A year after Gaza war, no rebuilding and an uneasy future …
Posted By admin on August 9, 2015
BEIT HANOUN, Gaza Ali Wahdan, a maths teacher from Gaza, lost his wife, 11 members of his family and a leg to Israeli bombardment of the town of Beit Hanoun, in the north of the Gaza Strip, during last year's war between Israel and Hamas.
Nearly 12 months on, doctors have decided to amputate his other leg. It is a cruel reminder of how little progress he has made since the 50-day war. In almost all respects, his life and prospects have crumbled.
"The war ended, but my tragedy did not," said the pale 36-year-old, moving himself around in a motorized wheelchair. "I spent the past year going from one hospital to another.
"A year ago I was a teacher standing before my students. Today I am helpless to serve even my children."
The war did come to an end. But on either side, those caught up in it are still struggling to deal with the fallout. Israel and Hamas too are trying to work out whether the truce they have is stable or if the next war is just around the corner.
In Gaza, the impact of the conflict is everywhere. More than 12,000 homes destroyed and 100,000 damaged, with none so far rebuilt. Tens of thousands left homeless. Two-thirds of the 1.8 million people recipients of U.N. aid in one form or another.
More than 500 children were among the 2,100 Palestinians, the majority of them civilians, who were killed. Seventy-three Israelis, almost all soldiers, were killed.
"The despair, destitution and denial of dignity resulting from last years war and the blockade are a fact of life for ordinary people in Gaza," said Pierre Krahenbuhl, head of the U.N. Relief and Works Agency, Gaza's main provider of aid. "This situation represents a time-bomb for the region."
Wahdan and what remains of his family are sheltering in a home built of wood, blue plastic sheeting and metal panels, a far cry from the four-story building they once occupied. They have a refrigerator but little to cook with.
Across the frontier in Israel, where constant mortar and rocket fire from Gaza rained down ahead of and during the conflict, the impact is less visible but no less real.
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A year after Gaza war, no rebuilding and an uneasy future ...
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