INNOVATIVE HOUSING PROJECT PUTS ROOFS OVER THE HEADS OF SOME OF GAZA’S DISPLACED

Eight-year-old Aseel Al Ashqar fiddles quietly with a worn, pink blanket she has laid on the floor of the empty new bedroom in downtown Beit Hanoun, Gaza Strip; the room she now shares with her four siblings. The holes in the blanket, she explains, are a consequence of a bomb that also wiped out her family home during the 50-day summer conflict last year. She found the blanket buried in the rubble.

According to UNRWA assessments, at least 100,000 Palestine refugee family homes were damaged or destroyed during last summer’s conflict. Finding adequate shelter amidst a crippling housing shortage in the Gaza Strip has put enormous stress on refugee families such as Aseel’s.

During the war, Aseel and her family took refuge at the UNRWA Abu Husein school in Jabalia, in the north of Gaza. They stayed there for several days before renting a cramped flat far away from their home, in the unfamiliar al-Saftawi area of Gaza City.

The movement of Aseel and her family into a new home on January 21 represents hope for many.

They are one of 10 families benefitting from an innovative UNRWA pilot housing project that encourages landowners to complete partially-finished dwellings to increase the stock of housing units in Gaza. Under the project, landowners with unfinished buildings receive financial support to complete construction, so the new buildings  can house internally-displaced families.

“We are very glad to move to Beit Hanoun after we spent five months out. Now, my children will go to their original school in Beit Hanoun, which is only 300 metres away from the rented flat,” said Aseel’s mother, Maysa.

It has also proven a win for the landowner. “This is very fruitful project; I managed to finish two flats after receiving US$ 6,000 for each. Moreover, it created jobs for labourers and skilled labourers,” said the Ashqar’s new landlord, Hasan Al Za’anin.

As for Aseel’s response to her new home: “This flat is very beautiful, it is more beautiful than the previous rented one. I returned to my hometown to play with my cousins and meet my friends at my original school.”

http://www.unrwa.org/

#UNICEF: 425,000 #children in #Gaza need immediate #psychosocial_support .

More than 400,000 children in Gaza need “immediate psychosocial and child protection support” following Israel’s devastating assault, according to the United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF).
The data is contained in an October report produced by the UN’s Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA).
At least 538 Palestinian children are confirmed killed by Israeli military attacks during so-called ‘Operation Protective Edge’, says UNICEF. More than two-thirds of the child fatalities, 68 percent, were 12 years old or younger.
The UN agency reports that nearly 425,000 children in Gaza are in need of immediate psychosocial and child protection support, including at least 3,373 injured children (some with permanent disabilities), as well as more than 1,500 children who were orphaned.
All require urgent support “to deal with acute levels of psychosocial distress and vulnerability at a time when several neighbourhoods and villages of the Gaza Strip still lie in ruins.”
The report includes the story of 10-year-old Shaima from Shuja’iyya in eastern Gaza City, who, like many others, is regularly seen at home by a counsellor.
Her neighbourhood is “now mostly reduced to a vast expanse of rubble” with “the threat of explosive remnants” looming “around every corner.”
During Israel’s offensive, Shaima’s family sought shelter in her grandfather’s apartment, only for shrapnel from an Israeli shell to kill her father, Adel, and her sister, 2-year-old Dima.
“I saw my uncle carrying my sister. I realized her head was cut off in the shelling. I didn’t look at my father’s body because I was afraid his wounds were as bad. I ran away… I cannot sing anymore. I think of my dad and my sister who are dead. I feel guilty.”

#Israel #shuts Dr #Gilbert out from #Gaza for #life

doctor, Mads Gilbert

Israel shuts Dr Gilbert out from Gaza for life
A Norwegian doctor, Mads Gilbert, has been hit with a lifetime ban from entering Gaza by the Israeli government.
Israeli authorities cited security reasons for shutting Doctor Gilbert out from the Gaza Strip.

The Norwegian 67-year-old has travelled to and from Gaza to treat Palestinians. This summer, the chief physician who lives and works in northern Norway, was back working at Shifa hospital, Gaza, where he spend more than 50 days treating many of the 11,000 injured.

The doctor was attempting to return to the region in October to help in the hospital and was stopped by Israeli officials from entering.

Gilbert says: “When we came back to the Erez border station, the Israeli soldiers told me that I could not go in to Gaza.”

Now the Israeli government is stating that Gilbert is banned for security reasons, according to an email from the Norwegian embassy in Tel Aviv. The embassy took up the case on Gilbert’s behalf after he was refused entry last month.

Norway’s Secretary of State, Bård Glad Pedersen, said to VG: “From the Norwegian perspective, we have raised Gilbert’s exclusion from Gaza and asked Israel to change their decision. The humanitarian situation in Gaza is still difficult and there is a need for all health workers.”

Gilbert himself believes the decision is connected to his critical comments against the state of Israel.

The outspoken peace activist wrote a letter to the global media in July this year in which he spoke about the extreme conditions at the Gaza hospital where he worked.

Who is doctor Mads Gilbert?
Born in Oslo, 1947.
Head physician specializing in anesthesiology at University Hospital of North Norway.
Over 30 years working in international conflict areas, especially Gaza.
Awards include Fritt Ords Honorary Prize (2009).
Appointed Commander to the Order of St Olaf (2013).
Received PhD at University of Iowa.

Israel shuts Dr Gilbert out from Gaza for life

Amid bloodshed, frenetic Gaza hospital improvises

Dr. Mads Gilbert

Dr. Mads Gilbert Facebook

Dr. Mads Gilbert twitter

#Fatah holds #Hamas #responsible for #Gaza #bomb #attacks

on Thursday night a series of nearly simultaneous explosions occurred in Hamas-controlled Gaza, targeting officials from Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas’ Fatah party.

Letters claiming to be from a Gaza offshoot of the Islamic State group, warned Fatah leaders to stay in their homes until November 15. There were no casualties and Fatah and Hamas consider the letters to be forgeries.

An official from Palestinian President Abbas’s movement reported that his and colleagues’ homes were damaged in series of nearly simultaneous explosions in Hamas-controlled Gaza on Thursday night. There were no casualties.

No organization has claimed responsibility for the bombs, but the incident occurred amid increased tension between Fatah and Hamas, despite attempts at reconciliation. Fatah sources blamed Hamas for the incident, while Hamas says it’s investigating.

An Associated Press report emphasized that there was no sign that Israel was involved in the bombings, a claim supported by an IDF source.

Fayez Abu Aita, a spokesperson for Fatah in the Gaza Strip, said that his car was completely destroyed outside his home in the Jabaliia refugee camp, and that two other officials’ homes and cars in the city were also damaged.

In addition, a device exploded in one of the Strip’s central squares, where a ceremony marking the anniversary Yasser Arafat’s death was scheduled to take place.

Senior Fatah official Abdallah Abu Samhadana said the Nov. 15 commemoration would go ahead despite the explosions, one of which targeted the wooden stage where the event is to be held.

“No one will deter us from holding the event, regardless of what explosions and terror they commit,” Samhadana said in a statement carried on the official Palestinian news agency, WAFA.

Hamas condemned the explosions as a “criminal” act and ordered those who carried them out to be brought to justice.

Hamas and Fatah agreed in April to form a “reconciliation” government, an effort to overcome deep political rifts that date back to 2007, when Hamas seized power in Gaza after a weeks-long civil war with Fatah.

Fatah officials had been preparing to pay tribute to the party’s founder, including the first commemoration in the Gaza Strip since 2007. The last time such an event took place, shortly after Hamas took over the Strip, confrontations erupted in which dozens were wounded. This year, Hamas once more expressed their opposition to the event.

After Thursday night’s bombings, warnings addressed to Fatah officials and claiming to be from a Gaza offshoot of the Islamic State group were found near the damaged homes, calling for the officials not to leave their homes until November 15.

Fatah regarded these as forgeries possibly made by Hamas as an effort to thwart the rally. However, AP reported that Hamas had announced an investigation into the incident.

About a month before the episode, ministers from the Palestinian unity government, among them Prime Minister Rami Hamdallah, arrived in Gaza Strip to hold its meeting – the first conference of its kind in seven years.

Hamdallah then stated Abu Mazen’s instructions for members of the government “were clear, and according to them we must rehabilitate the Gaza Strip and make it better than it was before”. He emphasized that “we left the rift behind, and our goal is to restore normal life in Gaza and unity with the West Bank”.