GAZA CITY — At this time last year, as the missiles and bombs rained down in Israel’s lopsided seven-week war against Gaza, I wrote about our struggle to survive during the holy month of Ramadan. This year, another Ramadan has passed, Eid al-Fitr is over and the reality on the ground has changed very little.
The same dreadful conditions are creating desperation among Gaza’s inhabitants, whose lives are terrorized by war and stunted by the long blockade of this spit of land, 25 miles long and six miles wide. The only difference now is the absence of the smell of gunfire and explosives, and of the smoke trails from missiles fired by Israeli F-16s crashing down among civilian homes.
I recently visited some of the most heavily damaged areas of Gaza, starting with eastern Rafah, where massive destruction is still visible and bullet holes spatter the walls of houses. Up the road, in the half-ruined village of Khuzaa, the legacy of physical and emotional trauma has yet to be addressed.
International donors at a conference in Cairo last October pledged $5.4 billion to rebuild Gaza. Instead of permanent new homes, however, people in Khuzaa have received only prefabricated temporary shelters. When it rains, sewage leaks into rooms.
Farid al-Najjar, 56, whose orange-colored taxi was destroyed in the conflict, regards the Cairo conference as a joke. Reconstruction grants have not touched his life.
Traveling north to Shejaiya, the only sign of change is that the United Nations Relief and Works Agency — in a project funded by Sweden — has started removing the rubble. A year later, not one of the damaged or destroyed homes has been completely rebuilt.
Hassan Farraj, 61, stands in what is left of his house — the walls that remain are peppered with holes from automatic rifle fire and tank shells. The bare ground around the home resembles the shaven head of a vulnerable child, with no sign of anything growing back.
Everyone expects Israel to be back for another “trim,” or to “mow the grass,” or whatever deadly euphemism is in vogue the next time Israel deems it time to show us who really controls Gaza.
