Free Republic

BEIRUT (AP) — He is among the very last survivors of his Gaza family, a clan so close they knew without thinking how blood and marriage bound them across generations and city blocks. Then, branch by branch, 173 of Youssef Salem’s relatives were killed in Israeli airstrikes in a matter of days in December. By spring that toll had risen to 270. Bones and flesh strewn over the ruins of family homes. Blond curls of a young cousin peeking through bricks. Unrecognizable bodies piled on a donkey cart. Lines of burial shrouds. These images are what survivors are left with...

My mum... was the first girl to live beyond childhood. Five of her sisters died as babies or toddlers. It was not until many years later that anyone worked out why so many children died and three boys were born deaf... Today there is no doubt among us that this tragedy occurred because my grandparents were first cousins.... [snip] In the UK more than 50 per cent of British Pakistanis marry their cousins.. ... the practice is on the rise and also common among East African, Middle-Eastern and Bangladeshi communities... the children of first cousins are ten times more likely...