Video of visually impaired Palestinian boy crying over broken glasses draws global attention

A video of a seven-year-old Palestinian boy in Gaza who suffers from a severe visual impairment crying over his shattered glasses has drawn widespread attention across social and international media.

The footage of Ayoub Junaid has shone a light on the plight of the many visually impaired children in Gaza who, because of Israel’s blockade and the devastation caused by the war, have been unable to access eye examinations, corrective lenses or specialist ophthalmic surgery.

After the clip was viewed by tens of millions of people, Ayoub received a new pair of glasses. This good news, however, does not solve the underlying problem, as he urgently needs surgery.

Ayoub’s mother, Eman Junaid, 30, displaced in the Gaza City port area, tells the Guardian her son’s problem began when he was two.

“Ayoub suffers from very severe nearsightedness after having a fever illness,” she says. A doctor told Junaid that Ayoub’s vision would gradually improve as he got older, but the opposite happened – the prescription he required increased and the lenses he now needs are not available in Gaza.

“We were preparing to travel for treatment, but the war started and everything stopped,” she adds.

Read the article here & see the video.

Truth

Candy and the Kings

When a journalist is killed, thousands of people are silenced. According to documentation by the Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ) and the United Nations, more media professionals have been killed in Gaza by Israe than in World War I, World War II, the Vietnam War, and the post-9/11 war in Afghanistan combined.

They are still also not letting international journalists in. Gaza is the only "war zone" globally where independent international journalists are entirely banned from entering by Israel has maintained a near-total blockade on independent foreign press access since October 2023, only allowing highly restricted, military-escorted tours for selected outlets. If you have nothing to hide why aren't you allowing any reporter's in?

Action Alert from the U.S. Campaign

The U.S. and Israel are trying to permanently combine their militaries into a catastrophic imperialist force, in order to produce deadly weapons and technology together. This is happening as Israel keeps escalating violence in a wider war, bombing Lebanon, Iran, and Gaza and sabotaging any chance of a real ceasefire.

This dangerous proposal, Section 224, has been buried inside the annual military spending bill. In total, the 2027 National Defense Authorization Act carries a whopping budget of over $1 trillion in military spending.

On Thursday, the House Armed Services Committee shamefully voted to advance the bill, despite Rep. Ro Khanna’s efforts to remove the section integrating the U.S. and Israeli militaries.

Now it heads to the Senate Armed Services Committee THIS WEEK. Contact your members of Congress right now and demand that they speak up.

Section 224 would integrate U.S. and Israeli weapons research, technology development, drone systems, AI programs, and military industries, and shield it all from future congressional oversight votes.2 It means U.S. military technology, intelligence systems, and research your tax dollars paid for, would run through a shared pipeline with Israel, a genocidal state that has repeatedly shown it acts in its own destructive interests.3

Netanyahu personally wrote a letter endorsing a bill for this very purpose, with similar language.4 And the Pentagon just raised its counterintelligence threat level for Israel to “critical,” citing concerns Israel is spying on top U.S. officials.5

The U.S. and Israel advanced this dangerous proposal now for a reason.

60% of Americans want to stop arming Israel. Many pro-Palestine candidates have been winning Democratic primaries, posing a threat to Republican control of Congress. So Republicans have buried U.S. military entanglement with Israel in the Pentagon budget, to make it permanent before time runs out.

Meanwhile Israel has been quietly negotiating another 10-year military funding commitment from the U.S. in the form of an MOU (Memorandum of Understanding) agreement.6

Congress should be funding housing, healthcare, education, and climate resilience. The same politicians who say there's no money for any of that, somehow always find more for war. Like the $1 trillion in this 2027 military spending bill.