Gaza, Gaza, Gaza...

Living in Beirut, we are actually quite directly affected by current events in Gaza. UN security advised staff to work from home last week, due to ongoing protests in Beirut against Israel's bombardment of Gaza. Yesterday evening (3rd January), Israel began its ground operation and moved into Northern Gaza, reaching Gaza city today. While people were celebrating New Year's eve all over the world, Gazan children were huddled in their parents arms, fearing the next Israeli bomb.

I was in Gaza in 2005. Here are some photos I took at the time. I took these pictures just before the Israeli disengagement of July 2005, where 10,000 Israeli settlers were removed from their settlements inside the Gaza Strip.

Gazans depend heavily on fishing. The seas are controlled by Israel as all ground borders and the airspace. Gazan fisherman are limited in how far they can go out at sea to fish. They are also limited in how much fish they can export and are restricted from leaving the Stip to sell their fish in neighbouring Israeli markets, let alone in the West Bank markets where they have no access at all.

The Israeli public was quite divided over the removal of the settlers in 2005 and a colour campaign was launched around the country, with Orange representing those against the disengagement and Blue for those in support of it.

Here is Gaza in 2005 with its shot out buildings showing years of ongoing conflict with the Israeli occupation and siege of that tiny territory of 41 km long and 6 to 12 km wide, with a population of 1.5 million Palestinians, 80% of who are refugees from 1948. Gaza is the 6th most dense place in the world with over 4,100 habitants per km2. Half of the refugees registered with UNRWA live in camps such as Jabalia and Rafah refugee camps which host around 100,000 refugees, for the past 60 years.

After the disengagement, Israel continued its blockade on Gaza, Hamas took over the Strip and continued to launch rockets into Israeli territory, missing its target on most occasions. Cities such as Sderot, Beersheva and Askhelon built bomb shelters and have 50 seconds warning to take cover once a Hamas rocket has been launched. There have been casualties. For the past 6 months a cease-fire was in place, ending in December 2008. The end of this cease-fire saw the beginning of the Israeli offensive in Gaza which we are now following with much attention and sincere thoughts for the Gazan people and their children. This photo was taken by the EPA published in the British Telegraph on 31 December, of a building used by Hamas police which has been destroyed by Israeli bombs.

Now back to Lebanon. Of course, Hassan Nasrallah, Hezbollah's leader, took little time to react to the Israeli incursion and blamed Arab states like Egypt for Gaza's current fate. He also praised the resistance (Hamas) and requested that Egypt allow Hamas weapons to enter at the Rafah crossing so its members can fight the Israeli soldiers. Interestingly enough, Israel said it was prepared in the North of the country, near its border with Lebanon, for any possible Hezbollah attack on its territory. We could actually see another war as it took place in 2006.

While watching the international media coverage of the various protests in capitals around the world, the London protest was the most interesting as we could see a large number of Hezbollah flags in the crowd. This definitely shows how Hezbollah's ongoing raison d'etre, i.e. resistance against Israel since its invasion of Lebanon in 1982, is recognised globally. Here is a photo taken of the protests in London with the visible Hezbollah yellow flag (source Flikr, Pete Biggs).

People seem so passionate about the Gaza situation, why can't the world express the same passion and horror at the ongoing massacres for example, taking place in Eastern DR Congo supported by neighbouring countries like Rwanda. Strange how people choose to care for some things, and not for other things.

I just recieved an update from the Office of the Special Coordinator for Palestine. Robert Serry currently heads that office. The report noted: "It's very clear that an immediate cessation of hostilities is absolutely vital, we must create now new conditions on the ground to ensure that the conflict won't happen again," Serry said. "The return to the status quo ante, or the previous situation, will not be enough."He said the ceasefire would be the first step. He said "further arrangements" should be studied to solidify the ceasefire and other elements, like the continuous reopening of the crossings, a commitment by Hamas to end the arms smuggling and rocket attacks, and respect of the ceasefire, should be discussed. Bringing Gaza back under the control of PA and reunifying the Gaza Strip with the West Bank is another element in the overall discussion, Serry said."The international community should step in to enable these (elements) to happen," Serry said.

Evaluating a project in Palestinian camps in Lebanon

I spent the month of November undertaking a final evaluation of a project that just ended the month before. The project was a pyschosocial support programme that was funded by ECHO and implemented by a French international NGO in 5 Palestinian refugee camps and one Palestinian gathering in Lebanon.

There are 12 official camps in Lebanon (one of the 12 is Nahr el-Bared which was completely destroyed in the summer of 2007 during the conflict between the militant group Fateh al-Islam and the Lebanese armed forces, see posting 29 June 2008). In addition to the 12 official camps which are served by UNRWA, there are about 52 gatherings of Palestinian refugees scattered around Lebanon. They live on Lebanese land and therefore hardly benefit from free services that are provided by the UN agency mandated of their wellbeing, UNRWA.

Many Palestinian children suffer from psychological distress due to the ongoing internal fighting inside the camps and more recently to the 2006 war between Hezbollah and Israel, which resulted in the bombing of the camps in the South of the country. In the North, the Nahr el-Bared crisis also caused much trauma for the children. In response to this, international organisations, funded by the usual donors, developped psychosocial support programmes to help both the children and the parents. The programmes also provided capacity building to social workers and councillors to be able to refer severe cases of psychological disorder to professional psychologists in specific centers around the country. Interestingly enough, these centers are managed by Lebanese NGOs with Lebanese psychologists and support professionals, only to benefit the Palestinian population who are banned from access to such services in public Lebanese institions.

I have some photos of my interviews with some of these children in Qasmieh gathering in South Lebanon. A Sunni Palestinian area surrounded by a large Shia (Hezbollah) population.

Part of my evaluation was also to interview the parents of the children, here are some mothers after our focus group discussion.













These are two sisters who also take part in the psychosocial support activities in the community center in the camp. Girls who begin menstruation, usually start to wear the veil (Hijab), but some families put the Hijab on pre-pubic girls aswell; a common feature in more conservative Palestinian camps.





















Above the center, the refugees have built a sports room where the kids get circus training. This kind of physical activity is highly beneficial to them as they do not have much opportunity for other forms of sports, due to lack of space in the camps and no playing grounds. I took the opportunity to talk with some of the children to evaluate some of the activities and support which was provided during the phase of the project.

























The last photo I took was at the office of the international organisation that is implementing the project. They also have a large demining project in the South. As a result of the war in 2006, an enormous amount of cluster bombs and other mines were dropped or planted by Israel in the South. De-mining efforts are still underway to this day. These are some of the UXOs that have been found.