rented house in Dharapani.</figcaption> </figure>  Surendra Gurung, also a hotelier, was in Dharapani the night of the flood, and can still remember the fear as the river roared towards the village. “I did not know if I would live or die,” he says.&nbsp; Sirantal village was merely 10m above the Marsyangdi, and was completely destroyed by the flood. Thirty-two people were rescued by army helicopters, and most of the families have now relocated to Taal.&nbsp; One of them is Singha Bahadur Gurung who also ran a lodge for 20 years. “We did not have to buy anything except rice, the soil in Sirantal was so fertile,” he remembers.  <figure> <img src="https://publisher-publish.s3.eu-central-1.amazonaws.com/pb-nepalitimes/swp/asv65r/media/20260122100136_9da9290e59a6d565ae9cb81a850f725ccd937fd658d0adfabccfe4114ec94bed.jpg" data-media-id="editor_12" data-image-id="20260122100136_9da9290e59a6d565ae9cb81a850f725ccd937fd658d0adfabccfe4114ec94bed" data-rendition-name="original" width="1500" height="1000" loading="lazy" alt="Thulagi glof"> <figcaption>Singha Bahadur Gurung operated a lodge in Sirantal before the flood swept it away in 2021.</figcaption> </figure>  Marsyangdi now flows through where Singha Gurung’s village used to be. “Ever since the flood, I am terrified every time it rains from June to August,” he says.&nbsp; The 2021 flood was during the monsoon, and was caused by unusually heavy rainfall in the catchment. A GLOF on the Marsyangdi would be much more destructive. Roshni Ghale, 46, runs a hotel in Taal, and escaped with her family to a nearby cave as the flood engulfed nearby homes.&nbsp;  <figure> <img src="https://publisher-publish.s3.eu-central-1.amazonaws.com/pb-nepalitimes/swp/asv65r/media/20260122100136_7a6b74a4c33b597e2815b035ec5d56ffea35923016518f0fb35bcc4fc925dccd.jpg" data-media-id="editor_13" data-image-id="20260122100136_7a6b74a4c33b597e2815b035ec5d56ffea35923016518f0fb35bcc4fc925dccd" data-rendition-name="original" width="1500" height="1000" loading="lazy" alt="Thulagi glof"> <figcaption>Roshni Ghale spent six months after the 2021 flood rebuilding her hotel in Taal. Tourism has steadily picked up in the four years since the flood. </figcaption> </figure>  “We spent the next six months after the flood rebuilding our lives, going to bed hungry many a night,” she recalls. In the four years since, tourism has picked up again, but the<a href="https://nepalitimes.com/news/the-unseen-wounds-of-climate-disasters"> community is still traumatised</a>. In the wake of the floods, the government had begun talks to rehabilitate and repatriate the community, but until now, they have been <a href="https://nepalitimes.com/multimedia/from-one-disaster-to-the-next">empty promises</a>. In any case, the people here, most of them experienced hoteliers whose livelihood depends on tourism, are unwilling to uproot their lives and start over elsewhere.&nbsp;  <figure> <img src="https://publisher-publish.s3.eu-central-1.amazonaws.com/pb-nepalitimes/swp/asv65r/media/20260122100136_9a13c863422806eefdcd826ed12f9906e2372bd8f60f83c5351652eccf050384.jpg" data-media-id="editor_16" data-image-id="20260122100136_9a13c863422806eefdcd826ed12f9906e2372bd8f60f83c5351652eccf050384" data-rendition-name="original" width="1500" height="844" loading="lazy" alt="Thulagi glof"> <figcaption>Most of the survivors of the 2021 flood on the Marsyangdi from villages like Sirantal have relocated to the upstream village of Taal, which itself was hit by a monsoon flood in 2021.</figcaption> </figure>  DISASTER PREPAREDNESS Even though studies have assessed the risk of GLOFs in Manang and across Nepal, and warned about the damage that such floods could cause, it took until 2021 for early warning systems to be installed on the banks of the Marsyangdi and in the town of Taal.&nbsp; But beyond that, there has been little preparedness. Early warning systems and disaster preparedness are necessary not just along the Marsyangdi but also at and around Thulagi itself, say experts. Locals here are becoming increasingly aware of the risk posed by the expanding lake up the valley, but are reluctant to leave homes and communities that they have lived in for generations. The hydropower projects on the Dona Khola promises jobs, and the local government is upgrading the hiking trail to Thulagi Lake which has become a tourist attraction. “Manang now gets <a href="https://nepalitimes.com/here-now/too-little-snow-too-much-rain">too little snow and too much rain</a>, and the Marsyangdi charts its own course,” says Min Rashi Gurung, chair of Ward-1 of Naso rural municipality, where Thulagi is located. &nbsp; But help may be on the way.Last year, the Green Climate Fund (GCF) approved a $36.1 million grant to help Nepal reduce risk of GLOFs in Thulagi and four other glacial lakes. The project is managed by the government and the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP). The project is set to begin next fiscal year, and will reduce the water level in the four glacial lakes including Thulagi, similar to what was done in Imja and Tso Rolpa, says Dinkar Kayastha at the Department of Hydrology and Meteorology. &nbsp; Centre for Investigative Journalism - Nepal

Hotter Himalaya melts glaciers

This is the 81st episode of Diaspora Diaries, a Nepali Times series in collaboration with Migration Lab providing a platform to share experiences of living, working and studying abroad. I went to Australia in 2008 because everyone was headed there. It was my first time leaving the country and my first job. My college helped me find work as a kitchen helper at a Brisbane restaurant.&nbsp; I did not know that being a kitchen helper meant washing dishes. I was young and did not know how to wash dishes or how to handle the steam, the hot water, and the busy kitchen. The utensils were thrown at the dishwashing station continuously, and water splashed on my face. My shoes and clothes were always wet. It was an on-call job. A couple of days into the job, I was asked to come in when I was at the movies. I refused. They fired me. That was that. I then worked on a farm, picking lemons and oranges. The lemon work was particularly hard because I would get cuts all over my hands. This hustle was not for me.&nbsp; Within a year in Australia, I decided to return to Nepal because the foreign life did not suit me. After spending eight months in Nepal, reality sank in. Nepal was not all that great either. I went back to Australia. On the plane, I befriended a Nepali woman who was homesick and a first time traveler. At the immigration in Australia, the officer noticed my long absence and started interrogating me. He noticed the Nepali woman waiting for me and asked who she was. Without thinking I lied that she was my girlfriend. That seemed to do the trick because he did not want us to be separated. He stamped my passport. She went her way. I went mine.  <figure> <img src="https://publisher-publish.s3.eu-central-1.amazonaws.com/pb-nepalitimes/swp/asv65r/media/20260127130112_5e7bfa6acc5f94d5f1905537e387c2d4169469679ace2b71de368912f3bd514f.jpg" data-media-id="editor_0" data-image-id="20260127130112_5e7bfa6acc5f94d5f1905537e387c2d4169469679ace2b71de368912f3bd514f" data-rendition-name="original" width="987" height="1004" loading="lazy" alt="DD 81 NT"> </figure>  In Sydney, I again found a dishwashing job at a fine dining restaurant. A Sri Lankan colleague helped me learn the job. The pace at which I had to do the dishes was insane but I got the hang of it in two weeks. I always dreamt of one day wearing the chef’s white coat. It commanded respect, I could tell. In addition to becoming good at my job washing dishes, I also had good language and networking skills so I built good relationships with colleagues. There was a need for a pizza chef at the restaurant. It was expensive to hire someone new, and they asked me if I was up for the job. I said yes even though I knew nothing about making pizzas. My Italian colleagues coached me and before I knew it, I became better than others at the job. Soon, I realised that I did not just want to make pizzas. Whatever I wanted to learn, I just asked seniors to take me under their wings and I would help without pay. They would agree but still pay me. It wasn’t a strategy per se, I genuinely wanted to learn. At some point, a Japanese sous chef in my restaurant and I had coincidentally applied to the same restaurant, and there, under him, I got to learn even more. Working with a Japanese chef is really difficult, but you learn a lot. He would sometimes even hold my hand with tongs dipped in hot water when I screwed something up. I worked in a few restaurants after this and was earning well. When one of my colleagues, a dishwasher, was let go unfairly, I decided to leave because I did not want to be a quiet bystander to this act. I returned to Nepal immediately after this.  <figure> <img src="https://publisher-publish.s3.eu-central-1.amazonaws.com/pb-nepalitimes/swp/asv65r/media/2026012719010_f33ba38bb5f86f1d33262fd0d7ccd09ed01f6cc52148ca3d4cd66c434b695730.jpg" data-media-id="editor_1" data-image-id="2026012719010_f33ba38bb5f86f1d33262fd0d7ccd09ed01f6cc52148ca3d4cd66c434b695730" data-rendition-name="original" width="1200" height="1600" loading="lazy" alt="DD 82"> </figure>  I started a restaurant called Ghumti, but it was struggling. The location of the restaurants was not good and it failed. I bought another restaurant in Darbar Marg. I was managing two restaurants when Covid hit. The rent kept piling up, and there was no revenue. I took a huge loss. I gave them up and returned to Chitwan and started making migration plans. I came across a job vacancy for Alba in Qatar by the famous Enrico Crippa. I still remember the heat when I got out of the airport in Doha, it was like entering an oven. Thankfully, I had a Nepali roommate who showed me around and helped me adjust.&nbsp; The hotel was still under construction, but training had started. We worked really hard for the opening and things went well. In 2023, we even won the Best MENA Restaurant award. But at some point in 2024, the international Crippa chain decided to leave.&nbsp; Some colleagues including the head chef left and I suddenly was put in charge. I had some head chef experience from Australia and had previous experience working in high pressure environments, so I stepped up. We had to start from scratch again, this time as Alba in Raffles, Doha.&nbsp; The name of our restaurant comes from the Alba white truffle, which is the best available and is expensive, selling at around 40,000 QAR per kg. We had heard the official announcement that the Michelin was coming to Qatar, and we worked even harder.&nbsp; Michelin inspections are strict, highly secretive and you have no idea you are being investigated. Even then, we were up for the game. We were ‘selected’ which meant we had potential.  <figure> <img src="https://publisher-publish.s3.eu-central-1.amazonaws.com/pb-nepalitimes/swp/asv65r/media/2026012719010_bab3a904af69603e9e79f333aeea89b035401c0c8d1750930107f3594ff1f565.jpg" data-media-id="editor_2" data-image-id="2026012719010_bab3a904af69603e9e79f333aeea89b035401c0c8d1750930107f3594ff1f565" data-rendition-name="original" width="1000" height="697" loading="lazy" alt="DD 81"> </figure>  I went to the award ceremony with low expectations. But because they announce the name alphabetically, Alba came first. I was very happy and felt validated. Being recognised as a Michelin one star restaurant is a huge achievement for us. My MD reminded me of a promise I had made of getting a Michelin tattoo if we got the award. I guess I will get it done when I come to Nepal next. My plan is to get a tattoo that captures my journey right from the dishwashing days.&nbsp; I have cooked for Obama, Beckham, Kaka, Trump, 50 Cent, Lindsay Lohan, you name it, because our restaurant is visited by high profile guests. At first, I used to feel the pressure. Now I view all guests as the same. The food you make is the same no matter who is eating it. I love the work. In fact, it does not feel like work. The rush in the kitchen, the atmosphere, the heat, the scent, I live for it. When I am not working, I get bored. It is like an addiction without which I get withdrawals. I want to contribute in introducing Nepali cuisine and ingredients in the worldstage. Nepalis overseas have a lot of potential in the hospitality sector. But my advice to youth is to focus on building a strong base and invest in learning. It is increasingly common for Nepalis to job hop for a salary jump. While other skills like language are also important, it is the hard skills that we really need to focus on. In our field of work, it is the plate that needs to speak.

Sky is the limit

A mighty metal bird, ‘Heron on Hunt’ spreads its wings and unhinges its mouth hungrily. It looks down at ‘The Defending Crab,’ which has windshield wipers for legs and opens its pincers defiantly at the heron, daring it to attack. The crab shell is made of a ceiling fan, the blades of which have been cut up to form the bird’s wings. “The story is that you are what you eat,” says artist <a href="https://taragaonnext.com/events/artist-in-studio-9-metamorphosis-by-saurab-koirala/" target="_blank">Saurab Koirala</a>, whose solo exhibition ‘<a href="https://taragaonnext.com/events/artist-in-studio-9-metamorphosis-by-saurab-koirala/" target="_blank">Metamorphosis</a>’ at <a href="https://taragaonnext.com/events/archiving-for-the-future-an-intersection-of-heritage-and-architecture/" target="_blank">Taragaon Next </a>has sculptures made of material retrieved from garbage warehouses. Koirala was in the studio when protestors ransacked the adjacent Hyatt Hotel on 9 September. The windows of the iconic museum designed by <a href="https://www.archdaily.com/957728/carl-pruscha-an-architect-investigating-overlooked-territories" target="_blank">architect Carl Pruscha</a> in the 1960s were all shattered, but the studio survived. He used the broken glass to make fins for his fish sculptures and wings for insects.  <figure><img src="https://publisher-publish.s3.eu-central-1.amazonaws.com/pb-nepalitimes/swp/asv65r/media/2026012409010_0c6c0f6d69472940e1c623db7bae62235a18ded418066b1c8ecc89485d76dcd4.jpg" data-media-id="editor_4" data-image-id="2026012409010_0c6c0f6d69472940e1c623db7bae62235a18ded418066b1c8ecc89485d76dcd4" data-rendition-name="original" width="1000" height="1500" loading="lazy" alt="Saurab Koirala exhibition Taragaon Next NT"></figure>  Metamorphosis is a reference to the transformation of trash into art, but it is also fitting because many of the repurposed items are of insects: a firefly, a dung beetle, a spider, a dragonfly, a queen ant. The most striking are the pair of praying mantises, the smaller one is black, made of windshield wipers, and the larger grey one is made of a motorcycle silencer, bicycle parts, and a fluorescent tube holder. About the unrealistic size difference, Koirala notes that each piece is made of a component that defines its size. For the larger grey mantis, the defining piece is the silencer that makes up its torso. “The mantises are mating,” Koirala explains. “The female mantis will cannibalise the male afterwards, and the dragonfly witnesses the whole scene.” It is possible to look at each installation and immediately recognise what it is meant to be, but on looking closer we see what the parts are made of, and how. The exhibition is from Koirala’s Taragaon Next residency program sponsored by the Saraf Foundation.  <figure><img src="https://publisher-publish.s3.eu-central-1.amazonaws.com/pb-nepalitimes/swp/asv65r/media/2026012409010_35d47a71c3e357d4cdba166cdcbf37019639c68a3d69a158f19fe97ea48065ea.jpg" data-media-id="editor_5" data-image-id="2026012409010_35d47a71c3e357d4cdba166cdcbf37019639c68a3d69a158f19fe97ea48065ea" data-rendition-name="original" width="1500" height="1000" loading="lazy" alt="Saurab Koirala exhibition Taragaon Next NT"></figure>  Koirala thinks of himself as primarily a painter and a caricature artist, and not a sculptor. His mother was a teacher, and would make miniature animals, gods, houses for her students. “Seeing how happy she was doing that made me want to do it too, although she did not want me to be an artist,” Koirala recalls. Some of his mother’s creations are also on display at the exhibition. Koirala got more experience working with 3D models digitally in his work at Incessant Rain animation studio, especially animals. This seems to have given him strong visualisation skills that he has put to use in the art pieces, using minimal bending and cutting. Koirala participated in the WastArt Competition in 2018, where his Danphe sculpture made from colourful coke and soda cans was so striking that it became a part of the permanent collection at the Sagarmatha Next Art Gallery in Syangboche. Koirala worked in the studio in Khumbu, fashioning yaks and bees out of trekking trash.  <figure><img src="https://publisher-publish.s3.eu-central-1.amazonaws.com/pb-nepalitimes/swp/asv65r/media/2026012409010_253578bca93f136dca51102fc03a675cc3a8f47ba0b2d31ae2a4020c2c6e7485.jpg" data-media-id="editor_6" data-image-id="2026012409010_253578bca93f136dca51102fc03a675cc3a8f47ba0b2d31ae2a4020c2c6e7485" data-rendition-name="original" width="1000" height="1500" loading="lazy" alt="Saurab Koirala exhibition Taragaon Next NT"></figure>  “My back hurts,” he grimaces as he opens the doors to the studio, an unassuming shed a short walk from the exhibition which is littered with metal spare parts for future art. He has gone through three whole bicycles with a power saw. Koirala seems to want to alter the scrap as little as possible, and it is uncanny how well some of it fits the pieces. The aerodynamic curved fuel tank of a Bajaj Avenger motorcycle becomes the abdomen of a gigantic queen ant. A mosquito repellent becomes the green body of a spider. A stapler and a coconut turn into a snail. The steel legs of a rolling office chair curve exactly into the legs and paws of a fox in motion. “I did not want the animals to be in static poses. I wanted to capture dynamic movement,” says Koirala. Fittingly, most of the parts he has chosen have come from vehicles: bicycles, motorcycles, scooters, car horns, air filters. While Koirala’s work in his Sagarmatha Next residency was about waste encroaching into nature in the mountains, his work in Metamorphosis is a nostalgic memory of a happy childhood in Biratnagar. ‘There used to be abundant dragonflies in my hometown,’ writes Koirala in his description. “As kids, we would catch them and tie threads to their tails and fly them like kites.” The message about the degradation of nature is more valid than ever. The world is seeing the mass extinction of insects, and uncontrolled urbanisation of polluted Kathmandu Valley means only ants and some spiders survive. Artist in Studio #9: <a href="https://taragaonnext.com/events/artist-in-studio-9-metamorphosis-by-saurab-koirala/" target="_blank">Metamorphosis</a> <a href="https://taragaonnext.com/" target="_blank">Taragaon Next</a> Till 30 January 10AM-5:30PM

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