What is life like in the Gaza Strip, one year after the war?
It was a hardscrabble existence in the Gaza Strip even before last summer’s war. Now, the young dream of emigration and adults despair over ruined homes and lives. Haaretz reports from inside Gaza
It was a hardscrabble existence in the Gaza Strip even before last summer’s war. Now, the young dream of emigration and adults despair over ruined homes and lives. Haaretz reports from inside Gaza
.By Khaled Diab
Call them the rubble-rousers: A group of destitute men have found a new calling in Gaza – navigating the Strip’s many ruins, created by last summer’s war with Israel. With heavy hammers and pickaxes, they smash away the concrete from around the steel rods, which the owners deem too valuable for the rummagers to take.A train of horse- and donkey-drawn carts makes its way to an industrial crusher, which recycles Gaza’s rubble into gravel that can be used in repair and reconstruction work.
Call them the rubble-rousers: A group of destitute men have found a new calling in Gaza – navigating the Strip’s many ruins, created by last summer’s war with Israel. With heavy hammers and pickaxes, they smash away the concrete from around the steel rods, which the owners deem too valuable for the rummagers to take.A train of horse- and donkey-drawn carts makes its way to an industrial crusher, which recycles Gaza’s rubble into gravel that can be used in repair and reconstruction work.
Although a small cartload of concrete fetches only $2 and a collector can expect to net just $5-$6 for an 11-hour day after deducting food for his animal, there is no shortage of people “willing” to undertake this backbreaking labor.With the World Bank reporting that Gaza has the highest unemployment rate in the world, reaching a staggering 60 percent among youth – not to mention all the working people who are not being paid – rubble is one of the few growth areas in the besieged and battered economy of Gaza, which is still largely sealed off from the outside world.
I hope Gaza continues its recovery. I practice japanese via skype at http://preply.com/en/japanese-by-skype and my teacher said she was really praying for Gaza during that time.
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