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Israeli Siege Leaves Gaza Isolated and Desperate
Jobless Palestinians hold up bread during a protest outside parliament last week in Gaza City. Since the radical Islamic movement Hamas won elections in January, Israel has enforced a blockade against Gaza and foreign aid has been cut.
(By Hatem Moussa -- Associated Press)
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In the market in Gaza City, Mohammed Abu Aqleen, 37, held his head morosely Saturday, leaning on a pile of blue jeans. "Nobody has any money. Nobody buys," he said, adding that he is lucky to make $7 a day.
"Under this siege, I feel like I am in a big prison," he said. "No one can leave. The country is closed now. We are under the control of someone else. You can't even go to the edge of your country safely."
On June 25, Palestinian gunmen burrowed under a fence around the Gaza Strip and attacked an Israeli outpost, killing two soldiers and capturing Cpl. Gilad Shalit, 19. Israel responded with force. Seventeen days later, Hezbollah guerrillas from southern Lebanon seized two more Israeli soldiers, igniting warfare there. The fighting in Lebanon largely ended with a cease-fire on Aug. 14, but the Gaza conflict continues.
Israeli artillery units are poised outside the borders of the Gaza Strip. Fighter jets no longer make low-altitude sonic boom runs to keep Gazans unnerved at night but still overfly the strip and launch missiles toward it. Heavily armored patrols and tanks periodically pierce the warrens of Gaza City and the refugee camps, drawing gunfire and rocks in response.
"We are determined to continue the military operations against the terrorist organizations in order to create the conditions necessary for the safe homecoming" of Shalit, Lev-Ram said.
Rumors persist of negotiations to exchange Shalit for some of the estimated 10,000 Palestinians being held prisoner by Israel, but no deal has been struck.
"The siege is continuing for six months, and people are suffering, but no one talks of giving up," said Sami Abu Zohri, a Hamas representative in Gaza. "We have no other options but to wait until the siege is over. Gaza lives in the darkness like something in ancient times."
Zohri said the rocket attacks into Israeli territory were "efforts to protect ourselves with very limited armaments." Israel's response to the corporal's capture, he contended, was disproportionate.
"If one Israeli is wounded, it's a big deal," he said. "But they have eradicated whole families in Gaza."
Hamas and its chief rival, Fatah, have discussed forming a joint government in hopes of restarting the flow of aid from international donors. So far, Hamas has balked at giving up the leading role it won in the election.
"Hamas has led us into a dark tunnel. The way out is not clear," said Maher Megdad, a Fatah spokesman here. But he, too, expressed irritation with the international pressure to undercut the elected government.
"The international community does not have the right to punish Palestinians for exercising democracy, even if the result is Hamas," he said. "While Israel pressures us, the whole world stands by."
