Know More About Palestine



Wednesday Sept. 8, 2010 10:21 AM (EST+7)

RAMALLAH, September 8 (JMCC) - Gazans living in the at-times-deadly boundary zone Israel has created suffer from numerous hardships this Ramadan. reports the Electronic Intifada.

In the last war on Gaza, more than 6,400 homes were destroyed or severely damaged by the Israeli army. In Johr al-Dik alone roughly 140 houses were demolished. Using bits of rubble and broken asbestos, the family created a small room from the rubble.

But the problems extend beyond targeted demolitions a year and a half ago.

We live just a few hundred meters from the Green Line border between Gaza and Israel. Israeli military vehicles are always at the border, as well as the remotely-controlled machine gun tower. The Israelis randomly open fire on us.

From January to August alone, the Palestinian Centre for Human Rights (PCHR) reports 37 Palestinians have been killed and 93 injured in Israeli attacks in Gaza's border regions.

Two days ago, they bombed open land nearby, Abu Hani adds.

Save the Children reports that, since ten years ago, 70 percent of households in boundary regions have been either temporarily or permanently displaced by Israeli attacks or demolitions.

Umm Hani longs for her house again. We salvaged a few pans and some plates from our wrecked house. But even those aren't enough for all the mouths to feed.

The family is living a barebones existence.

Every day I collect wood from our destroyed trees in order to make a fire. But we have very little to cook. I wish we had milk and yogurt for our grandchildren, but it's expensive and we have no income whatsoever.

Aside from the children's health, she has other worries. There's no place here away from danger. Our children play outside and the Israelis are always shooting.

In the intense heat, the Gaza's sanitation problems add another element of misery. We have so many mosquitoes and flies, and no escape from them, she says.

While the family have grown accustomed to their impossible existence, the month of Ramadan reminds them of their poverty.

During Ramadan, people need to buy certain foods and juices to break our fasts with, like dates and yogurt. But we can't afford these. A kilo of potatoes costs 10 shekels [$2.5]. The cheapest dates cost 15 shekels a kilo. Yogurt runs 10 shekels a kilo and chicken 15 shekels a kilo.

Abu Hani recalls the harvest his land used to bring in. This was an olive tree, he says, holding a mangled stump. The Israelis bulldozed all of them. We used to eat olives from these trees and press olives into oil. We could eat off of the land, without going to the market. Today, we don't have anything and I can't afford to go to the market.

Aside from food, during Ramadan people buy clothing and toys for their children, as well as decorative lamps. Of course we can't buy those either, says Abu Hani.

Read the story at EI...
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