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A Farcaster Semi Exclusive
Martyr Mariam Riyad Abu Dagga
The 33-year-old photojournalist’s camera held her final images when it was retrieved from the rubble at Nasser Hospital on August 25: people climbing the damaged staircase where she would die minutes later. Abu Dagga was among five journalists killed when Israeli tank crews fired multiple shells at the Khan Younis medical facility, turning what should have been a sanctuary into a killing ground.
The attack began at 10 a.m. when Israeli forces fired on the hospital’s fourth-floor exterior staircase, killing Reuters cameraman Hussam al-Masri during a live broadcast. Nine minutes later, as Abu Dagga and other journalists reached the scene to document the aftermath, tank crews fired again. Weapons experts identified the munitions as M339 shells, fired from Israeli positions 2.5 kilometers northeast of the hospital. BBC analysis later revealed the assault involved at least four separate munitions, not the two strikes initially reported. Former U.S. Army explosive ordnance specialist Trevor Ball confirmed the projectiles came from tanks positioned northeast of the facility. An Israeli security official told CNN that forces had authorisation for a drone strike on an alleged Hamas camera (yet provided zero evidence) but fired tank shells instead, targeting first the camera position, then the rescue workers who responded, fucking absurd reason.
Abu Dagga was born in Khan Younis and never left. She studied journalism at Al-Aqsa University, graduating in 2015 when Gaza remained under blockade. Her entry into conflict photography came during the 2018 Great March of Return protests, when she documented demonstrators at the border fence separating Gaza from Israel. During one protest, she filmed Israeli soldiers shooting a protester. Hours later, family members told her the dead man was her brother. That incident shaped her approach to journalism. Abu Dagga became one of Gaza’s few female conflict photographers, working as a freelancer for the Associated Press, Independent Arabia, and other international outlets. Her photographs focused on displacement, hunger, and medical crises rather than combat imagery.
Abu Dagga spent months documenting conditions at Nasser Hospital, one of the last functioning medical facilities in southern Gaza. AP colleague Sarah El Deeb said Abu Dagga possessed the skills, the knowledge and the eyes to capture images of mothers, so sick of speaking of how sick their children have become. Her hospital photographs showed overcrowded wards, malnourished children, and families sleeping in corridors. The AP awarded her internally for coverage of starving children. Photo editor Enric Martí described her work ethic: she “always returned from the field with more details than her co-workers were expecting.”
Abu Dagga documented the same staircase where she died, using it as a vantage point to photograph the destruction of Khan Younis below. The hospital balcony served as a regular media position for Reuters, AP, and other organisations seeking elevated shots of Israeli military operations in the city.
Abu Dagga supported multiple relatives through war and illness. Before the current conflict began, she donated a kidney to her father, saving his life. Her mother died of cancer four months before Abu Dagga’s death, unable to receive proper treatment in Gaza’s degraded health system. She was the mother of 13-year-old Ghaith, whom she sent to live with his father in the United Arab Emirates when fighting intensified. Speaking from the UAE, Ghaith told The National his mother often said she felt her martyrdom was near. Cousin Maisaa Abudagga, who immigrated to Iowa in 2006, said Abu Dagga was literally the reporter of every death in this family and more. If a strike hit and we didn’t know what happened, we waited until Mariam told us.
Abu Dagga wrote her will during the war, anticipating her death. To Ghaith, she wrote: “When I die, I want you to pray for me, not to cry for me” and “When you grow up, get married and have a daughter, name her Mariam after me.”
She left instructions for her colleagues not to mourn at her funeral but to spend time with her body, speak to her and take our fill of her before she left, according to friend Samaheer Farhan. Hours before the attack, Abu Dagga posted on social media: “When you see the dirt covering your most precious possessions, you realise how trivial life is.”
The Committee to Protect Journalists reports 240 Palestinian media workers have been killed since October 7, 2023. Abu Dagga died with Al Jazeera cameraman Mohammed Salama, freelance journalists Ahmed Abu Aziz and Moaz Abu Taha, and Reuters contractor al-Masri. Israel’s US backed war criminal Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu called the incident a tragic mishap. The military claimed the strike targeted a Hamas surveillance camera but could not explain how troops distinguished between alleged militant equipment and press cameras operating from the same location.
Photo editor Martí reflected on Abu Dagga’s death: “Now, in Khan Younis, we are orphans. She was our eyes there.”
She left behind a 13 year old son who now lives in the UAE. 0 reply
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US Special Envoy Tom Barrack made extraordinary public statements acknowledging Israel's territorial ambitions beyond its current borders, declaring that Israel considers the century-old Sykes-Picot boundaries irrelevant.
In an interview with UAE influencer Mario Nawfal, Barrack, Trump's envoy to the Eastern Mediterranean, said Israel believes these lines that were created by Sykes-Picot are meaningless. They will go where they want, when they want, and do what they want to protect the Israelis and their borders. When asked if Israel could conquer Lebanon, Barrack responded: Does Israel have the capacity or the desire to really geographically take over Lebanon? Absolutely. Probably in an afternoon. He added Israel has similar capabilities regarding Syria.
Israel occupies five strategic positions in southern Lebanon despite November 2024 ceasefire terms requiring full withdrawal. The nation has also expanded into Syrian territory following Assad's fall. Barrack is mediating efforts to disarm Hezbollah through Gulf-funded financial incentives rather than military force, acknowledging the Lebanese Armed Forces cannot forcibly disarm the group.
The 1916 Sykes-Picot Agreement between Britain and France established modern Middle Eastern borders, creating Lebanon, Syria, Jordan, and Mandatory Palestine.
Barrack's remarks mark the first time a US official has publicly acknowledged Israeli rejection of established regional boundaries, indicating American awareness of potential territorial expansion plans that could reshape the Middle East map.
With all that being said, Israel has the technological prowess but not the ground troops to start invading sovereign countries with ease. 0 reply
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SCO Summit Projects New Eurasian Power Architecture
Tianjin gathering positions China-Russia bloc as Western alternative
Chinese President Xi Jinping used the largest Shanghai Cooperation Organization summit in the bloc’s 24-year history to advance his vision of a multipolar world order, gathering over 20 world leaders in Tianjin on September 1 to challenge American global dominance.
The summit delivered economic commitments that signal deepening Eurasian integration. Xi pledged 2 billion yuan ($280 million) in grants to SCO member states this year, and an additional 10 billion yuan ($1.4 billion) in loans to an SCO banking consortium over the next three years. China’s top diplomat Wang Yi announced that leaders agreed to launch the SCO Development Bank, creating a Beijing-led financial institution to rival Western-dominated lending mechanisms. Modi’s attendance carried particular weight. The Indian prime minister embraced Putin before the two walked over hand in hand to greet Xi. The three leaders then shared a conversation marked by smiles and laughter. This marked Modi’s first China visit since 2018, coming amid mounting U.S. trade pressures on both New Delhi and Beijing.
Xi’s diplomatic messaging targeted American foreign policy without naming Washington directly. The house rules of a few countries should not be imposed on others, Xi told more than 20 world leaders, while rejecting what he called a Cold War mentality. Putin reinforced this theme, describing a new system that would replace the outdated Eurocentric and Euro-Atlantic models, take into account the interests of the broadest possible range of countries, be truly balanced, and would not allow attempts by some states to ensure their security at the expense of others.
SCO members control vast global energy reserves and govern some 40% of the global population. With major emerging markets China, Russia and India among its members, the SCO represents nearly half of the world’s population and a quarter of the global economy. China announced Xi’s Global Governance Initiative during Monday’s session, the fourth in a series of Chinese-led international frameworks designed to reshape global institutions. The initiative follows Xi’s previous Global Development and Global Security initiatives, creating an alternative governance model to Western-led institutions.
Economic cooperation dominated bilateral discussions. Xi said China has invested $84 billion in other SCO countries and backed 10,000 students joining Beijing’s “Luban” vocational education program, demonstrating Beijing’s commitment to deeper regional integration through education and infrastructure investment.
The timing benefited China’s power projection ambitions. The summit occurred as Trump administration tariffs strain Washington’s relationships with both India and China, creating space for Beijing to position itself as a stable alternative. The summit comes days after India was hit by a sharp bump up in US tariffs on its goods as punishment for New Delhi’s purchases of Russian oil.
Despite internal contradictions, including India-Pakistan tensions and varying political systems among members, the Tianjin summit demonstrated China’s capacity to convene rival powers under a shared anti-Western framework. The gathering established SCO as Beijing’s primary vehicle for projecting Eurasian influence and challenging American hegemony through economic integration rather than military confrontation. 0 reply
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