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Tanya Habjouqa

Artists, university students, and filmmakers gather at popular bar “The Station” in Ramallah to decompress after months of closures and stress from widespread street protests.

A vendor sells corn in Deir Anan village, part of the occupied Palestinian territory. A picture of him and his best friend, who was killed by Israeli soldiers a couple years earlier, sits atop the cart.

A new billboard is illuminated on the edge of an Israeli-controlled checkpoint in Ramallah, next to the Bet El settlement. The location is a common gathering spot for protests and advertisements for Palestinian businesses are often burned. Both the billboard and barriers are new additions after weeks of protests that got international attention last month.

Faiza Afifa, a graphic design student at Birzeit University, fled from Gaza at the age of 14 during an Israeli military offensive in 2014. She says she feels intense guilt that she is safe and can do nothing to help her friends.

Silwan Odeh, 9, entertains guests with traditional Palestinian folk dances and Tik-Tok reenactments in the al-Bustan neighbourhood in East Jerusalem. “Silwan is a child who is a witness to all of this violence. We try to calm her, to say they are just settlers, don’t be afraid. But her own mother, a doctor, was arrested for being politically active on Facebook,” says her uncle, Qutaibah Odeh.

Omar Katib stands in the pool his father built during the COVID-19 pandemic in Bilin village, part of the occupied Palestinian territory. Another boy who often played at the pool, Islam Wael Burnat, 15, died the day before during a protest at the edge of their village.

Thaer Rajabi, 9, rests on the rooftop of his apartment building after playing in an inflatable pool in the Batan Hawa neighbourhood in the Silwan valley. Ninety-seven households, including the Rajabi family, are at risk of being evicted by settler organisations. The forced removal would impact 453 people, including 223 children.

Palestinian protesters gather in Sheikh Jarrah, East Jerusalem.

Basil Abu el-U'la, 15, sits beside his father and elder sister, who tends to an eye he lost at a recent protest. It was the second protest the teen had ever attended. “When I fell on the ground, I knew right away it was gone. I immediately knew that my eye was permanently taken from me. But my life goes on…with eyes or without them,” he says.

Rai Cafe is a popular spot among progressive Palestinians in Haifa.