Three reports serve to highlight the position in which Gaza finds itself, Israel's actions and own "issues" caused by its unlawful behaviour and how Gazan people see their own situation both for themselves and in relation to the Israelis and the Palestinians in the West Bank.
The Washington Post reports:
"The batteries are the size of a button on a man's shirt, small silvery dots that power hearing aids for several hundred Palestinian students taught by the Atfaluna Society for Deaf Children in Gaza City.
Now the batteries, marketed by Radio Shack, are all but used up. The few that are left are losing power, turning voices into unintelligible echoes in the ears of Hala Abu Saif's 20 first-grade students.
The Israeli government is increasingly restricting the import into the Gaza Strip of batteries, anesthesia drugs, antibiotics, tobacco, coffee, gasoline, diesel fuel and other basic items, including chocolate and compressed air to make soft drinks.
This punishing seal has reduced Gaza, a territory of almost 1.5 million people, to beggar status, unable to maintain an effective public health system, administer public schools or preserve the traditional pleasures of everyday life by the sea.
"Essentially, it's the ordinary people, caught up in the conflict, paying the price for this political failure," said John Ging, director of the U.N. Relief and Works Agency in Gaza, which serves the majority refugee population. "The humanitarian situation is atrocious, and it is easy to understand why -- 1.2 million Gazans now relying on U.N. food aid, 80,000 people who have lost jobs and the dignity of work. And the list goes on."
On the other hand, a demonstration of some 200,ooo people in Gaza, as reported by Steven Erlanger, the NY Times Jerusalem Bureau Chief:
"About 200,000 Gazans rallied in support of Hamas on Saturday, the 20th anniversary of its founding.
It was a significant show of force from Hamas, which took over Gaza six months ago in a rapid rout of Fatah forces. The rally was intended to display popular “samoud,” or steadfastness, in the face of the diplomatic and economic isolation of Gaza, which Israel has declared a “hostile entity.” It was easily as large as one a month ago for its rival, the Fatah faction, on the anniversary of the death of Yasir Arafat, and estimates ranged up to 250,000 people.
Central Gaza City was filled with green flags and political slogans, and a large banner reading, “We will not recognize Israel,” adorned the back of the stage.
There were fiery speeches from Hamas notables, filled with the rhetoric of defiance toward Israel and the United States, coupled with calls for renewed national unity with the West Bank, run by the Palestinian president, Mahmoud Abbas, his Fatah faction and an appointed prime minister, Salam Fayyad.
The Hamas prime minister, Ismail Haniya, whose government was fired by Mr. Abbas, said: “Your message today is that the movement will not surrender in front of such an embargo. We will not break. The root of the movement is like a good tree in good soil.” He said that the suffering of Gaza’s 1.5 million people from that isolation “will not achieve its goal, which is our collapse.”
Significantly:
"The crowd featured many who are poor and devout, with many veiled women and masked men. Layali al-Kher, 27, said there was little money in her family, because restrictions on cement and raw materials have led to the closing of factories and a halt to construction. “But this siege was not imposed by Hamas but on them, so why should we criticize them?” she asked. “They’ve put Hamas in a bottle and they are trying to suffocate it. But they have achieved a lot: the streets are safe, the traffic is controlled. They have adapted quickly and have a strong will.”
And finally, what Israel has wrought, as the Washington Post also reports:
"Far from the Gaza Strip, in a bright room with a view of Jerusalem visible above the green cedar spires outside her window, Maria Aman lives with her father and brother.
It is a comfortable place, if crowded. Stuffed animals donated by Israelis and Palestinians line the walls, and a laptop given to her by Bank Hapoalim, Israel's largest bank, sits on Maria's small desk in a corner.
The 6-year-old girl with curly dark hair and a wide smile navigates the Internet with her chin, moving a small joystick to and fro across the screen. She operates her wheelchair in the same way.
In 2006, as a taxi carrying her family in downtown Gaza City passed a car carrying a leader of the armed Islamic Jihad organization, two Israeli missiles fired from a helicopter far above slammed into both vehicles. Her spine was virtually severed. Her mother, older brother, grandmother and uncle were killed."
The Washington Post reports:
"The batteries are the size of a button on a man's shirt, small silvery dots that power hearing aids for several hundred Palestinian students taught by the Atfaluna Society for Deaf Children in Gaza City.
Now the batteries, marketed by Radio Shack, are all but used up. The few that are left are losing power, turning voices into unintelligible echoes in the ears of Hala Abu Saif's 20 first-grade students.
The Israeli government is increasingly restricting the import into the Gaza Strip of batteries, anesthesia drugs, antibiotics, tobacco, coffee, gasoline, diesel fuel and other basic items, including chocolate and compressed air to make soft drinks.
This punishing seal has reduced Gaza, a territory of almost 1.5 million people, to beggar status, unable to maintain an effective public health system, administer public schools or preserve the traditional pleasures of everyday life by the sea.
"Essentially, it's the ordinary people, caught up in the conflict, paying the price for this political failure," said John Ging, director of the U.N. Relief and Works Agency in Gaza, which serves the majority refugee population. "The humanitarian situation is atrocious, and it is easy to understand why -- 1.2 million Gazans now relying on U.N. food aid, 80,000 people who have lost jobs and the dignity of work. And the list goes on."
On the other hand, a demonstration of some 200,ooo people in Gaza, as reported by Steven Erlanger, the NY Times Jerusalem Bureau Chief:
"About 200,000 Gazans rallied in support of Hamas on Saturday, the 20th anniversary of its founding.
It was a significant show of force from Hamas, which took over Gaza six months ago in a rapid rout of Fatah forces. The rally was intended to display popular “samoud,” or steadfastness, in the face of the diplomatic and economic isolation of Gaza, which Israel has declared a “hostile entity.” It was easily as large as one a month ago for its rival, the Fatah faction, on the anniversary of the death of Yasir Arafat, and estimates ranged up to 250,000 people.
Central Gaza City was filled with green flags and political slogans, and a large banner reading, “We will not recognize Israel,” adorned the back of the stage.
There were fiery speeches from Hamas notables, filled with the rhetoric of defiance toward Israel and the United States, coupled with calls for renewed national unity with the West Bank, run by the Palestinian president, Mahmoud Abbas, his Fatah faction and an appointed prime minister, Salam Fayyad.
The Hamas prime minister, Ismail Haniya, whose government was fired by Mr. Abbas, said: “Your message today is that the movement will not surrender in front of such an embargo. We will not break. The root of the movement is like a good tree in good soil.” He said that the suffering of Gaza’s 1.5 million people from that isolation “will not achieve its goal, which is our collapse.”
Significantly:
"The crowd featured many who are poor and devout, with many veiled women and masked men. Layali al-Kher, 27, said there was little money in her family, because restrictions on cement and raw materials have led to the closing of factories and a halt to construction. “But this siege was not imposed by Hamas but on them, so why should we criticize them?” she asked. “They’ve put Hamas in a bottle and they are trying to suffocate it. But they have achieved a lot: the streets are safe, the traffic is controlled. They have adapted quickly and have a strong will.”
And finally, what Israel has wrought, as the Washington Post also reports:
"Far from the Gaza Strip, in a bright room with a view of Jerusalem visible above the green cedar spires outside her window, Maria Aman lives with her father and brother.
It is a comfortable place, if crowded. Stuffed animals donated by Israelis and Palestinians line the walls, and a laptop given to her by Bank Hapoalim, Israel's largest bank, sits on Maria's small desk in a corner.
The 6-year-old girl with curly dark hair and a wide smile navigates the Internet with her chin, moving a small joystick to and fro across the screen. She operates her wheelchair in the same way.
In 2006, as a taxi carrying her family in downtown Gaza City passed a car carrying a leader of the armed Islamic Jihad organization, two Israeli missiles fired from a helicopter far above slammed into both vehicles. Her spine was virtually severed. Her mother, older brother, grandmother and uncle were killed."
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