But the Coffins Do Come In
By Mohammed Omer
Goods waiting for months to be transferred to the Gaza Strip at the Israeli-controlled Karni crossing. / Credit:Mohammed Omer
Samir Tahseen Al-Nadeem died after waiting 35 days for an exit permit for treatment for his heart condition. He was 26. The medicines he needed could not get in. But the coffins do.
The health ministry now lists 375 deaths due to shortage of life-saving medicines. The medicines sit just outside the borders of the territory until most pass their expiry dates. But there are no expiry dates on about 10,000 coffins that have been donated for Gaza. The coffins do make it to those that eventually need them.
By the end of last month more than 70 percent of medicines donated for Gaza had been dumped because they were past their expiry date, the health ministry says. They were worth many millions of dollars. And they were worth many lives.
"Much of the donated medicines came from Arab states," Dr Mounir Al- Boursh, director of the pharmaceutical department at the health ministry tells IPS. This added up to 10,300 tonnes of medicines worth 25 million dollars, he said.
Only about 30 percent of this could be used, he said; the rest either expired, or was inaccessible because of restricted distribution by the Israelis, who control what gets into Gaza.
It's not easy to dump medicines safely either. Much of unused supply mixes with domestic waste, creating health hazards far from bringing relief. The World Health Organisation has had to "raise concern about the unsafe disposal of expired medication and other medical disposable material," WHO spokesperson told IPS.
But the Gaza ministry has received 10,000 coffins, about 1,000 of them for children, Dr Boursh said. Such help, he said, "does not meet with the needs of the Gaza Strip."
What Gaza needs is 110 types of medicines and 123 types of medical equipment that the ministry has listed. Gaza is expected to run out of more medicines over the next few months. The announced ease in the blockade of Gaza has not currently brought more supplies.
The medicines now under threat are for childcare, in the maternity departments, and for conditions such as cancer, epilepsy, haemophilia and thalassemia.
"Death has become routine," says a young woman from Jabaliya in the north of Gaza Strip as she waits in the corridor at the Al-Nasser Children's Hospital in Gaza City. Next to her, the parents of two-year-old Israa Tabsh are struggling to save the child, born with a heart defect.
"We have been waiting for weeks for permission to leave Gaza for the cardiac sugery she needs," says the child's father, Fayez Al-Tabsh. The treatment is available at the Al-Maqased hospital in East Jerusalem, but Tabsh can't get there.
The family, like others such, first needs an exit permit, and then a financial guarantees statement that all expenses would be met by the health ministry in the West Bank, which is under the control of the Fatah-led administration, unlike the Hamas government in Gaza.
That guarantee is near impossible for most patients. "You need connections," says a 53-year-old mother waiting for a guarantee for her son. "We are caught between corrupt officials and death."
Patients in Gaza depend on the West Bank government both for permits and for many needed medicines. In 2010 Gaza have received only 22 percent of the medicines it needed from the Palestinian Authority based in Ramallah in the West Bank, Boursh said. Supplies are declining. "In 2008 we had received 50 percent, and in 2009, 49 percent."
The medicines that come in, and in time, are not easy to preserve. At the old Al-Ghifari medical storage in Gaza City, the facility leaks fluids. "It's the rats," says a caretaker. "They get to the fluid bags, causing the leakages. The rats get the medicines, the patients the coffins." (END)
Dreaming of Fish, and Flowers
By Mohammed Omer
GAZA CITY, Sep 16, 2010 (IPS) - As the many colours of the fish and flowers slowly disappear from the Gaza landscape, the already grim prospects of the besieged residents begins to look even bleaker.
Fishing was a profession that used to keep thousands of fishermen and their families fed, but with Israel restricting the movements of fishermen, the catches are diminishing.
The same fate has overtaken the local flower farmers whose carnations were the delight of lovers and loved ones across Europe. Gaza used to export 75 million flowers to the EU duty free, before Israel embargoed all export.
There is little movement on the harbour during the day. Only a few fishing boats line the piers of the Gaza Strip.
"The fish are waiting, but the fishermen are being kept away," says Zaki Al- Habeel, 33- year-old, father of seven. But just before sunset, he is ready to go fishing.
Al-Habeel is not allowed to go as far out as he used to. The fishermen have been set a limit of three miles. "But it is not really three full miles," he says.
Often he is only a mile-and-a-half out before the Israeli navy fires at him. Al-Habeel and his brothers who are all fishermen risk injuries and damage to equipment every time they sail out.
Over the last decade, the Israeli navy has increasingly restricted Palestinian access to fishing zones along the Gaza beach, a UN report revealed last month.
The United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (UNOCHA) compiled the report in cooperation with the World Food Programme (WFP).
The report said Palestinian fishermen have been barred from 85 percent of the naval territory to which they are entitled under the Oslo Agreement of 1993 between Israel and the PLO.
The report also focused on the buffer zone between Israel and Gaza where farmers are shot at for tilling their own lands. The report mentions 22 Palestinians killed and 146 wounded in such incidents since January 2009.
Yet the farmers and fishermen continue to access these prohibited areas, risking their life and limb.
As Al-Habeel says, he and his brothers "have to feed our families". The last time, the Israeli navy shot out the fuel lines that are connected to his boat. Al-Habeel was just relieved they did not hit the small fuel tank, which is expensive and hard to find.
Last month, a 22-year-old fisherman was hospitalised with gunshot injuries, when he was perhaps a little more than two miles from the shore, other fishermen said.
The plight of the flower growers is just as wretched. Gaza-grown carnations, marketed under the brand name Coral, were popular all over Europe. But the situation has been going downhill for a while. In 2008, IPS had interviewed the carnation farmer Majed Hadaeid when his situation was quite desperate.
He had owned a 130-dunam (32-acre) farm yielding 16-17 million carnations a year in 30 different varieties and colours. This year he has lost his entire four-million-dollar business, and is burdened with debts amounting to 1.5 million dollars.
There is a faint hope though. The European Campaign to Break the Siege on Gaza announced in July that more than 9,000 delegates have applied to take a 'freedom flotilla' to Gaza. They are raising 100,000 euros to send an Irish ship this autumn.
Hadaeid hopes these aid boats from Europe will help the other farmers to survive. "We need the flotillas to keep up continuous pressure on Israel," he said.
The fishermen nostalgically remember that day in August 2008 when the first flotilla arrived and members of the Free Gaza Movement joined them on their boats.
Al-Habeel says, "We were then able to get as far as six miles to fish."
Everyone cheers the news of another flotilla. Fatima Subhi, a 49-year-old, schoolteacher said, "I welcome such delegations."
The news has not all been positive though. In May this year, Israelis attacked the Turkish aid boat Mavi Marmara killing many people on board, including a Turkish-American passenger.
Turkish flags are seen at almost every street corner. A dish-seller is wearing a Turkish flag as a T-shirt. "They shed their blood for us, so we wear their flag over our hearts," he says.
This summer, quite a few Turkish names have appeared on shop fronts. There is the Marmara Restaurant, the Istanbul Café and a ladies cosmetics shop simply called Istanbul.
Samir Al-Ejjel, who owns a shop selling carnations, has designed a bouquet he calls Erdogan in honour of the Turkish Prime Minister and has a Turkish flag flying outside his shop.
There was a report in the Israeli daily Maariv last week that thousands of activists from Western nations, as well as from Arab countries and even Israeli citizens, were preparing to send a flotilla of 30 ships.
Al-Habeel likes to think that the many different people who came by land or sea were just like the wide varieties of fish he used to catch.
As he waits hopefully for the flotillas to return, a younger fisherman talks about the "beautiful ladies" who were on board. "The Israelis do not dare to shoot at (European) women," he says with a smile.
"Those flotillas gave us hope that rights can be protected -- even under gunfire," he added.
In the past, the fishermen and flower farmers have appealed to the EU for support. But with governments turning a deaf ear, they call on humanitarian activists from around the world. They hold on to the hope that by Christmas there will be more varieties of fish on the table here, and colourful Gaza carnations in the markets of Europe.
The Lights Are Going Out on Gaza
GAZA CITY - The Muslim festival Eid approaches, but not the end to power cuts that have darkened the month-long Ramadan fasting leading up to the festival. Or to the agony of Gazans, made worse by the reminder that it's approaching festive time.
The prolonged electricity cuts, lasting from 12 to 16 hours daily, is the topic of conversation on everyone's lips in the Gaza Strip. It's hot, it's Ramadan, and the people are tired, thirsty, hungry and desperate.
The electricity supply began crumbling after the 2006 election when Hamas won, leading to Israel and Egypt imposing an economic blockade. Israel launched air strikes in December 2008, knocking out all the six transformers supplying power to Gaza.
With no signs of restoration in sight, everyone is prepared for the situation to get much worse.
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| Children are selling in grocery store in Gaza City on candlelight as power is out |
groceryshop owner in Gaza city putting lights in his shop as power is out and he cant afford buying generator |
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| Abdelal 85 and hiswife Hadia 75 and their grandson talking about shortages of power suffering in Rafah south of Gaza |
Abdelal is getting ready to get back home from street market in Rafah |
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| Abdelal talking about his life when lights are out |
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"Life is paralysed here," says 45-year-old Sami Abu Ouaf, an unemployed father of seven, who lives at the Buriej camp in the middle of the Gaza Strip. "And this is the price we are paying for democracy.
"I never imagined this kind of punishment -- having my electricity, water and gas cut off -- for casting my vote," he adds. Abu Ouaf needs to keep a sharp eye on the time to make sure he doesn't miss the rationed supply when it comes. "It's democracy by candlelight -- if one is lucky enough to afford candles."
The supply schedule varies in different localities as well as from day to day, said Kanan Obied, an official from the Gaza Electricity Authority. And the situation worsened a few weeks ago, to coincide -- ironically -- with the beginning of Ramadan.
The EU, which was paying the Palestinian Authority to supply diesel for the Gaza generators, stopped the funding in August, accusing Hamas of pocketing electricity revenues. The Gaza government replied that the EU move came after they identified a corrupt official in the electricity company.
Walking through the markets and streets of Gaza one hears almost everyone appealing to the UN, EU and Arab League to find a speedy solution to the crisis. Zahran Awad from Gaza City says, "This Western attempt to make us turn against Hamas will fail."
As the lights go off in Gaza, the media spotlight on the electricity crisis seems to have died out as well. Many Gaza citizens feel that since it has been so bad for so long, it is likely to stay that way.
About two-thirds of the 1.5 million residents are refugees from the 1948 or 1967 wars, according to the United Nations Relief and Works Agency, with 675,000 living below the poverty line.
As a Gaza-based economic expert says, "Forcing the Gazan population to pay bills is out of the question. They are suffering from a long siege, with the borders closed and no jobs available." People can be seen going from one neighbourhood to another just to charge their mobile phones and laptops. One journalist gets his laptop charged at a local hospital.
Abu Ouaf outlines the impact of the shortages. "We buy just enough food and medicine for one day as it is impossible to run a refrigerator," he says.
Securing fuel for the generators remains the immediate challenge. Neither the Gaza government nor the Palestinian Authority is willing to pay the steep 13 million dollars required each month.
Hamas official Dr. Yousef Rizka, adviser to Prime Minister Ismail Hanyieh, introduced an initiative. He suggested that the governments in Ramallah and Gaza deduct 45 dollars every month from each civil servant and employee. The Hamas-led government has 30,000 employees, which means that, in theory, some 1.3 million dollars a month will be available to pay the fuel bills.
But this too would be a temporary measure since the electricity company has debts amounting to 1.3 billion dollars, and no one is addressing that problem as yet.
In Rafah, southern Gaza Strip, a street trader Mohammed Abdelal, 85, is preparing his stall, selling clothes smuggled in through Egypt. "We have never been through a harder period in our lives," he says.
For his 75-year-old wife, Hadia Abdelal, the power cuts are "the latest nightmare in the siege of Gaza." Their grandchildren, who have "suffered so much in the last years", are now getting used to studying by candlelight.
During these hot summer months Abdelal longs to "have one fan and drink cool water." But they rarely have running water, since the water and power supplies hardly ever coincide. The relatively affluent use generators to pump water.
The Abdelal family's water supply comes once in three days and frequently their water tank runs dry. When they mange to fill it, the water is used only for drinking. "A shower is a luxury," a young man from Jabalyia said. But his friend corrected him saying, "No, it's a dream."
Another effect of the power cuts has been on the sewage treatment plant. In the absence of electricity, the plant functions sporadically and every day 88,000 cubic metres of raw or partially treated sewage, oozes into the Mediterranean. The polluted waters are dangerous for fish and make a quick dip in the sea impossible to even imagine.
A customer at Abdelal's stall is Ghalia Abu Jamiea, a 49-year-old mother of nine children. "My three youngest children often wake up in the darkness screaming in fear," she says. "And bed-wetting has become a nightly problem."
Abu Jamiea says she sees no solution, for even if someone gifted them a generator they could not afford the fuel to run it.
Abdelal's grandson Mohammed said he woke up around 3:30 that morning to eat suhur, the meal he and other Muslims take before sunrise during Ramadan. "It's frustrating to stumble about in the dark, looking for the right plates and trying to find something to eat. And then remain hungry and thirsty for the rest of the day."
Abu Jamiea says she hopes to teach her children to "love life even if the darkness persists and the world abandons the powerless people of Gaza." It won't get any better after Ramadan, and nobody can say when it ever will.
