Gaza aftermath: "I have to rebuild my house for the third time"

Ruins in Khuzaa. Photo: Shareef Sarhan.

It’s a modern, Middle-Eastern version of the Greek myth of Sisyphus, the king condemned eternally to repeat the same task over and over and over again. Ahmed lives in Khuzaa, a small agricultural town in southern Gaza. Located near the Israeli border, the town was the site of fierce ground action during Israel’s Operation Protective Edge against Hamas earlier this summer. Ahmed’s house was destroyed—for the second time in five years.

Khuzaa, a town of 10,000 residents, was besieged for ten days by the Israeli army during its last ground operation, which took place during July and August 2014. Many people were killed and hundreds of homes were demolished by heavy bombing.

People pick their way through the rubble and ruins of Khuzaa. Photo: Shareef Sarhan.

'I went into debt to rebuild'

More than 400 homes were completely destroyed and another 800 were heavily damaged, according to Al-Mezan Center for Human Rights. That’s almost five times more than during Israel’s Operation Cast Lead, which took place between 2008 and 2009. One of the homes levelled this summer belonged to Ahmed Fatouh, father of six.

The Israeli ground operation in Khuzaa began at dawn on July 23, 2014. I had already left because they had started bombing the area several days earlier. When I returned, I saw that the air raids had reduced everything to ruins. As for my house, it had been bulldozed during the ground operation.

This isn’t the first time. In 2009, the Israeli army partially destroyed my home once again with bulldozers. I rebuilt it. I received no aid or assistance from NGOs, from the United Nations Relief and Works Agency (UNRWA) or from Hamas. I had to rebuild it alone, though I did get help from friends and neighbours. I went into debt for that. It’s not easy to find the material, so I had to do it piece by piece. I had almost finished. Now, I have to start all over again.

 

During the 51 days of the Israeli military operation “Protective Edge,” Gaza was transformed into a vast field of ruins. The UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA) said that 18,000 homes were completely destroyed and 37,650 were rendered uninhabitable. That’s four times more than after Operation Cast Lead, which occurred in December 2008 and January 2009.

The ruins of Khuzaa. Photo: Shareef Sarhan.

Thanks to a tripartite accord signed between Israel, the Palestinian Authority and the United Nations on the reconstruction of Gaza, the first convoys carrying cement and steel arrived in the territory on October 14.

This accord includes complex surveillance mechanisms for the transport and the distribution of these materials in the Palestinian enclave, a process that is meant to reassure Israel, but risks to slow drastically the reconstruction. According to NGO Oxfam, if the restrictions on the entry of material are not lifted, the reconstruction of Gaza could take 50 years.

 We haven’t received any aid or assistance since the end of the war. We’ve been waiting for two months. My mother, my sister, my wife, my daughter and my five sons are all staying with neighbours. I don’t know how long they will have to stay. Winter is coming. I hope that this time, I will benefit from aid money to help me rebuild my home.

Two and a half billion dollars are needed in order to rebuild the homes destroyed in Gaza, according to the Palestinian Authority. Fixing all the destroyed infrastructures would cost 7.8 billion dollars.

On October 12 at a meeting in Cairo, fifty countries pledged to increase aid to Gaza to 5.3 billion dollars. But only half of that money will go to rebuilding Gaza. The rest is for bailing out the Palestinian Authority.

‘My 4-year-old child has already experienced three wars’

What worries me the most is the psychological state of my children. The youngest is four. He has already experienced three wars. We have been living under the blockade for years. It’s become too hard for everyone.

Djamel Misraoui, a specialist in humanitarian matters in the Arab world, said he is disappointed that the donor states have prioritized material aid for what he says are “marketing reasons.”

“The need to reconstruct people is much less visible and is thus often neglected,” he said. According to Misraoui, it’s just as important to invest in the psychosocial part of the equation. He thinks there should be more focus on repairing people who suffer from trauma and psychological problems caused by a seven-year blockade and repeated military operations.

Misraoui says it would be better to develop less expensive housing projects for Gaza, leaving the possibility to invest more in the psychosocial rehabilitation of Gazans—a need he says is urgent.

Post written with FRANCE 24 journalist Dorothee Myriam Kellou.