« Gaza, The Aftermath »
Four months after last summer’s Israeli-Palestinian conflict, life seems to be gradually getting back to normal for the people of Gaza . However, the mood remains pretty gloomy in this 40-km long strip, where the reconstruction scheme has been delayed and winter is drawing closer every day. It is late October 2014. The first rains of autumn are falling. On the road from Erez (the only humanitarian border crossing opened by Israel) to Gaza, we go past the ruins of the Al-Nahda residential towers: they are symbolic of the extent of damage caused by the summer’s bombing.
In Gaza, people tried to returned to their daily routines after the end of hostilities on the 26th of August last year. The conflict between the Israeli army and the armed forces of Hamas and Jihad Islamic resulted in 2,502 victims on the Palestinian side and 71 on the Israeli side (including 66 soldiers) (figures from the UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs). Since the ceasefire, the same organisation has counted 100,000 people displaced within the Gaza strip, including 28,000 refugees now living in the UNRWA’s schools, which have served as shelters. Others have found safety with family or friends, or have returned to live in what remains of their houses, hoping to receive financial aid to rebuild.
Daily life is difficult: there is no work, no money, the children are despondent and living in unsanitary conditions. Meanwhile, the promised funds and material for reconstruction are only filtering through very slowly.
Virginie Nguyen Hoang was born in 1987 in Brussel (Belgium).
http://virginie-nguyen.photoshelter.com
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