GAZA CITY: Haitham has spent the past eight years smuggling Marlboro cigarettes from Egypt into Gaza through the elaborate network of underground tunnels that helped keep the Palestinian economy afloat in the face of Israel’s crushing blockade.
When business was at its peak, he employed 25 staff and rarely had time to rest. Now, with his tunnel shut down and the siege tightening its grip, he spends most of his days trying to think of another source of work.
“We collected thousands of dollars in a short period of time,” he told Arab News. “In the past, smuggling goods through the tunnels was the most lucrative business.”
Tales of woe such as Haitham’s can be heard across Gaza, the impoverished coastal strip in which almost 2 million people are crammed into 141 square miles of shanty towns, refugee camps and scrubland. Cut off politically, economically and culturally from their fellow Palestinians in the occupied West Bank, people here say life is harder than it has been for generations. The situation has been deteriorating for more than a decade, and has its roots in both regional and internal politics.
After Hamas won Palestinian legislative elections by a landslide in 2006, the US, EU, Russia and UN all responded with alarm. Under international pressure, the other main Palestinian party, Fatah, refused to join the Islamist movement in a coalition.
Tensions simmered between the two factions, eventually boiling over into a bloody power struggle for control of Gaza in June 2007. After several days of violent clashes in which both sides carried out public executions of rival fighters, Hamas took control of the strip.
Israel responded with an air, sea and land blockade, but smugglers such as Haitham continued to ply their trade through the underground tunnels. Since Abdel Fattah El-Sisi came to power in Egypt in 2013, however, even that economic lifeline has been shut down as Cairo tries to keep Hamas and the Muslim Brotherhood apart.
Unemployment levels now hover at around 40 percent and in the past year alone 42,500 Gazans were arrested by Hamas police for unpaid debts. Hundreds of thousands of people rely on food aid, while fuel shortages have left many hospitals unable to power the generators they use for electricity. The UN has warned that Gaza faces “full collapse,” and even the Israeli president, Reuven Rivlin, has warned that Gaza’s infrastructure is on the verge of total breakdown.
Khalil Abu Rajab, 70, has spent most of his life working in the clothing trade, a job he inherited from his father. Unable to make ends meet, he is now thinking of closing his business. Sitting on a wooden chair outside his shop as he waved to passers-by, he told Arab News the economic situation was worse than it had ever been.
“I have lived through various periods, from the Israeli occupation of the Gaza Strip to the period of Palestinian Authority control and the Hamas takeover, but I have not seen a period like this in which I cannot meet my financial obligations,” he said.
At the Al-Shati refugee camp, west of Gaza city, about 80,000 people endure cramped, squalid conditions, with limited access to fresh drinking water and sewage spilling into the streets.
Siham Kahlout lives there with her seven children in a small three-bedroom house. Until 2001 she worked in Israel, but now she relies on aid from the UN and spends most of her time sitting idle outside her home. “We live every day without knowing what will happen tomorrow,” she said.
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Under-siege Gazans have relied on secret tunnels for survival, now even that lifeline is drying up
Under-siege Gazans have relied on secret tunnels for survival, now even that lifeline is drying up
Gaza health officials say strikes kill 21 after Israel says shots wounded officer
GAZA CITY: Gazan health officials said Israeli air strikes on Wednesday killed 21 people in the Palestinian territory, with Israel’s military saying it struck after gunfire targeting its troops wounded an officer.
Despite a US-brokered truce entering its second phase last month, violence has continued in the Gaza Strip, with Israel and Hamas accusing each other of breaching the agreement.
The latest bloodshed came days after Israel partly reopened the Rafah crossing between Gaza and Egypt, the only exit for Gazans that does not pass through Israel.
The health ministry, which operates under Hamas authority, said that 21 people were killed in a series of strikes, with at least 38 others wounded, updating an earlier figure given by the territory’s civil defense agency.
Among the dead were three children, said the agency, which operates as a rescue force under the Hamas authority.
“We were sleeping when suddenly shells and gunfire rained down on us,” said Abu Mohammed Haboush, whose son was killed.
“Young children were martyred, my son and my nephew were among the dead. We lost many young men,” he said, adding that he and his family were living far away from the so-called “Yellow Line,” where Israeli forces are stationed.
AFP images showed mourners offering prayers in the compound of Al-Shifa hospital in Gaza City, where several bodies wrapped in white shrouds were laid out.
An AFP photograph showed a relative holding a body of a child wrapped in a shroud at the hospital as relatives gathered around him.
Shortage of medical aid
Three bodies were brought to Nasser Hospital after Israeli strikes hit homes and tents housing displaced Palestinians in the southern Khan Yunis area, the civil defense agency said.
Fourteen more bodies were taken to Al-Shifa Hospital, its director Mohamed Abu Salmiya said in a statement.
“We also received dozens of wounded. The situation is extremely difficult in the hospitals of the Gaza Strip due to the severe shortage of medicines and medical supplies,” Abu Salmiya said.
Israel scrutinizes all aid into besieged Gaza, a tiny coastal territory surrounded by fences, walls and the Mediterranean Sea.
The Israeli military said it had launched strikes after “terrorists opened fire on troops” Wednesday, seriously wounding an officer, adding that it considers the incident a violation of the ceasefire.
It said the troops came under attack near the “Yellow Line,” without specifying which side of the line the troops were on.
The ceasefire took effect after two years of war in Gaza, sparked by Hamas’s October 2023 attack on Israel.
Following what was reportedly US pressure, Israel allowed the opening of the Rafah crossing, but limited passage to patients and their travel companions.
Sick and wounded Gazans have begun crossing into Egypt to seek medical treatment since Monday.
On Tuesday, 45 people crossed into Egypt and 42 entered the territory, a source at the Palestinian Red Crescent Society told AFP.
Shortly after midnight Wednesday, those meant to enter during the day on Tuesday arrived in Gaza through Rafah in a large bus, an AFP journalist reported.
‘My homeland’
Relatives of those returning from Egypt screamed in joy, hugging and crying.
“I am so happy to be back with my husband, my children, my family, my loved ones, and of course, my homeland,” Fariza Barabakh, who returned that day, told AFP.
“It’s an indescribable feeling, thank God. What can I say? My two young children didn’t recognize me, but thank God. I hope it will be alright,” Yusef Abu Fahma, another returnee, told AFP.
Gaza’s health ministry says at least 556 people have been killed in Israeli strikes since the ceasefire took effect on October 10, while the Israeli military says four of its soldiers have been killed over the same period.
Saturday was among the deadliest days, with the civil defense agency reporting at least 32 people killed in Israeli attacks, which the military said were in response to a Hamas ceasefire violation.
Media restrictions and limited access in Gaza have prevented AFP from independently verifying casualty figures or freely covering the fighting.
Despite a US-brokered truce entering its second phase last month, violence has continued in the Gaza Strip, with Israel and Hamas accusing each other of breaching the agreement.
The latest bloodshed came days after Israel partly reopened the Rafah crossing between Gaza and Egypt, the only exit for Gazans that does not pass through Israel.
The health ministry, which operates under Hamas authority, said that 21 people were killed in a series of strikes, with at least 38 others wounded, updating an earlier figure given by the territory’s civil defense agency.
Among the dead were three children, said the agency, which operates as a rescue force under the Hamas authority.
“We were sleeping when suddenly shells and gunfire rained down on us,” said Abu Mohammed Haboush, whose son was killed.
“Young children were martyred, my son and my nephew were among the dead. We lost many young men,” he said, adding that he and his family were living far away from the so-called “Yellow Line,” where Israeli forces are stationed.
AFP images showed mourners offering prayers in the compound of Al-Shifa hospital in Gaza City, where several bodies wrapped in white shrouds were laid out.
An AFP photograph showed a relative holding a body of a child wrapped in a shroud at the hospital as relatives gathered around him.
Shortage of medical aid
Three bodies were brought to Nasser Hospital after Israeli strikes hit homes and tents housing displaced Palestinians in the southern Khan Yunis area, the civil defense agency said.
Fourteen more bodies were taken to Al-Shifa Hospital, its director Mohamed Abu Salmiya said in a statement.
“We also received dozens of wounded. The situation is extremely difficult in the hospitals of the Gaza Strip due to the severe shortage of medicines and medical supplies,” Abu Salmiya said.
Israel scrutinizes all aid into besieged Gaza, a tiny coastal territory surrounded by fences, walls and the Mediterranean Sea.
The Israeli military said it had launched strikes after “terrorists opened fire on troops” Wednesday, seriously wounding an officer, adding that it considers the incident a violation of the ceasefire.
It said the troops came under attack near the “Yellow Line,” without specifying which side of the line the troops were on.
The ceasefire took effect after two years of war in Gaza, sparked by Hamas’s October 2023 attack on Israel.
Following what was reportedly US pressure, Israel allowed the opening of the Rafah crossing, but limited passage to patients and their travel companions.
Sick and wounded Gazans have begun crossing into Egypt to seek medical treatment since Monday.
On Tuesday, 45 people crossed into Egypt and 42 entered the territory, a source at the Palestinian Red Crescent Society told AFP.
Shortly after midnight Wednesday, those meant to enter during the day on Tuesday arrived in Gaza through Rafah in a large bus, an AFP journalist reported.
‘My homeland’
Relatives of those returning from Egypt screamed in joy, hugging and crying.
“I am so happy to be back with my husband, my children, my family, my loved ones, and of course, my homeland,” Fariza Barabakh, who returned that day, told AFP.
“It’s an indescribable feeling, thank God. What can I say? My two young children didn’t recognize me, but thank God. I hope it will be alright,” Yusef Abu Fahma, another returnee, told AFP.
Gaza’s health ministry says at least 556 people have been killed in Israeli strikes since the ceasefire took effect on October 10, while the Israeli military says four of its soldiers have been killed over the same period.
Saturday was among the deadliest days, with the civil defense agency reporting at least 32 people killed in Israeli attacks, which the military said were in response to a Hamas ceasefire violation.
Media restrictions and limited access in Gaza have prevented AFP from independently verifying casualty figures or freely covering the fighting.
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