Postcard from Gaza: Oxfam Staff Members Caught in Shelling
4 August 2006
Andy Hill writes from northern Gaza, where a visit to inspect Oxfam's water and sanitation work was interrupted by heavy shelling.
We were the lucky ones. When the Israeli shells started crashing into the northern Gaza town of Beit Hanoun, we could climb into a car and leave at top speed.
Mervat Fayez Abu Sharikh, 24, and Aref Ahmad Abu Qeida, 14, didn’t have that option. They were killed in the same barrage, according to the Palestinian Centre for Human Rights, and two others were injured.
For about half an hour, Oxfam staff members shared the daily life of residents of northern and southern Gaza, where Israeli artillery barrages and attacks against rocket launcher sites, manned by Palestinian militants, have become a daily reality in recent months.
We could get out and away. But for thousands of Gazans, the crump of the shell being fired, then four or five brief seconds of silence followed by the nearby whistle of an incoming shell, and the fierce blast of its detonation are the background noise of everyday life. And Gazan people have nowhere to flee.
Our hosts -- workers and engineers in the Beit Hanoun municipality -- looked on in puzzlement as we clambered into the vehicle.
"Why are you leaving?" one asked. "This is nothing. This is normal for us. This happens all the time and we stay here."
But it was not normal for three foreign Oxfam employees visiting Gaza. We had come to inspect progress on our water and sanitation projects funded by ECHO, the European Union's humanitarian arm. Our security guidelines are strict about avoiding such risks, and when we left our Gaza City hotel, we had checked to make sure that there was no shelling.
Oxfam staff members also coordinate their movements with the Israel Defence Force, or IDF, to avoid unnecessary delays and danger in implementing our work in the West Bank and Gaza city. It was ironic that, as the shells fell, we could call an Israeli spokesman to get advice on the safest route out of Beit Hanoun.
"Take road number four back to Gaza City," he advised, as another shell landed close to the municipality building
When we had arrived at the Beit Hanoun municiple office that morning, our taxi driver picked up two pieces of jagged metal from the ground to show us the daily hazards of life in Beit Hanoun—shrapnel that had penetrated only the sand. The IDF says it is only shelling open areas from which militants fire homemade Qassam rockets into Israel, but there are cases where buildings have been hit. My colleagues and I fingered the sharp edges of the shrapnel with a shiver.
Our inspection tour of northern and southern Gaza, where Oxfam is implementing projects worth more than 300,000 Euros was impossible, but at least we had managed to talk to partners and other aid groups in the capital, which is currently fairly safe.
The world forgets about Gaza
In every office we visited, televisions relaying images of rubble and anger from the conflict in Lebanon flickered in front of rapt audiences, horrified and despairing.
"See, everyone is watching Lebanon now. Everyone. The whole world forgets about Gaza," said an engineer at the Palestinian Water Authority.
But Oxfam is concerned that the world should not forget the plight of Gaza, where the vast majority of its 1.3 million people live in poverty.
First, there was an international blockade on aid to protest the February election of the Hamas government and its refusal to recognise Israel, renounce violence, and abide by previous international agreements.
In recognition of the suffering that might cause, the international community has devised a Temporary International Mechanism to ensure that fuel is delivered for health and other public services and that some 13,000 health workers get their salaries paid. But that falls far short of the 140,000 other government employees whose salaries used to be paid by international aid and taxes owed by Israel to the Palestinian government. For the last five months, these payments have been stopped to force a change of heart by Hamas and its electorate.
Then there was the abduction of an Israeli soldier in a Palestinian militant raid just outside the Gazan border. Gazan infrastructure was bombed, wrecking power stations, bridges, water supplies and reducing life to a daily quest for survival.
Electricity supply is available for between six and eight hours a day and the noise of generators is everywhere. Compared to our last visit, in May, when Gaza seemed to have gone to sleep because no salaries were being paid and there was so little cash in the economy, economic life has recovered somewhat and stabilized. More shops are open and there is more traffic and commerce, but both are conducted over potholed roads and bridges wrecked by Israeli attacks.
Karni, the main crossing point for goods in and out of Gaza, remains closed most of the time because Israel says Palestinian militants will use its opening to attack Israel. It has been completely closed to Gazan exports of fresh fruit and other goods since July 7, denying countless farmers access to markets in Israel and elsewhere.
Wreckage is everywhere
Wreckage is everywhere. Piles and piles of garbage lie uncollected. Water supplies have been restored, but service is not complete, according to Rebhy Al-Sheikh, the deputy chairman of the Palestinian Water Authority.
"One hundred percent of Gazan people now have access to water but the level of service is at 70 percent and most people are receiving water of bad quality," he said.
And there is a looming problem with the disposal of waste water: a black lagoon of human excrement in the north eastern tip of Gaza is in danger of overflowing, sending a flood of filth into neighboring villages. The main sewage treatment center in central Gaza is also overflowing and working beyond capacity.
"As a result of this, waste water is being pumped into the sea," said Monther Shoblak, director of the Coastal Water Authority, the umbrella organization covering Gaza's 25 municipalities and their water and waste water management systems..
But boys still swim off Gaza's many beaches, and fishermen cast their nets just offshore. It is a picture postcard scene, until you realize that the boys are swimming in human waste and the fish are feeding off it.
2 August 2006
