USA TODAY International Edition
For residents of Gaza, ‘ this isn’t a life’
Even when area isn’t embroiled in conflict, crowding, poverty and political unrest keep conditions miserable
GAZA CITY Mohamed Abu Haseera says he prefers war to the immense suffering he and other Palestinians endure during what passes as peacetime.
“This isn’t a life,” said the father of six, a doctor at Gaza’s largest hospital.
Abu Haseera has worked through three wars against Israel in nine years, the most recent erupting three years ago this month. “This is the hardest stage,” he told USA TODAY. “And every day is harder. There are no prospects. It’s the opposite. Every day we wait for it to get worse.”
Gaza is crowded and povertystricken, and conditions have deteriorated even more this summer. The area’s woes are a consequence not only of repeated wars but also of a power struggle among Palestinian leaders and a lack of support from neighboring countries.
Ten years ago, the militant group Hamas, labeled a terrorist organization by Israel and the United States, violently seized power over the territory, prompting Israel and Egypt to impose crippling travel and trade blockades. A dispute with the more moderate Palestinian Authority, which governs the Israeli- occupied West Bank, has left Gaza with barely any electricity, clean water or jobs.
The Mediterranean beach, one of the coastal enclave’s few es- capes, is so polluted by sewage — which can’t be treated because of power shortages — that swimming isn’t safe, authorities warn.
“We faced troubles like this before during the last three wars, but this time it’s harder and more difficult,” said Ghazi Mushtaha, owner of an ice cream company.
For the first time during peace, Mushtaha, 71, has stopped production at his company, Eskimo El Arousa, because of rising costs and dwindling demand amid electricity blackouts.
“There’s no horizon for controlling the crisis,” he said.
A United Nations report in July showed that conditions have become “more and more wretched” since Hamas seized Gaza in 2007. “Gaza has continued on its trajectory of de- development, in many cases faster than we had originally projected,” the report said. In 2015, the United Nations predicted Gaza, which has one of the highest unemployment rates in the world, would be “uninhabitable” by 2020.
“Life needs to be breathed back into Gaza’s economy, and people need to be given some hope,” said Robert Piper, U. N. coordinator for Humanitarian Aid and Development Activities in the Occupied Palestinian Territory.
U. N. reports give Abu Haseera little solace. “Unfortunately, we’ve lost our trust in everyone,” he said. “Not just the foreigners but also the Arabs.”
Gaza’s youth struggle just to breathe in the unrelenting heat.
Ahlam Abo Thaher, 25, has a bachelor’s degree in environmental engineering from Palestine University in Gaza. She’s one of many there with a university degree, access to the outside world online and barriers at every turn.
She and a friend developed a way to produce asphalt from rubber in an environmentally friendly way to improve Gaza’s damaged roads.
People such as Abo Thaher have many such ideas to solve Gaza’s troubles but no financial or political support to make them happen. She said only politicians benefit from Gaza’s suffering.
“From companies or the government, unfortunately, no one’s given us money to make it ( the invention) happen on the ground,” Abo Thaher said. “Remember, you are in Gaza.”