The situation in Gaza

FP Blogger at Large Erica Silverman, Gaza City Israeli forces redeployed in the northern Gaza town of Beit Hanoun on Monday night, and Gazans seem convinced that Israel will continue to wage war on both the Lebanese and Palestinian fronts for the foreseeable future. The world's attention may be turned to Israel's military campaign in ...

FP Blogger at LargeErica Silverman, Gaza City

FP Blogger at Large
Erica Silverman, Gaza City

Israeli forces redeployed in the northern Gaza town of Beit Hanoun on Monday night, and Gazans seem convinced that Israel will continue to wage war on both the Lebanese and Palestinian fronts for the foreseeable future. The world's attention may be turned to Israel's military campaign in Lebanon, but Israeli strikes in the Gaza Strip have persisted unabated.

So, what is life like these days for the average Palestinian in the Gaza Strip?

One of the first targets hit by Israeli air strikes in the strip was a major power plant that supplies electricity to two thirds of Gaza's residents. It will take about a year for the power station to be fully operational again, according to John Ging, a U.N. official in Gaza.

Households, businesses, and hospitals across the strip are without electricity and water in the sweltering summer heat. Sanitation systems have collapsed. Most Gazans live in high-rise buildings that require power to pump water into homes. Some buildings are operating on generators, but fuel supplies are dwindling.

The power station had been insured by a U.S. government agency, which means American money will likely pay for the repairs. One senior U.S. Army lawyer, speaking on condition of anonymity, says, "Blowing up the power supply does not degrade Hamas's military capabilities. It only makes the civilian population suffer."

With more than enough suffering to go around, why have Palestinian civilians continued to support Hamas? Mohammed Abu Amra, a grocer from Gaza City, says, "I am pro-Fatah. I voted for Fatah. The kidnapping[s of Israeli soldiers, which sparked the recent violence] is good and bad–it reminds the world there are nearly 10,000 Palestinians suffering in [Israeli] prisons, but it has provoked Israeli aggression and sealed Karni [the only commercial crossing for imports and exports to the strip]." Amra pays for his shop's produce in advance and has not received shipments in more than a month.

Many Gazans are lashing out at Israel for the continued violence. "The general mood is one of fear and anger, but at the same time grief for all the innocent people who were murdered in cold blood," said 30-year-old Mohamed Abu Haloub from the northern Gaza town of Beit Lahya. "The [Israeli] tanks were only 300 meters from my home. We felt like we were in prison again and the random gunfire and the deployment frightened the adults, let alone the children."

Erica Silverman is a writer living in Jerusalem.

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