Moin al-Wadia lay on his hospital bed beneath a window yesterday,
soaking up the last of the day's winter sunshine. Around him sat his
family, with boxes of sweet pastries and bouquets of flowers, as they
tried to explain the growing anger and frustration of the people of
Gaza.
Wadia had been working at a mechanics' market on Tuesday morning when
the Israeli military launched a major ground incursion, beginning a new
round of intense fighting in Gaza. When he heard the sound of gunfire,
Wadia began to leave but was knocked to the ground by the force of an
Israeli shell. It sliced off his left foot, shattered his right leg and
shrapnel lacerated his stomach.
Doctors at the Shifa hospital have told him his best chance for any
kind of recovery is to leave for treatment abroad, perhaps in Jordan.
But Israel closed the crossings into Gaza yesterday and prevented even
UN trucks from delivering food aid.
It was the latest stage in an intensified Israeli operation in Gaza,
but one which now effectively prevents food assistance coming in and
people and exports going out. The UN refugee agency said the latest
closure left it unable to deliver 15 truckloads of aid yesterday and
warned of growing despair in Gaza, where 80% of the population already
relies on UN food.
"It is my right to live and for my wife and children to live," Wadia
said. "But the ordinary people are getting lost in this dispute. Of
course we have to stop these rockets. Only a peace agreement can put an
end to this violence and destruction." His wife, Wassima, said: "We
just don't know what is happening. People talk about peace, but we see
the opposite."
More than 30 Palestinians, mostly militants but among them several
civilians, have been killed in the past four days by Israeli incursions
and air and artillery strikes. Palestinian militants have fired more
than 160 makeshift rockets into southern Israel and on Tuesday shot
dead an Ecuadorian kibbutz volunteer.
Israel's defence minister, Ehud Barak, said no shipment would cross
into Gaza without his personal approval. A spokesman for the defence
ministry said the closure was a "signal" to Hamas, the Islamist group
which won Palestinian elections two years ago and last summer seized
full control of Gaza. The Israeli prime minister, Ehud Olmert, warned
that his military operations in Gaza would continue "without
compromise, without concessions and without mercy".
The fighting, the worst for more than a year, raises serious questions
about the viability of recently renewed peace talks between Israel and
the Palestinians.
On the other side of Gaza City yesterday, Ahmad Yazagi received
mourners at a funeral tent near his home. A few hundred metres away at
midday on Wednesday his two brothers, Mohammad, 27, and Amr, 38, and
his nephew Amir, eight, were killed when their car was struck by an
Israeli missile. The Israeli military later admitted it was a mistake,
but Yazagi said his family had received no explanation, apology or
offer of compensation.
"What is our guilt? We ask to live in peace and we ask them to leave us
alone," he said, as he sat surrounded by family and neighbours. "With
one hand the Israelis talk about peace, with the other they continue
fighting."
The deaths left Yazagi, 26, the sole wage earner for his extended
family. He earns 1,000 shekels (£135) a month as a temporary labourer
at the health ministry and inherits the £15,000 debt of his brother,
who was trying to start a scrap metal business.
The UN says about half the strip's 1.5 million people no longer have
access to fresh water, because Israel has restricted fuel supplies
which in turn halts pumps and reduces electricity production. Although
the UN has food for the next two months in its warehouses, the closure
of crossings has limited supplies and forced up prices. Private
industry has all but collapsed; most goods cannot be imported and
farmers are able to export only a small part of their crops.
"What we have seen in Gaza is the drip, drip, drip of humanitarian aid
resulting in a increasingly desperate situation," said Chris Gunness, a
spokesman for the UN Relief and Works Agency, which deals with
Palestinian refugees and plays a key role in keeping Gaza afloat. "Deep
poverty is now running at 35%. Unemployment is at 44%. Against this
background of economic stagnation the sense of isolation and despair in
Gaza can only get worse."