Day 8--October 20
Gaza Strip
We checked out of St. Margaret’s in Nazareth at 5:30 in the morning for the long drive to the Erez checkpoint at the border of the Gaza Strip. Ramzi and Issa did not accompany us, as they would have been unable to enter Gaza—the entire 46 km by 6 km strip is surrounded on land by an Israeli “security fence”, and travel through the checkpoint is severely restricted. Issa dropped us off, since vehicles with Israeli license plates are not allowed to enter Gaza, and we had to haul our luggage a fairly long distance, probably about a quarter of a mile, from the barricades at the drop-off point to the guard station. We had to show our passports, but were not asked our reason for visiting Gaza. Related photos
We were then picked up on the other side of the checkpoint by a bus from the Gaza Community Mental Health Program, which organized our visit in Gaza. Husam, from GCMHP, acted as our guide. As we drove into Gaza, we saw hundreds of men sitting along the roadside--waiting, Husam said, to receive permits to work in Israel. Before the Intifada, 70,000 Gazans worked in Israel, but now only about 10,000 do. The men have to arrive by 2:00 am at the checkpoint, which opens at 5:00, in order to have a chance of getting a permit to enter Israel. Unemployment is at 70% in the Gaza Strip, with 80% living below the poverty line. The area looks quite economically depressed, with dust everywhere and many buildings in disrepair.
Prior to the intifada, Gaza had an airport, and was building a marine port, but the Israelis destroyed both in their quest to punish Arafat and the PA for the suicide bombings (despite the fact that none of the suicide bombers came from Gaza).
As we drove south to Khan Younis, Husam told us that had we been able to use the main road running through the middle of the Strip, the drive would have taken 15 minutes. Palestinians and Jewish settlers both used this road in the past, but it's now reserved for settlers only, so we were forced to take back roads that made it a 45-minute trip. At one point we were stopped for several minutes on the road near an Israeli watchtower. Husam says that cars are sometimes stopped at this place for hours, even days (!), without warning or explanation.
We saw some fisherman along the beach, but were told that it is now difficult to make a living fishing in Gaza because the distance from shore the fisherman are allowed to operate is severely restricted by the Israelis. Officially, the legally-permitted distance is 3 miles, but in practice it is zero to one half a mile. The Israeli navy constantly patrols up and down the Gaza coast.
There are Jewish settlements not far from the coast, and the areas surrounding them are “off limits” to Palestinians, and many have been shot there. Don wanted to stop the bus so he could take pictures, but was told that stopping would have aroused “suspicion” and could be dangerous for us, so any pictures would have to be taken through the window of the moving bus.
We met with some of the staff of the Gaza Community Mental Health Program branch clinic in Khan Younis. We were told the clinic does a lot of community outreach to try to overcome the societal stigma attached to mental illness, which discourages many people in Gaza from seeking help. Many people who are mentally ill believe that they are possessed by “jinns” (which I believe are ghosts or spirits). Eighty percent of the clinic’s patients are unable to pay for the services they receive, so the clinic relies heavily on outside funding.
The clinic’s staff told us that there has been a lot of shelling at night in Gaza, which the Israelis claim targets only militants or gunmen, however most of the victims have been women and children. The shelling is conducted using F-16s, helicopters, and tanks—Israeli soldiers rarely walk out in the open in Gaza due to fear of suicide bombers.
The people of Gaza are experiencing a great deal of stress due to the constant shooting and shelling, with many children suffering from bedwetting and nightmares. GCMHP sees many victims of torture, including children. There have been a large number of home demolitions in Gaza as well. Many patients are frustrated and depressed because they are unable to provide for their families—even food and other basics. 70-80% of the population is dependent on aid from the U.N. to meet their basic needs.
The staff believes the main goal of the Israeli incursions is to terrorize and intimidate. The IDF divides up the camps into sections and then alternates incursions so that all areas are affected eventually. The attacks target schools, businesses, and other components of the economy in an attempt to devastate the infrastructure and daily life of the Palestinians. After one suicide bombing in Tel Aviv, the Israelis bombed the Gaza Airport. Related photos
We drove from the town of Khan Younis into the Khan Younis refugee camp (most refugee camps are located near established towns and are named for them) to visit a client of the clinic’s and to tour the camp. However, just as we arrived we began hearing gunfire. Our driver pulled into a side street while Husam and Muhammad, a psychologist from the clinic, got out to investigate. Many children were walking home from school at the time, and they seemed wholly unperturbed by the sound of machine gunfire which seemed to be only a block or two away. They continued walking at a leisurely pace while talking and laughing amongst themselves. It was pretty obvious that the sound of gunfire was not a rare occurrence in the camp. Some of the children finally began to run and other ducked when the gunfire became louder and closer. On the bus, we were wondering whether we should take cover on the floor. Our driver did not speak English, and as we were unsure what to do, we just sat quietly in our seats. Later, Husam and Muhammad returned to say that the shooting was coming from a nearby Jewish settlement and from camp militiamen, and that it was too dangerous for us to continue. We turned around and drove back out of the camp.
Rafah Refugee Camp
We ate some sandwiches on the bus for lunch and then drove to the Rafah refugee camp on the Egyptian border to visit with the family of a 4-year-old boy who had been killed only eight days before. We sat in chairs outside the family’s home along with several family members or friends, including the dead boy’s father, an aunt or great aunt, and a couple of young girls who were either cousins or aunts of the boy. The boy’s mother was alive, but was apparently too distraught to visit with us. One of the girls, 11 years old, had wounds on her arms and legs, which were still covered in bandages. None of the family spoke English, so Husam translated their stories for us.
At midnight on October 12, some Israelis soldiers came on foot, with tank backup, to announce a curfew, and then they started arresting people and blowing up houses. They planted explosives under some nearby houses, and evacuated the residents, but did not notify the surrounding homes, such as this family's, which shared walls with those being destroyed. At 4 am, the father heard the soldiers leave and went outside to investigate, to determine if he should move his family. He saw a green object with lights on the ground nearby, and it attracted many people outdoors to investigate. Because of this fact, many people were saved when the explosives were detonated (the green device was apparently used to trigger the explosives) and the nearby homes collapsed from the blast. Family members, including the boy, a grandfather, and a brother, were inside when the explosion occurred. Power to the area was cut by the explosion, preventing the survivors from seeing. It took them 15 minutes to pry open a door to reach those inside. The 4-year-old was buried under one meter of rubble and it took half an hour longer to dig him out. The grandfather and brother were injured and were still in the hospital.
The 11-year-old girl was also inside the home and received injuries to her arms, legs, and face. The aunt had injuries to her head and arms and said she could barely pull out the 11-year-old, her daughter, who was covered with blood. The aunt said she had been extremely close to the 4-year-old boy, Tawfiq, and can’t believe he is gone. She wept often as she told her story. She says she feels she has lost everything and there is no longer meaning in life. She is always exhausted yet unable to sleep.
The 11-year-old told us she had very little memory of the explosion. She remembers seeing her father unconscious and feeling afraid. After spending a night in the hospital, she went to be with her family in their new house (an abandoned house in another part of the camp), but was terrified that soldiers would come and destroy that one too, and so was unable to sleep.
The family’s new house is in a dangerous area, very close to an Israeli watchtower from which gunfire is regularly heard (and which is the likely reason why it had been abandoned). There was a rocket hole visible in one of the walls. We were told not to stray beyond a certain point in the yard because of the danger of shooting from the watchtower, which we could see a short distance away.
The family says they do not want to go back to their old house, even if it is repaired, because the memories are too painful. The father asked us to tell President Bush to stop supporting the Israelis and that the Israelis are telling lies about Palestinians, saying they are all terrorists. But a 4-year-old boy is not a terrorist.
We offered our condolences, promising to return home and tell their story to other Americans, and then said our goodbyes before driving to the site of the family’s destroyed former home. There we saw a large pile of rubble, with many damaged homes around it—some with caved in or missing walls, others with broken windows, etc. The pile of rubble was where the three houses had been blown up by the Israelis. Tawfiq’s family’s home was next to one of these, and had extensive damage. There was a single tent erected in the rubble, and an old woman and her infant granddaughter were inside. The baby’s mother had been killed last year and the grandmother was raising her. We were invited to sit inside the tent and hear their story.
We had attracted an audience of curious neighbors, who stood around outside the tent to watch and listen. The grandmother’s son had heard the tanks that fateful night and had rushed outside and was told to take the children away. The families were not expecting the incursion—the Israelis had invaded six months before, but had caused only minor damage. The grandmother was injured in the explosion, but none of her family was killed. She said she had lived in the house, which the family had extensively remodeled, since she was 15. They escaped with only the clothes on their backs, but she was thankful they had all managed to come out alive. She said her son and grandson were arrested, but were released a few days later. The Red Cross provided the tent, as the family has no money to rebuild their home.
Some of the neighbors who had been watching were very anxious to show us the damage that had been done to their own homes. We didn’t have much time left—our guides said we needed to get back to Gaza City through the checkpoint before dark—so we split up in order to accommodate more people. I went with one woman to climb the open staircase of her nearby home—the walls had been blown away. We could see that her family had already begun repairing some of the damage. Related photos
After leaving the camp, we drove along the coast back north to Gaza City. Husam and Muhammad pointed out that the areas all along the coast had been taken over by the Gush Khatif collection of Jewish settlements. This is some of the most desirable land in Gaza—the most strategic and containing the best water resources. The settlers have taken over 40% of the land of the Gaza Strip for only 4000 people, while 1.2 million Palestinians live on the other 60%. The Gaza towns and refugee camps are some of the most densely populated areas in the world (we'd heard second only to Bangladesh). The Rafah refugee camp has over 90,000 people living in 0.8 square kilometers!
We passed by some large, expensive-looking homes along the coast that had once belonged to well-to-do Palestinians, but had been taken over by the IDF because they were “too close” to the settlements.
We arrived safely back in Gaza City and checked into our hotel,
Marna House, an elegant building with a lovely garden and fig trees. Husam said that the reason we needed to
return before dark was because of the danger in approaching the Israeli
checkpoint in darkness, when the soldiers are more likely to become suspicious
and have been known to shoot without warning. Related
photos