From the Ugliest Faces of Humanity a post - which highlights the plight of Gazans in trying to live some sort of normal life, difficult as that undoubtedly is:
"Recently a friend of mine was saying to me how much he missed reading literature, novels. I assuming that he had not been reading anything because of the war and because he had been so busy with work. But suddenly it dawned on me that in my entire time here I have not seen a single book store or library. The only books available are for university and school students. Because the tunnels are mainly used to transport the necessities, i.e. medicine and food, things like books, toys and less vital things do not get through. I can’t believe that I had not noticed it earlier, but the complete absence of books in homes and shops really is quite striking.
Another thing not being brought in is pet food, again because it is not a necessity. I was given the most adorable kitten as a gift from friends of mine. Many cats died due to the white phosphorus blasts, and mothers left their baby kittens to fend for themselves for weeks while the families that took care of them had evacuated their houses in the North. My kitten is absolutely adorable, to the point that I have grown fond of her enough to think about taking her with me back to Europe. I was telling this to my boss who laughed and said “what makes you think that the closure policy that forbids any Gazan from leaving Gaza does not apply to the cat?” I thought he was joking; however he proceeded to tell me a story about an Italian woman who was living in Gaza for two years and had a cat here that she loved and could not bear to part with. When she left Gaza to move back home to Italy last year she did everything in her power to try to take the cat with her, and even had the Italian ambassador in Jerusalem drive down to Erez checkpoint to beg the guards to let her take the cat with her. However after several hours of arguing she was forced to part with her cat, which was deemed a security threat."
"Recently a friend of mine was saying to me how much he missed reading literature, novels. I assuming that he had not been reading anything because of the war and because he had been so busy with work. But suddenly it dawned on me that in my entire time here I have not seen a single book store or library. The only books available are for university and school students. Because the tunnels are mainly used to transport the necessities, i.e. medicine and food, things like books, toys and less vital things do not get through. I can’t believe that I had not noticed it earlier, but the complete absence of books in homes and shops really is quite striking.
Another thing not being brought in is pet food, again because it is not a necessity. I was given the most adorable kitten as a gift from friends of mine. Many cats died due to the white phosphorus blasts, and mothers left their baby kittens to fend for themselves for weeks while the families that took care of them had evacuated their houses in the North. My kitten is absolutely adorable, to the point that I have grown fond of her enough to think about taking her with me back to Europe. I was telling this to my boss who laughed and said “what makes you think that the closure policy that forbids any Gazan from leaving Gaza does not apply to the cat?” I thought he was joking; however he proceeded to tell me a story about an Italian woman who was living in Gaza for two years and had a cat here that she loved and could not bear to part with. When she left Gaza to move back home to Italy last year she did everything in her power to try to take the cat with her, and even had the Italian ambassador in Jerusalem drive down to Erez checkpoint to beg the guards to let her take the cat with her. However after several hours of arguing she was forced to part with her cat, which was deemed a security threat."
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