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Gaza in crisis: photo via Chris Gunness / UNRWA on twitter, 12 August 2014
For Israeli arms makers, Gaza war is a cash cow: Haaretz, 11 August 2014
Far from the fighting in the Gaza Strip and the rocket attacks that have pummeled Israel from south to the Sharon, some 300 employees of Israel Military Industries in Nazareth haven’t left their assembly lines for a minute in the past four weeks. They have been working in shifts, 24 hours a day, to ensure a regular supply of 5.56 mm bullets to Israel Defense Forces soldiers. Others have been hard at work turning out highly sophisticated Kalanit and Hatzav tank shells for the Artillery Corps. The shells, which are fired above the heads of militants armed with anti-tank weapons, exploding in midair above them and releasing shrapnel, were both used on a massive scale for the first time in Operation Protective Edge.
A shell lies on the ground at the heavily damaged Sobhi Abu Karsh school in Gaza City's al-Shejaea neighborhood on August 5, 2014: photo by Mohammed Abed / AFP, 5 August 2014
For some years now the state-owned IMI has had an image problem, in part due to it[s] enormous debts and management’s cozy ties with the union locals and the political establishment. Next to the two other big government-owned defense companies, Rafael Advanced Defense Systems and Israel Aerospace Industries, until recently IMI looked decided[ly] dowdy, low-tech and crony-ridden. Three months ago the state signed a recovery accord with IMI, which offered a generous severance package of 1.3 million shekels ($370,000) to any employee who took voluntary early retirement. Early next year the government plans to hold a tender to privatize the company, and by early 2016 IMI should be in private hands.
Image aside, for several years IMI has very quietly been developing more sophisticated products than bullets, rifles or hand grenades. For example, its new, super-smart MPR-500 multipurpose rigid bomb, which is designed to penetrate reinforced concrete structures and other difficult targets, was first used operationally in Protective Edge. Today, back orders for the bomb total 5.6 billion shekels.
IMI has built the foundations for a more successful business, and in a market where violence erupts every few years a new round of violence erupts, a dependable customer with the IDF and a classroom to test its equipment.
“IMI cooperates with the IDF and the defense establishment in adapting quick solutions for changing needs,” says UMI chairman Maj. Gen. (res.) Udi Adam. “The defense industry is in a perpetual learning mode together with the IDF and the Defense Ministry to examine the weapons systems that were introduced for initial operational use in Operation Protective Edge, as well as weapons systems that have been in operational use for a long time.”
This photo was taken from my home my home. Poisonous gas was being fired against civilians: photo via Dr Hasan Mustafa on twitter, 12 August 2014
“Battle-tested” is the best marketing slogan for defense industries the world over, so for Israeli military manufacturers Operation Protective Edge has yielded a major competitive edge.
A Palestinian man cleans up a room in his sister's house as bullet casings left by Israeli soldiers are found on the floor, in Rafah's district of Shawkah, on August 5, 2014: photo by Khalil Hamra / AP, 5 August 2014
“For the defense industries this campaign is like drinking a very strong energy drink -- it simply gives them tremendous forward momentum,” says Barbara Opall-Rome, Israel bureau chief for the U.S. magazine Defense News. “Combat is like the highest seal of approval when it comes to the international markets. What has proven itself in battle is much easier to sell. Immediately after the operation, and perhaps even during, all kinds of delegations arrive here from countries that appreciate Israel’s technological capabilities and are interested in testing the new products.”
A Palestinian man walks past the remains of a mosque, which witnesses said was destroyed in an Israeli air strike before a 72-hour truce, in Khan Younis in the southern Gaza Strip August 11, 2014: photo by Ibraheem Abu Mustafa / Reuters, 11 August 2014
That was also the opinion of veteran military correspondent Amir Rapaport, editor of Israel Defense, which covers the local defense industry. “From a business point of view, the operation was an outstanding thing for the defense industries,” he says. “There are two main reasons for that. First, the cloud of budget cuts and project cancellations has been lifted. I believe that after the operation, Israel’s defense budget will be increased and projects that were frozen will be revived. Second, during the weeks of the war, new products were introduced for the army’s use. The war is an opportunity to cut red tape. Weapons systems that have long been under development suddenly became operational during the course of the fighting."
For Israeli arms makers, Gaza war is a cash cow: Shuki Sadeh, Haaretz, 11 August 2014
A drawing on the wall in the house of the Abu Louli family, who say it was left by Israeli soldiers, in Rafah's district of Shawkah in the southern Gaza Strip, on August 5, 2014: photo by Khalil Hamra / AP, 5 August 2014
Gaza homes 'uninhabitable' as tens of thousands come back to rubble
United Nations says the level of destruction is 'unprecedented' as 30,000 people in Beit Hanoun alone must be rehoused
United Nations says the level of destruction is 'unprecedented' as 30,000 people in Beit Hanoun alone must be rehoused
Jason Burke in Beit Lahia, The Guardian, 11 August 2014
Tens of thousands of people across Gaza have returned to their homes as a tenuous ceasefire held and hopes rose of an end to the month-long conflict between Israel and Hamas.
Local officials and humanitarian workers began to inspect the damage the war had caused in the overcrowded enclave, with initial assessments indicating earlier estimates may have been optimistic.
Gaza City, which has a population of half a million, between 20 and 25% of the housing stock has been damaged, said Nihad al-Mughni, head of the engineering department.
Mohammed al-Kafarna, the mayor of Beit Hanoun, a northern town which saw fierce fighting and heavy bombardment, said 70% of homes were "uninhabitable".
"Basically the town is unliveable. There is no power, water or communications. There are not the basics for life," he said.
"Our life has been killed": Al Batsh family returns to rubble of home during ceasefire. 18 died here: photo via Falasteen on twitter, 12 August 2014
In Shawkat, a neighbourhood of Rafah city in the south which saw heavy fighting after an earlier ceasefire collapsed within hours, 300 out of 2000 houses had been destroyed, along with the town hall.
"You can't imagine the destruction," said Adel Lubda, the chief council engineer.
Previous estimates of 65,000 rendered homeless in Gaza now look conservative. In Beit Hanoun alone, around 30,000 people will have to be rehoused. The town is just one of around a dozen communities lying in the three kilometre "free fire zone" declared by Israeli troops during the most intense period of fighting to have been devastated.
Gaza has a population of 1.8 million and already suffered from a chronic shortage of housing before this latest conflict, the third in six years between Hamas and Israel.
On Monday, the United Nations called the level of destruction "unprecedented."
During the ceasefire Palestinians try to dig up any remains of what was a home: photo via Layan Baker via twitter, 12 August 2014
Israeli airstrikes in Gaza continued until the ceasefire agreed late on Sunday evening by Hamas under heavy Egyptian pressure came into effect. Israeli military officials said they had attacked "terrorist targets". Around 20 people have been killed since the previous truce expired on Friday. More than 1,900 Palestinians have died, mostly civilians, in the war.
Militant factions allied to Hamas fired mid-range rockets and mortars into Israel over the weekend. More than 3,000 rockets have now been launched from Gaza in recent weeks, killing three in Israel. Sixty four Israeli soldiers were killed.
Humanitarian agencies say so far they have been restricted to "firefighting". Nadia Dibsy, of the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC), said it had been impossible to properly assess the overall magnitude of the damage.
North of Beit Lahia on Monday, people picked through the ruins of a series of apartment blocks facing the border with Israel, which have been almost totally destroyed.
Ibrahim Jassa, 33, said he had been "completely ruined."
"I have nothing, except seven children. No job, no home, just the clothes we were wearing when we left," the unemployed labourer said.
When I returned to my home after 3 weeks of evacuation, I found this: photo via Dr Hasan Mustafa on twitter, 12 August 2014
Sabr al-Gharboui said three apartments she had shared with her sons had all been reduced to rubble. "I have no idea what we will do. We just hope the ceasefire will hold. But what happens next? That's what worried us," the 53-year-old said.
Though local electricity engineers were hopeful of restoring power supply to its pre-war levels of six to 10 hours a day to some areas, it may take years to recommission Gaza's only power station, which was destroyed on 29 July. Pumping stations, power transmission networks and water pipes have all been badly damaged. One major sewage outflow pipe, serving nearly half a million people, has been severed. Huge quantities of raw sewage are flowing into the sea or onto fields.
"Access to clean water has always been a challenge. Now it is a scarcity," said Dibsy of the ICRC.
More than 200,000 remain in UN-run shelters, afraid or unable to return home, with many more staying with relatives. Food prices have risen sharply since the start of the war as fields are inaccessible or full of unexploded ordnance and farms have been badly damaged.
But shops and markets across Gaza were busy on Monday, with restaurants opening for the first time for a month.
The lack of a definitive end to hostilities will mean crucial material needed for reconstruction cannot enter Gaza. The import of cement and other construction materials is a particularly contentious issue as Israel believes Hamas will use it to build cross-border tunnels which threaten its security. More than 30 such tunnels were destroyed during the conflict, Israel has said.
Health provision in Gaza has been particularly badly hit. Ten out of 26 hospitals, comprising 40% of total beds in Gaza, have been shut, officials said, and only a handful reopened.
Gaza hospitals in dire need of medical supplies: photo via PressTV on twitter, 12 August 2014
In Beit Hanoun, the 60-bed hospital was shut after being hit by shell fire. On Monday, staff swept glass away as they prepared to open a five-bed emergency ward. The hospital had dealt with 348 dead or injured before being closed and was now short of all basic medical supplies, said Dr Ayman Hamdian, the director.
Israel says such supplies can reach Gaza despite the blockade imposed since 2006 and tightened in 2007. Lifting this blockade is a key demand of Hamas.
The concession Hamas most want from Israel, officials from the group have told the Guardian, is the right to build a port and airport in Gaza -- facilities promised to the Palestinians under the Oslo peace deal but currently ruled out by Israel as a potential security threat.
Israel has demanded that Hamas disarm, which the Islamist organisation has said is "out of the question".
Scores of victims of this most recent conflict are still being treated in the al-Shifa hospital in Gaza. They include Yasmin al-Bakri, 11, and her sister Hanin, 9, who were seriously injured when their family tried to flee intense shelling of their neighbourhood in Shuja'iyeh. Five family members, including their mother and two sisters, were killed.
The older of the two girls will recover from 15% burns and a fractured arm, doctors said. Hanin, however, has head injuries, facial burns and may lose her hand.
Another woman, whose seven-year old niece is now paralysed from the neck down, said she welcomed the ceasefire.
"There has been enough killing," said Umm Ibrahim.
UNRWA counselors in Gaza discovering psychological damage is more devastating than the physical and may outlive it: photo by UNRWA spokesman Chris Gunness on twitter, 8 August 2014
Staggering impact of Gaza blockade: in 2000 fewer than 80,000 people relied on UNRWA for food aid. Today it's over 830,000.
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Gaza update: 27,396 displaced left UNRWA schools. Currently, 209,522 IDPs in 88 shelters. There is a massive homelessness crisis.
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Gaza education on hold: even if hostilities stopped now and all displaced left UNRWA shelters the school year would not start on 24 August.
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More evidence of damage/destruction of Gaza homes: 238,097 IDPs now in 90 UNRWA schools, an increase today of 16,543 as people return.
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Repairing and rebuilding public infrastructure in Gaza; water, sewage and electricity is an urgent priority. Without it people cannot go home.
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Gaza's catastrophic human displacement crisis is morphing into housing crisis of epic proportions with homes of 65,000 people destroyed.
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We need to wake from the self-imposed delusion that you can contain Gaza with humanitarian assistance. It is an unsustainable delusion.
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It is time for the world to recognize the blindingly obvious; that the Gaza conflict requires a political solution.
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In Gaza we are beyond the realm of humanitarian action alone. All those responsible for the carnage and destruction must engage.
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Huge swathes of Gaza have been levelled. We cannot rebuild it with our hands tied behind our backs. The blockade must end.
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The last 7 years have shown that Gaza reconstruction under blockade is unsustainable.
via Chris Gunness / UNRWA on twitter, 9 August 2014
373 thousand children in Gaza now require urgent counseling. Symptoms include bed wetting, clinging to parents and nightmares: photo via UNRWA USA on twitter, 12 August 2014
Amr and Abood were helping us to visit the UN schools. Now they become displaced!: photo via CemDM on twitter, 12 August 2014
A member of the Shabat family inspects the damage upon returning to the family house, destroyed by Israeli strikes in the town of Beit Hanoun, northern Gaza Strip, on August 5, 2014: photo by Lefteris Pitarakis / AP, 5 August 2014
A Palestinian searches for salvageable items from the rubble of his home that was destroyed in Israeli strikes in Beit Lahiya on August 4, 2014: photo by Adel Hana / AP, 5 August 2014
Palestinians sit next to their destroyed house after returning to the Shejaia neighborhood, which witnesses said was heavily hit by Israeli shelling and air strikes during the Israeli offensive, in the east of Gaza City, on August 5, 2014: photo by Mohammed Salem / Reuters, 5 August 2014
Backdropped by the damaged minaret of the Al-Azba mosque, a Palestinian smokes a cigarette as he sits on rubble of the Nada Towers, at a residential neighborhood in the town of Beit Lahiya, northern Gaza Strip, on August 5, 2014. Israel and Hamas began observing a 72-hour cease-fire on Tuesday that sets the stage for talks in Egypt on a broader deal on the Gaza Strip, including a sustainable truce and the rebuilding of the battered, blockaded coastal territory: photo by Lefteris Pitarakis / AP, 5 August 2014
During the ceasefire Palestinians try to dig up any remains of what was a home: photo via Layan Baker via twitter, 12 August 2014
During the ceasefire Palestinians try to dig up any remains of what was a home: photo via Layan Baker via twitter, 12 August 2014