Six months after crushing war, Gaza: "Scenes of misery are one of the few things in abundance" : image via Kenneth Roth @KenRoth, 14 February 2015
I Desolation
The storm lashed several countries in the Middle East, including Egypt, Israel, Palestine and Lebanon: photo by Middle East Eye/Anne Paq and Basel Yazouri via Middle East Eye, 13 February 2015
Palestinians ride donkey-carts during a sandstorm at the al-Shejaiya neighbourhood of Gaza City. The buildings were destroyed in Israeli attacks during last year’s 50-day siege of Gaza: photo by Mohammed Abed/AFP via The Guardian, 13 February 2015
Palestinians walk through the storm along the harbour of Gaza City: photo by Middle East Eye/Anne Paq and Basel Yazouri via Middle East Eye, 13 February 2015
Gazan fishermen, already struggling with the desperate economic situation, cannot go out to sea, due to dangerous weather conditions: photo by Middle East Eye/Anne Paq and Basel Yazouri via Middle East Eye, 13 February 2015
Palestinians stand in front of metal caravans which are used shelters in the al-Tuffah neighbourhood of Gaza. They say the caravans are ill-equipped for the winter: photo by Middle East Eye/Anne Paq and Basel Yazouri via Middle East Eye, 13 February 2015
Children try to warm themselves around a fire in one of the destroyed sections of Shujayea, east of Gaza City: photo by Middle East Eye/Anne Paq and Basel Yazouri via Middle East Eye, 13 February 2015
Palestinian women from the Shamali family prepare food in a tent near the destroyed section of Shujayea: photo by Middle East Eye/Anne Paq and Basel Yazouri via Middle East Eye, 13 February 2015
Members of the Shamali family in front of their shelter which is home for four families: photo by Middle East Eye/Anne Paq and Basel Yazouri via Middle East Eye, 13 February 2015
Never has the #ecology of #Palestine been in as poor shape and as threatened as it is now under the supremacist israeli occupation: image via Tarek Al Farra @Talfarra, 13 February 2015
Never has the #ecology of #Palestine been in as poor shape and as threatened as it is now under the supremacist israeli occupation: image via Tarek Al Farra @Talfarra, 13 February 2015
Never has the #ecology of #Palestine been in as poor shape and as threatened as it is now under the supremacist israeli occupation: image via Tarek Al Farra @Talfarra, 13 February 2015
Never has the #ecology of #Palestine been in as poor shape and as threatened as it is now under the supremacist israeli occupation: image via Tarek Al Farra @Talfarra, 13 February 2015
Sundown’s fading light shows the destruction in the Sha’af neighborhood of Gaza City after the summer war: photo by Heidi Levine via Washington Post, 13 February 2015
II Love Songs
Injured Palestinian Sharif al-Namlah, 3, is dressed by his grandfather, also named Sharif, after his bath at his home in Rafah, Gaza, 31 January 2015. The lower part of his left leg was blown off when Israeli rockets hit the family during last summer’s war: photo by Heidi Levine/Sipa Press via Washington Post, 13 February 2015
An early morning beam of light shines through the home of Palestinian Ramba Kafanah as she stands breastfeeding her newborn baby in the kitchen of her damaged home in Beit Hanoun, Gaza on 30 October 2014. Her home was heavily damaged during the recent 50-day Israeli siege in the Gaza Strip but she still lives with her family in the home: photo by Heidi Levine/Sipa Press via Washington Post, 13 February 2015
Palestinian bride Anaan El Harazen, 24, sits in the damaged salon of her family’s home as she waits to pose for pictures with family members before her groom comes to take her away for their wedding in the Shijaiyah neighborhood of eastern Gaza City, 4 November 2014: photo by Heidi Levine/Sipa Press via Washington Post, 13 February 2015
Palestinian children dressed in their best clothes wait for the arrival of bride Anaan El Harazen in the family’s damaged home in the Shijaiyah neighborhood of eastern Gaza City, 4 November 2014. The family’s home was severely damaged during last summer’s war in the Gaza Strip: photo by Heidi Levine/Sipa Press via Washington Post, 13 February 2015
A young Palestinian girl prepares herself for school as she pins her headscarf in place using a tiny broken mirror that is on the wall at the UN school in Beit Hanoun in northern Gaza, 31 December 2014. Thousands of Palestinians in Gaza are still displaced by the war.: photo by Heidi Levine/Sipa Press via Washington Post, 13 February 2015
Injured Palestinian Wael al-Namlah takes a shower at his home in Rafa, Gaza, 20 January 2015. He lost one of his legs during last summer’s war in the Gaza Strip. His wife, Asraah, lost both legs and his three year old son lost the lower part of one of his legs as well during the war.: photo by Heidi Levine/Sipa Press via Washington Post, 13 February 2015
Injured Palestinian three year-old Sharif al-Namlah, as he plays during his bath at his family’s home in Rafah, Gaza, 31 January 2015. His mother Asraah lost both of her legs and his father Wael lost one leg when an Israeli bomb hit the family homes on 1 August 2014: photo by Heidi Levine/Sipa Press via Washington Post, 13 February 2015
Nabil Siyam, 34, who lost his arm and sustained other injuries stands, with his son Badruddin, 5, at their home in Rafah, Gaza, 29 December 2014: photo by Heidi Levine/Sipa Press via Washington Post, 13 February 2015
Palestinian
woman Safa Fayez, 29, during her rehabilitation treatment session at
the Artificial Limbs and Polio Center in Gaza City, 11 December 2014.
She was seriously wounded by shrapnel during the Palestinian-Israeli
conflict when IDF shells hit the UN school crowded by hundreds of
Palestinians seeking shelter on 24 July 2014. She lost her her baby and
husband. She was a mother of four.: photo by Heidi Levine/Sipa
Press via Washington Post, 13 February 2015
Palestinian woman Safa Fayez, 29, pulls herself up the staircase of her home in Beit Hanoun, Gaza, 11 December 2014: photo by Heidi Levine/Sipa Press via Washington Post, 13 February 2015
Wounded Wael al-Namlah, 26, and his wife Asraah watch 3-year-old son Sharif crawl on the carpet at their home in Rafa, Gaza, 20 January 2015. The family was fleeing on foot trying to reach a safer area when an Israeli rocket attack hit them. Wael’s 11-year old sister and his brother Yusef and his wife were killed.: photo by Heidi Levine/Sipa Press via Washington Post, 13 February 2015
Palestinian Mustafa Majedah 19, is carried by his friend Mohammed as they arrive for his rehabilitation session at the Artificial Limbs and Polio Center in Gaza City, 30 December 2014: photo by Heidi Levine/Sipa Press via Washington Post, 13 February 2015
Palestinian technicians at the Artificial Limb and Polio Center in Gaza City make new prosthetics, 11 December 2014. According to Hazin Shawa, the Director of the center, 60% of the amputees the center is now rehabilitating are from last summer’s war in the Gaza Strip: photo by Heidi Levine/Sipa Press via Washington Post, 13 February 2015
Palestinian Manar Shabari sits in her wheelchair by her prosthetic legs that have been fitted with festive shoes to be worn at her brother’s wedding at a relative’s home in Jabalya, Gaza, 30 December 30,2014: photo by Heidi Levine/Sipa Press via Washington Post, 13 February 2015
Wounded Palestinian woman Asraah al-Namlah, and her injured husband Wael in the evening as they listen to Arabic love songs in a room lit by safety lights during a power cut at their home in Rafah ,Gaza, 20 January 2015: photo by Heidi Levine/Sipa Press via Washington Post, 13 February 2015
Love and let people Love ! .. Love in #Gaza <3 span="">: image via Nadia AbuShaban @Nadia AbuShaban 13 February 2015
III Flowers into the sea
@levantina "Palestinians in besieged #Gaza throw flowers into the sea in honor of #ChapelHill shooting victims": image via Tarek Al Farra @Talfarra, 13 February 2015
Iterative
In loss begins
In loss begins
the struggle, over
and over
@levantina "Palestinians in besieged #Gaza throw flowers into the sea in honor of #ChapelHill shooting victims": image via Tarek Al Farra @Talfarra, 13 February 2015
TODAY Israeli forces opened fire at Palestinian homes and farmers in southern #Gaza: image via Dr Bassel AbuWarda @DrBaselAbuwarda, 13 February 2015
Namee Barakat, centre, watches during funeral services for his son, Deah Shaddy Barakat, on Thursday: photo by Chuck Liddy/AP via the Guardian, 13 February 2015
Khan Younis, Gaza Strip. A Palestinian woman walks past a painted container used as temporary accommodation: photo by Ibraheem Abu Mustafa/Reuters via the Guardian, 8 February 2015
3 comments:
Thank you as always for these harrowing reality-shots... bringing up close what all our media hopes to keep very far away... and our policies... Where's Life Magazine when we need it!
Abdal-Hayy,
Gaza having now been formally eliminated from the designated areas of media concern, it's only major events there in recent days and weeks that have stirred a few major news outlets to turn and look again. The WAPO Jerusalem correspondent, William Booth, a veteran of the regional conflicts, yesterday filed what I guess would be called a "sobering account", in which he reported that after all the years of suffering and resilience and steadfastness, Gaza now appears to be at the point of collapse. No electricity, no water, no entry, no exit, and now a crippling assault of storms, the air charged with sand and dust, flooded streets. The famous relief donations have largely failed to materialize, and in any case the Israeli restrictions continue to frustrate attempts to bring in such dangerous things as building supplies. And of course the Israelis have been consistent in one purpose all along -- to efface, eradicate, "neutralize" Gaza forever. As the toll in suffering continues to grow, any rose-coloured vision of a future in which these people who have been forgotten by history somehow become miraculously able to forgive and forget must seem not only unrealistic, but downright foolish. The Machiavelli principle -- treat a subject people kindly, or else kill them all -- looks more and more apt. Bibi's current opponent for the position of top cop is making it a straight-up campaign promise: elect me, and the IDF will be back in Gaza tomorrow, and this time we'll really finish the job.
Meanwhile, for a bit of sad fact, here is the report filed by Anne Paq and Basel Yazouri along with their file of photos for MEE:
__
Anne Paq and Basel Yazouri
Middle East Eye, 13 February 2015 12:45 GMT
The Palestinians inside the Gaza Strip, already in a very dire humanitarian situation, have been hit with a major sand storm and heavy winds for the past two days.
The storm especially affected the tens of thousands of Palestinians who lost their homes during last summer's Israeli offensive which destroyed 18,000 housing units. Six months after the truce, many displaced Palestinians have been staying in shelters or damaged homes and are getting increasingly frustrated by the lack of rebuilding on the ground. UNOCHA indicates that "although by early January 2015, nearly 40,000 individuals had been granted authorisation to purchase construction materials restricted under the Israeli blockade, less than 40 percent of them have actually purchased materials."
This is primarily due to financial constraints. According to UNRWA, 11,000 displaced Palestinians still live in schools, which are not equipped to face harsh weather conditions, nor host so many people for such a long period of time.
In Shujayeha, Eyad and Motaaz Helles, both brothers and owners of a three-story building that was completely destroyed last summer, had to borrow money to build a modest one-story house that is not large enough to house the 25 members of the family.
Eyad said: "Our home was built by our father forty years ago, my brother just added another floor 3 months ago. We had to flee with nothing but our lives. Now the situation is unbearable. The building is so expensive, and we had to borrow money. We want the rebuilding process to be faster."
The work on the house continues despite the storm because they want to move in as soon as possible.
The effect of the storm and bad weather is also felt by Hekmmat Shamali, 50, mother of 14 children. She lives together with more than 20 members of her family in a large tent covered by plastic sheeting in Shujayeha.
She said this about the living conditions: "This is terrible. All the children are sick with coughing or skin disease. When it is raining we have water inside, and with the strong wind, we cannot sleep due to the noise. We have no electricity, nor water, and we cannot use the heaters because we are afraid of starting a fire."
Ghada Shamali, 18, adds: "The situation is very bad. People were patient until now, but when we heard that UNRWA will stop their support, we lost our patience."
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