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So what is happening in Gaza and the borders to it?

One would have to be blind, and not on this planet, not to know that Gaza remains under blockade by the Israelis - and via Egypt, thanks to the Egyptians - but the reality and facts on the ground in Gaza attracts scant media coverage.

"In the year since Israeli fighter jets and troops invaded this coastal Palestinian strip to stop rocket fire, time seems to have stood still. A blockade imposed by both Israel and Egypt to isolate the Hamas government bars the vast majority of goods and people from moving in or out. That means there is no reconstruction of destroyed buildings. Thousands remain homeless. Winter has arrived.

With humanitarian aid staving off hunger and disease, perhaps the hardest part for people here is the feeling of having been forsaken. The economy is closed down and the exits have been shuttered; a pall of listlessness hovers.

But there are thousands of stories in the wake of the war and in the face of the blockade. The Israeli human rights group B’Tselem decided to do something about getting them out, especially to an Israeli audience. Months ago it distributed video cameras to 18 young people in Gaza and set them up with an instructor and Web guidance. The assignment: tell us about your lives."

So begins a report on the IHT by Ethan Bronner of The NY Times. Read his report, in full here - and reflect on the fact that many Israelis are, for the first time, gaining an insight into what is happening in Gaza. Strange, when one thinks where Gaza sits geographically in relation to Israel, but by all accounts Israelis know very little about what is happening in Gaza or the West Bank.

For another "take" on the situation in the area - especially the Gaza Freedom March which didn't take place - go here for a piece in The Age "Gaza's Suffering is Israel's Shame" by Antony Loewenstein, an Australian who travelled to Egypt to join the March.

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