IN THIS REPORT:

Gaza    Christian-Muslim Relations    Between the Two Walls    Comments from Fida    Al-Najar Hospital    Finding a U.S. sister hospital    Abu Ahmed  Inside the Checkpoint with Egypt    Col. Shahin joins the conversation    Rachel Corrie Memorial    Asthmatic and Epileptic Boy    Cleaning Up the Rubble from Israeli Demolitions

Erez Industrial Zone destroyed by Israel. It lies in the “no go” zone from which Israel fears Qassam rockets could be launched at Ashkelon.

GAZA:

From Wednesday, December 26 through Sunday, December 30, David and Joe went to Gaza. A young Palestinian woman we met on the way, wearing an armband that read, in Arabic, “Gaza On Our Mind,” urged us to let Gazans know that West Bank Palestinians had not forgotten them.

The Erez checkpoint was almost empty when we arrived. We passed through easily. Once through the checkpoint, we saw the Erez Industrial Zone that Israel bulldozed when they withdrew from Gaza in 2005^[1].

At the parish, David entertained neighborhood kids in the street with his fiddle. Then we joined the parish nuns and priest for Mass at the new school across town. The superior remembered David from 2005, but thought he looked thinner. He could see that she wanted to feed him something.

Father celebrated the Mass in Arabic. He had a chair at the altar, and spent much of the Mass seated. He reminded David of Jesus in Gethsemane, carrying a heavy burden.

After Mass, David and Joe spent some time talking with Father.  He said "I have not had a day of rest since 1994. Since 1997, I have been closed in Gaza. As a Palestinian, I am cursed — Identified as a terrorist.  Israel sees itself as the Son of God, told to punish all their neighbors."

"I don’t know how the world can accept this siege of Gaza. I could not find one Christmas tree. We have no lights [for the tree], no chocolates to give the children this year. No social contacts between children. No clothes, shoes, not enough food."

"There are good Israelis who refuse the killing. One of the basic foundations for peace is to speak the truth. Israeli leaders are liars. They don’t speak truth to their people. If they did, their people would not accept what is happening here. But if the leaders were to speak truth, they would lose their positions."

Several groups of neighbors — Muslims — dropped in during the conversation to express their support for Father during the Christmas season as a leader of the Christian community. He emphasized how good the relations were between Muslims and Christians.

Planned buildings stalled for lack of materials.

On Thursday morning we took the central route to Rafah—a route which is now open because the Israeli settlements that had previously blocked it have been removed.

In Rafah, we saw what Palestinians are doing with the areas where Israeli settlements used to be. We went to Muwasse, by the sea, which the MPT team had been unable to visit (despite its best efforts) in July 2005 because of the settlement that had cut it off from Rafah and Khan Younis. The settlement buildings have been destroyed. The United Nations Development Program, with funding from Saudi Arabia, is building a new neighborhood with a school, a mosque, and 300 housing units. Construction on the project was stopped last summer for lack of building materials. On the coast, we saw a flock of sheep, a fisherman with his boat, and a speck on the horizon.

The seaward part of the wall surrounding Gaza.

The speck turned out to be one of the Israeli gunboats that prevents Gazans from going very far from shore—it is the seaward arm of the wall that totally encircles Gaza. Recently, one of the gunboats reportedly killed two fishermen who had strayed too far offshore.

Fida invited us to question a class of her students — five teen-aged women.  Our interview is described in our previous January Report .  Toward the end, when we asked “What gives you hope,” one of the students responded “People like you.”

Later, Fida^[2] provided several insights:

• The Israelis give us a choice, “Would you like black, or black? Will you accept, or will you accept?”

• I was surprised, when I spoke in America, by how little Americans knew about Palestine.

• How can you recognize people who don’t recognize you?  (In reference to the demand that Hamas recognize Israel as a Jewish state).

• Politicians try to keep people busy so that they won’t think about anything else.

On our way back to Gaza City, we visited the beautiful new beachfront campus of Al-Aqsa University, built since the Israeli withdrawal on former Israeli settlement land. In July, 2005, MPT members lectured at the Khan Younis campus of Al-Aksa. At all its campuses, the university has 8500 students in several faculties: applied sciences, arts and humanities, media, administration, language, and sports. They have a peace center within the French department. Fees are $17 per credit hour. They commented, “We are a government university—we have no money. Students also have no money. We can’t collect fees, but we keep teaching anyway.”

Christian-Muslim Relations

We  returned to Holy Family by 4:00 in order to join the sisters and Father for Mass again—this time in English. After the Mass, he read to the sisters, from the internet, a preposterous article claiming Christians were fleeing Gaza because Muslims were persecuting them.  The article had been written in Hebrew and reposted in Arabic on the website of an extremist Arabic website attacking Hamas. The article claimed that Christians were being harassed and persecuted by Islam, that Hamas was destroying churches, attacking schools, and harassing women in the streets. It said that parents were keeping their children at home or accompanying them to schools. It said that there were no Christmas festivals or Masses.  One of the sisters muttered, “lies.” The article is a way to encourage Christians to emigrate or to attack Hamas.

Father insisted that churches in Gaza are not harassed. He reminded us of the many Muslims who had visited the previous day to pay their respects on the season of Christmas. The day before, Hamas leaders visited him and invited him give an hour and 20 minute lecture about Jerusalem, the holy places, and the faith of Christians in Jerusalem—the talk will be spread world-wide on Al Jazeera.  Hamas has also elected Father to a group of 35 leaders charged to assure care for the Gazan people.  Father has preached peace, forgiveness, and pardon in the parliament.

Father pointed out Hamas is not religious.  It is an army branch defending against Israeli aggression.  There are always a few fanatics who can commit acts of violence, but they can’t create in Gaza a state of persecution or fear.  Many of the police have their children in our school. At our Christmas Mass, more than 30 police from five taxis surrounded us to keep us secure.

We asked about the Baptist church whose minister was killed. Father responded:

"That church did not have an Arabic mentality, rather an American one.  It had Zionist ideas. Christian Zionists think one needs to destroy the Dome of the Rock and build the Jewish Temple in its place.  The Baptists gave food and tried to convert Muslims — it was not working with wisdom and prudence.  The Catholic Church has been working with Muslims for years;  it has achieved a practice that you can’t pass over.  This particular church has been attacked six or seven times.  Months before, a rocket was launched against it.  This church gets a lot of money from the United States.  It has a small library which has ten employees, each of whom is paid $1,000 a month.  In comparison, teachers are paid $300 or $400 a month.  Who knows why and by whom the man was targeted? Was it for money?  He was the treasurer, and was coming out of the bank at the time.  So one Christian has been killed in this great revolution. Hundreds of Muslims have been killed.  It was an accident, perhaps by a fanatic.

Letters in response to this terrible article, both from Christians and from Muslims, have been very critical of the article and supportive of Christian-Muslim relations.

Journalists tend to begin with the question, 'What about Hamas and Christians?' As if Christians were being persecuted in everything. They pick and choose what you say to fit their ideas. 'Come and convert to Islam' is not a persecution. There is no pressure.  It is an invitation.  They call me to Islam, saying 'You believe like us.'  We are a minority in a Muslim country: 3,000 in a population of 1,300,000.

Christians open schools where men and women study together. For Muslims, this is forbidden—Muslims separate by sex even at the university. Our school has100 Christian students and 600 Muslim students, but they don’t force us to separate men and women.  If they were to ask us to separate men from women according to their mentality, it would not be persecution, because we include Muslims in our school.

In a Vatican concordat, Israel signed an agreement to allow free movement of ministers.  It has not been honoring that agreement.  I was born in Bir Zeit (near Ramallah).  I went to Transjordan in 1967.  I entered the West Bank with a permit, and stayed there from 1970 to 1995 with a visa that had to be renewed each year, sometimes for two years. I had a laissez passer from the Holy See.  I came to Gaza with no visa—Israel refused to renew it. The laissez passer is now invalid.  My Jordanian passport has no visa to enter Israel.

In 1995, when they were preparing elections for parliament, Israel said that anyone who has been in Palestine more than three years could have an identity card. They gave me an i.d. number, but took it from Gaza. So I am now a Gazan, although I was born in Bir Zeit-Ramallah.  Israel refuses to give us a permit to stay in Israel or in the West Bank even as a priest (or sister). Some of our sisters are Jordanian.  A Palestinian from the West Bank can’t come to Gaza, and a Palestinian from Gaza can’t come to the West Bank.  Even the Missionaries of Charity from India took months to get permission to come to Gaza."

Question: What about marriage?

"Christians marry Christians, and Muslims marry Muslims.  We have 2 - 4 'accidents' a year.  In that case, the women convert to Islam.

A Christian woman from Ramallah married to a Gazan returned to the West Bank to help her ill father. She is not allowed to return to Gaza. She stays in the West Bank with her six children. Her husband can only get permission to see the children for 2 or 3 days.

If a Gazan marries someone from Israel, they can’t get a permit to live together.  Some Israeli Arabs will risk living in the West Bank without a permit to be with the family.

They have to avoid checkpoints.

I note from the Acts of the Apostles that Paul was thrown into the internal prison. That’s what life is like here in Gaza.

We are preaching hope in a time of despair;
People are living despair in a time of hope.

Paul says, 'There remain faith, hope, and love; and the greatest of these is love.'  But in Gaza, the greatest of these is hope."

Question: What are the most critical shortages?

1. "Medications in hospitals, especially cancer medications. Also facilities for major sickness. We used to send them out (to Israel or Egypt), but now we can’t. It takes months to get a permit. People die on the borders. In two months, 50 people have died (waiting to cross the border for treatment). Many doctors don’t go to work. People go to private clinics, but they are not equipped.

2. Malnutrition for small children. The Ministry of Education brought in vitamins and obliged the schools to give them to children in school, so that the distribution could be supervised—their mother might not give them at the right time. We have some very poor families. There isn’t even safe water at home to drink. Gaza water is very salty.

3. No repair parts are available. For example, we have a well at school, but the pump is broken, so we can’t use the well.

4. There is no wood in Gaza. Cement has gone from 25 shekels a sack to 350 shekels a sack.

5. 7,000 items have been ordered. Only 9 have been allowed in.

The Middle East is living on liars. The rulers don’t speak the truth to each other or to their people. There are good people in Israel who wouldn’t accept the suffering of the Palestinians, but their leaders lie, and they lie with them, so peace is not close. Peace is possible if truth is possible. Bush hasn’t spoken the truth."

After a little discussion with the sisters, Father phoned to order 150 kilos of strawberries for 1050 shekels (about $270.00). He heard that the strawberries were in danger of spoiling because they couldn’t be shipped out of Gaza, so he bought them for a party for his parishioners, at which each family would be given a kilo of strawberries.

We spent the night at Holy Family Parish.

No-man’s land.
Wall with Gaza on left; wall with Egypt on right.
 

Fida arrived with car and driver. On the way to Rafah, we paused for pictures where the Israeli checkpoint and bypass road had split Gaza in half before the Israeli withdrawal, and where MPT with Fida in 2005 had tried to convince the guntower to open the checkpoint.
 

Between the Two Walls.

At the border with Egypt, the Palestinian police let us through into the space between the barrier with Gaza and the barrier with Egypt. There we talked with them.  The wall is 14 kilometers from the sea to the checkpoint with Egypt. We served the first Palestinian administration.

When Hamas took control, they told us we could choose to stay on or to leave. The border security has become better since Hamas took over. (We worked under both). We have stopped weapon smuggling because the Palestinians were killing each other. We burn cigarettes, drugs, and other illegal imports. We destroy the tunnels we discover.

Against an invader, all Palestinians defend Gaza together: the army, Hamas militants, Fatah militants, and others.

The police must not be finding all the tunnels. One of our informants reported: “Someone went to the pharmacy to request a medicine. The pharmacist said, ‘Not now, come back in two days. We are waiting our turn to get the medicine through the tunnel.’”

As we drove away, I noted that, for quite a stretch, the steel wall has been cut through about two feet off the ground by a cutting torch, leaving only a few points of connection between the bottom and the top. It wouldn’t take much pressure to topple the wall.

Comments from Fida

Hamas runs a school and college in Rafah. Also a school for orphans, and 6 or 7 clinics.

I know an election observer in Rafah who lost his job. They said, you have to be green (Hamas) or yellow (Fatah).  He said, I’m with Allah.

Some schools teach in two shifts. Fatah teachers get salaries from Ramallah. Hamas teachers get no salaries. Fida’s sister can’t get a teaching job because she will not identify either with Hamas or Fatah. Fatah controls salaries; Hamas controls the government. Hamas has received no tax money (collected by Israel) for the last two years. Hamas gets its money from private hospitals, schools, and businesses that charge fees.

The Hospital Director shows off their operating theater.

We visited a hospital despite Father’s warning that they wouldn’t let us in. They explained why they don’t trust outsiders.

"A Swedish journalist took a picture of a girl, put a gun by her, and said she was using it [when she was injured). He changed the story entirely. An Italian journalist sent a false message. He said the Palestinians killed soldiers. We had a journalist here who tried to take pictures of the faces of resistance fighters without their permission, leaving them in danger of being identified. They got very angry and tried to take his camera. So we don’t trust reporters who come to hospital.

A lot of medications are unavailable because of the closure. We need to restock, especially because we are expanding the hospital. Our emergency room is missing an EKG machine and the paper it needs to print out its report. The hospital wants to get a portable X-ray machine, but can’t get it."

At this point, we ran into a mother in the hall who urgently asked us to do something for her sick son. We took down information so that we could come by her home later. We did visit her the next day. It turns out that Fida’s family knows her and has helped her in the past.

Question: What about electricity?

"We have a generator. But there is a gap in time between the time the electricity cuts off and the generator gets started. (For the operating rooms, they showed us battery backups designed to cover this gap.) We have a new x-ray section, but it is not ready. We need more machines."

Do you have enough diesel fuel for the generators?

"We need 19,000 liters but have only 1,500. We lost a lot of diesel fuel in a storm that collapsed one of our tanks."

At this point, the Hospital Director arrived and continued the interview.

"I have five sons and two daughters. I was in a clinic before the hospital. The hospital has 40 beds. It hopes to have 60 when the expansion is completed.

"I studied in Israel, at Beer Sheba University—anesthesiology and intensive care. I worked for ten years at Nasser Hospital in Khan Younis. I came here to Gaza during the second intifada. I am the director, but I do not identify either with Fatah or with Hamas. About 70 doctors work in the hospital, especially in surgery and anesthesia. About 40 of those 70 are without salary. Six months ago, Ramallah asked me as director to take a salary but not work. [Fatah is trying to pressure Hamas with this work boycott.] Because I insisted on working, they won’t pay my salary. I keep working because I love work and Palestine. The salaries of five managers here also stopped six months ago. There used to be 190 people working in the hospital and getting salaries from Ramallah, but now they stay at home, don’t work, and still get their salaries. Ninety people actually work at the hospital, but as volunteers without salaries. As manager, I used to receive 5,000 shekels a month [about $1,250.00.] Even that was not enough. Now that I do not receive that salary, I depend on my second job, at a private hospital, as an anesthetist. I earn 50 shekels per patient.

There have been a lot of injuries from the intifada. The closure has also affected the hospital a lot. There are many medications we don’t have; also machines. We have one intensive care unit and an emergency room, but no monitors and no ventilators. Patients die because they can’t exit to Israel. Rafah lost ten this year; Gaza strip lost 55. Ninety percent need a kidney flush. Most used to go to Egypt. This summer we have a project to create a kidney section, especially since patients can no longer leave Gaza for dialysis. We have six machines here for dialysis, all in a 5 by 4 meter room (12 by 15 feet). We have two more machines, but no place to put them. We hope to have place for them in two weeks—we are trying to move dialysis to another section. We have 50 dialysis patients, ten with positive virus. They had to go to Nasser Hospital (in Khan Younis), which is expensive.

We are not asking for money; we are asking for machines. They can’t get in now. We have one CBC machine. Last night I was told that it didn’t give the white blood count. We had to stop building a wall for lack of building materials. Working here is like breaking rocks in a prison. We are looking for help just to survive, not yet to get what we really need.

We suffer especially from lack of gasoline and food—especially vegetables and fruits for patients.

I was the first to try to help Rachel Corrie when she was run over by the bulldozer. I also was the first for Tom Hurndall. We help everyone. It doesn’t matter where you are from."

Question: Are you seeing malnutrition?
"Yes. Especially in children. No work, no salary."

How do people survive without a salary?
"UNRWA gives food. Many people eat meat only twice a year—on Eid al Fitr and Eid al Adha. Most donations are to a limited number of people. They don’t share. 90% of people are without jobs."

How long can it go on?
"It started in 2005 with the elections. It got worse in 2006 when Fatah was driven out. Ask the American people—not the government. They encourage democracy, then they don’t accept the results. It’s bad for U.S. history.

My son wanted to buy shoes for the winter. He couldn’t find any. He is still wearing his summer shoes.

We are hoping to find a U.S. sister hospital."

The Director then took us on a tour of the hospital. He showed us the operating rooms, the new wing, and the kitchen, where we were served some of the food.

Abu Ahmed

We visited Abu Ahmed, whose house was one of the last ones left standing close to the wall with Egypt. Ten people live in his house: six from his family, plus his daughter and her three children. MPT had visited him in July 2005. He was trying to remember the last time I visited.

He went to the clinic yesterday to get insulin. They had none. The pharmacy had none also. The Rafah hospital asked for 137 medications, and received only 36. He used to take insulin twice a day. Now he takes one every three days.

He has three sons. They have no jobs. It isn’t fair. One son has a degree in computers and the internet. The other two have no degrees. They had to choose between the university and food.

We asked about the holes in his wall which he had repaired. Were the bullets shot by the Israelis when people were in the building?   "Yes. We were sleeping on the floor. The bullets passed above us. No one was injured, they just “died” [of fright]."

He asked how we liked the British occupation of America (before the American revolution). I said that we were the wrong people to ask. We would be like the Jewish settlers. He should ask the Native Americans how they liked the British occupation.

We asked Ahmed about his life. He said there is no milk for the children. Butter that used to cost 7 shekels now costs 20. There is no cement, which they call “black flour” because the workers live on it.

We spent Friday night with Fida’s family.
Saturday, December 29

News: a group of 1200 Muslims returning from the Hajj has been intercepted by Egypt at sea with the demand that they sign a promise to return to Gaza through the Kerem Shalom checkpoint with Israel rather than through the Rafah checkpoint with Egypt. They are refusing to sign, for fear that Israel has lists of people it intends to arrest if they go through Kerem Shalom.

(Fida mentioned that when she returned from the U.S. she waited with a group three weeks inside the Rafah checkpoint terminal—slept there, ate when they could.)

Inside the Checkpoint with Egypt

We drive to the checkpoint with Egypt. Surprisingly, the guards let us in, offer us tea, and begin a conversation.

"In 2006, the Rafah checkpoint was closed periodically. There was pressure even before the elections, before 2005. [Israel] did not respect the agreement then, either. The checkpoint was open only two or three days a week. Hamas was not the problem then—till June 14 2007, Fatah still controlled this crossing. Since June 2007, it has been closed totally, since Israel has not let the European Union observers come to work. The checkpoint agreement was made with the first Palestinian Authority, not with Abbas and Fatah. Hamas won the PA election [gaining about 75% of the legislative seats]. They took their rights with power [when Fatah refused to yield them]. The internationals left with Abbas. The internationals would be safer now than they were before. There are cameras in the checkpoint to observe everything."

Question: If Palestine opened the border now, would Egypt keep it closed?
"Egypt was part of the agreement—it was made with Egypt, the EU, and the Palestinian Authority. The EU does not respect the democratic election that gave the majority in the PA to Hamas. They are punishing not Hamas, but all Palestinians—the sick, students, the poor. It will lead to an explosion in the future. Elections were a democratic choice. Pressure will push Palestinians to become real terrorists—they will have nothing more to lose.

The world is silent. We see just rockets, planes in the sky, no life.

Before June 14, it was unsafe in Gaza. Militias were killing each other. Now it is safer. Alan Johnson was held for a year by Fatah. When Hamas got control, they got him released."

Question: When was the last sick person allowed through the checkpoint?
"We tried 20 days ago after the Hajjis left. Egypt refused, under Israeli pressure. Here’s an example of how Egypt yields to Israeli pressure: Egypt asked the Hajjis to sign documents promising to return by the Kerem Shalom checkpoint. Egypt is part of the siege. The Hajjis left by the Rafah checkpoint, so they should be able to return by the Rafah checkpoint."

Question: What do you expect for the future?
"If the internationals do not come back, suffering will increase. We hope they will come back.

We people have hearts. Our grandparents are here. We will not leave or sell this land. We will stay even if they kill us. We understand siege. They are trying to force us to leave. If no one can say anything, it will explode in our faces."

David's comment: U.S. papers usually say, “Hamas wants an Islamic state. It does not accept or recognize Israel. It imports weapons for rockets and wants to push Israel into the sea.”

The PA does recognize Israel. It has given agreements at Oslo, which promised to produce a Palestinian state by 1996. In 2007, things are more complex. We are waiting for people to give us our rights. Israel has to follow the agreements. It feels strange as Muslims and Arabs to see how Israel controls the media. They adopt the Israeli point of view—one-sided, one-eyed.

Question: What about Qassam rockets?
"They have killed one Israeli in the past two months. The world makes propaganda. They don’t see Palestinians killed every day. Hamas has a bad image. We are not like the Taliban. We are not extreme Islam. We don’t even carry guns."

David's comment: The U.S. has been looking for a new enemy ever since the fall of the Soviet Union. Islam is convenient because it is sitting on the world’s largest pool of oil. But Americans will not mobilize against “Islam.” So our leaders speak of extreme Islam and identify that with Hamas.

"America is not our enemy. We have no problem with you, just with the Israelis. They don’t respect us or give us our rights. We are not negotiating with the U.S. because the U.S. is not the enemy."

Question: Would a two-state solution more or less on the 1967 borders be acceptable?
"We have tried to talk with the Israelis about this. We are willing to sign a long-term cease fire if they give us a safe country. In the Mecca agreement of the Palestinians, Hamas gave Abbas the right to negotiate with Israelis. The Israelis are not serious about us and our rights. The first Palestinian Authority gave all they could, but Israel gave nothing back. We accepted to live in 20% of this land for peace. But Israel didn’t accept the agreement. The West Bank wall is taking 50% of the 20% that remains. How can it be a country? It has no geographic connection."

At this point, Col. Shahin joined the conversation. He is the manager or director of the crossings in the Gaza Strip.

We appreciate your hospitality.

When did the last sick person successfully cross to Egypt?
"7 months ago. 100 are waiting. Cancers, kidney cases."

Can they cross at Kerem Shalom?
"They can’t cross there, either. A 10-month old baby was blocked, because the Israeli army wanted one of his family. More than 90% of the time, Israel says 'no. For our safety.'"

Question: What would be normal trade through this border?
"This one is just for persons. Kerem Shalom is for goods. Seven kinds of goods are accepted. They are not connected with people’s needs. For example, milk is not allowed."

Question: If the checkpoint were completely open, what would come through?
"Everything needed for people to have a life and stay alive, especially building materials. We have 90% unemployment because we can’t get building materials."

What about electricity?
"It is a problem especially for hospitals.

Many international groups come, but when they speak, no one listens. The world has turned its back on the Palestinians. It does not accept democracy. These things didn’t even happen in the Second World War. We want to talk about human rights."

Joe's comment: making civilians suffer is state terrorism.
David's comment: A recent study of U.S. media found that a key phrase that keeps recurring is, “Hamas has vowed to destroy Israel.”

"It is propaganda. From 1917 until now, U.S. presidents have been the same. After they finish their term, they get human."

David's comment: I see signs of change within the U.S. elite leadership.

How long will it take?

David's comment: Hardly anyone foresaw the fall of the Berlin Wall. The Israeli lobby is strong because U.S. elite leaders want to control oil. U.S. policy is bad for the U.S. as a whole, but it enriches a few, and they are the ones who make the decisions.

"The U.S. controls the world. We need help from 2 sides."

David's question: In the long view, what does Islam say about what is happening?

"Give us real power. We are patient. We will wait for our rights. There will be justice some day. Rachel Corrie is a good example. She was killed here in Rafah. They crushed her. Her picture is in many houses."

David's comment: There is a play about her that was blocked in NY, but has played in London and now in many other places.

"We want America to be in the middle—to see the suffering on both sides."

David comment: I think that every time a Qassam rocket is fired, the Israeli leaders are happy, because it gives them an excuse for their propaganda.

We were asked whether we would like sandwiches. We politely declined.

Two boys show off part of
the memorial for Rachel Corrie on their playground.

We visited a children’s play area near the wall, at about the spot where Rachel was killed. One of the children showed us the “exact spot” where she was killed. In one side of the play area, a memorial has been created. The director was embarrassed that it didn’t look better—he said there used to be flowers there.

Fida met Rachel Corrie once. Fida was afraid to talk to Americans until she met Molly McGuire, who is now her best friend. Also Sandra Jordan, who produced the video The Killing Zone^[3]. Another good video is Death in Gaza by James Miller.  Rachel was killed in March 2003.
 

Boy with asthma and epilepsy

Asthmatic and Epileptic Boy

We went to visit the boy sick with asthma and epilepsy. They showed us his medical report which spoke of epilepsy and said that he needed medication. The family borrowed chairs from their neighbors so that we could sit down. They said he was better today. He was lying down next to oxygen canisters. They use it when his face gets blue. They take him to the hospital each day by donkey. Sometimes they take him at 1:00 a.m. He has had asthma for about three years. The doctors don’t know what to do. He has the necessary documents to travel to Egypt for care, but he can’t get through the checkpoint. He also has kidney problems and headaches. He needs 100 shekels a month for X-ray pictures. They get medicines from Egypt^[4]. His family would like somebody to “adopt” him to pay for his medical treatment.

His sister, 26 years old, can’t talk. One of her ears is good, the other is deaf. They hope in the future she will be able to talk.

Their mother needs knee surgery but is afraid to do it and doesn’t have the money to pay for it. She also has a bad heart. It costs 100 shekels for an EKG and for heart X-rays. She concluded that she appeals to Allah.

David prayed over the boy for about fifteen minutes. Then he took photos of the family and the house.

Cleaning Up the Rubble from Israeli Demolitions

We visited block J and took a few photos. Workers and children were clearing the rubble and trying to recycle the rebar. They were using a machine to break up the concrete, presumably so that the rebar could be pulled out. We drove through Yibna and Block O. I noted that some areas had been leveled and provided with football goalposts.

We returned to Gaza City for the night.

Sunday, December 30

After the parish Mass, a driver took us both to the Erez checkpoint. At the Erez checkpoint we were minutely examined by a machine that rotated around our bodies. Questions at passport control were generic, as were the answers we gave. We each received an additional month visa, treating the return from Gaza as a new entry into Israel, in contrast to the Bethlehem Gilo checkpoint to the West Bank which is not recorded in passports. It seems that Israel has “let go” of Gaza (except for the borders and a few daily rocket attacks or incursions), but not of the West Bank.
 

[4] They showed us some of the medications. One was Seretide disks which contained 50 mcg of salmeterol (kinafoate), 250 mcg of fluticasone propionate and lactose monohydrate 12.5 mg.