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Last update - 09:55 26/09/2006
Gaza is hungry - and not because of Ramadan
By Avi Issacharoff

GAZA - It's Ramadan and everyone's fasting. Maybe it's the heat, the hunger and the thirst that generate the feeling that the Gaza Strip is liable to blow up at any minute. It seems that with every passing week, the distress deepens and the poverty becomes more tangible.

Only last week, Palestinian Authority Chairman Mahmoud Abbas and Palestinian Prime Minister Ismail Haniyeh promised that by Ramadan some of the PA employees' salaries would be paid. But on Sunday came the announcement that this month, too, the PA did not have the money to pay its workers. The despair is visible in the people's eyes, as irritable drivers get into fights with each other at every traffic jam.

A traffic jam of a different sort blocked the area across from the main marketplace in the Jabalya refugee camp yesterday. Although donkey carts are popular here, the dozens that filled the square yesterday were not there for the regular market run, but had been rented so the lucky residents could bring home the food packages supplied by the United Nations Relief and Works Agency (UNRWA) once every three months.
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Since UNRWA only helps refugees, the rest of Gaza's residents are left without aid. The irony is that the residents of the refugee camps enjoy economic privileges that the others don't, even though today everyone needs assistance because they aren't getting paid.

But even the lucky ones still need to take action to receive the food to which their orange UNRWA coupons entitle them: a few sacks of flour, milk powder for children, rice, sugar and broad beans (ful). They gathered around the food truck and tried to get the attention of the person who mans it. Waving their hands in the air and shouting "Rajeb, Rajeb," they looked like ardent fans of a singer.

"Last year I got unemployment benefits but since the Hamas government took power, there have been no unemployment payments," said Adnan, who is eligible for the food packages. He has seven children, two of whom are studying at university, but he has no way of paying their tuition.

"Without UNRWA, Gaza would be in flames," said a porter carrying the food. "I'm carrying on my back right now a sack that, for a lot of people, is worth a million dollars."

In the market itself, the produce is cheap: a kilo of tomatoes costs NIS 2, and three kilos of cucumbers cost NIS 4. But almost no one is buying, said vegetable vendor Zuhir Dawas.

"If one of the vendors makes NIS 10 to NIS 15 a day, he can be satisfied," said Dawas. "We've reached the point where even the dogs of the Jews live better, and since Hamas won, the situation has become still worse. Only UNRWA is helping people now - the PA can't do anything."

Dawas said he and his family are going hungry, and break their daily Ramadan fast on nothing but rice and vegetables. "I don't have money anymore for meat and chicken," he said.

But while Adnan and Dawas saw the establishment of a Hamas government as a turning point for the worse, store owner Abu Mustafa al-Januni pointed the finger at Israel and the rest of the world.

"Who's responsible?" he said. "Israel is to blame, America and the international community. You're the ones who have kept food from us."

Al-Januni, who owns a store in a Gaza market selling special pancakes for Ramadan, recalled better days.

"In previous years, our store was full of people, it was impossible to move," he said. "In the past, the laborers worked in Israel, the clerks had salaries from the PA. Now everything has disappeared."

The distress of the residents of Gaza is putting the Hamas government at risk. Many of the organization's top leaders realize that thousands of their supporters are liable to turn against Hamas, leading them to reconsider the idea of a unity government and the need to compromise with Abbas. The PA chairman, for his part, is in no hurry. After all, time is working against Hamas, and the Ramadan fast isn't helping either.
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  1.   I learned two things from this article 10:15  |  Yonatan 26/09/06
  2.   This story must be false 10:20  |  Clickfool 26/09/06
  3.   In previous years 10:30  |  Gina 26/09/06
  4.   For Yonatan #1 10:30  |  Clickfool 26/09/06
  5.   enough money for weapons 10:49  |  Don Saliman 26/09/06
  6.   #1...and I learned something rather different 11:08  |  Peace Train 26/09/06
  7.   Israel was not kidding 11:09  |  Rose 26/09/06
  8.   Clickfool -- correction 11:09  |  Gina 26/09/06
  9.   Maybe they`re starving partly.. 11:11  |  Maral 26/09/06
  10.   Clickfool -- did you not see the Haaretz photo a few days ago? 11:13  |  Gina 26/09/06
  11.   # 6 11:44  |  ChanahS 26/09/06
  12.   Maral # 9 11:46  |  ChanahS 26/09/06
  13.   Blinkered 11:48  |  Fletch 26/09/06
  14.   Short memories 11:49  |  Gary 26/09/06
  15.   Nice government, enjoy it... 11:56  |  Igor 26/09/06
  16.   Click # 4 - Use the mirror and look at YOURSELF , for a change 12:08  |  Klaudia 26/09/06
  17.   Fletch # 13 12:11  |  ChanahS 26/09/06
  18.   gaza 12:12  |  y.ahmad 26/09/06
  19.   cHANAHs 12:29  |  Fletch 26/09/06
  20.   So, the Nazis only put Jews on a diet? 13:05  |  Marilyn 26/09/06
  21.   To Marilyn 13:16  |  Fletch 26/09/06
  22.   for clinkfool #4 - Europe shares disgrace 13:30  |  raymond deane 26/09/06
  23.   # 20- Marilyn..Stop Treating the Pals like your POODLES !!!! 13:32  |  Klaudia 26/09/06
  24.   Some of you are clueless to the facts 13:50  |  Don Saliman 26/09/06
  25.   # 12- Marilyn...Get Off Israel`s Back !! 13:57  |  Klaudia 26/09/06
  26.   I believed you cared - how foolish of me 14:03  |  Cyrus 26/09/06
  27.   two questions- indifference and investment 14:04  |  Mina 26/09/06
  28.   Klaudia The Daily Reality of Israel`s Occupation 14:07  |  Dav 26/09/06
  29.   #18 y.ahmad (Suggest to stop occupation? Ocupation WAS STOPPED) 14:12  |  Vittorio 26/09/06
  30.   Excuse Me? 14:16  |  Marilyn 26/09/06
  31.   clickfool u fool! PA children are put in danger by their parents 14:20  |  arthur 26/09/06
  32.   For Gina # 8, who rates starvation as a weapon of war 14:21  |  Clickfool 26/09/06
  33.   For Raymond Deane #23 - I agree with you 100% 14:27  |  Clickfool 26/09/06
  34.   A Map of Palestine 1946 14:57  |  Marilyn 26/09/06
  35.   Klaudia 14:59  |  Gabe1 26/09/06
  36.   Let them eat Qassams 15:02  |  Asylum Aleikum 26/09/06
  37.   For Marilyn 15:19  |  Clickfool 26/09/06
  38.   Marilyn #34 15:21  |  Gabe1 26/09/06
  39.   clickfool you fibber 15:32  |  harzion 26/09/06
  40.   loathsome clickfool 15:36  |  harzion 26/09/06
  41.   Good,sometimes wicked are also punished 15:37  |  Absolute Sweden 26/09/06
  42.   # 30 Marylin 15:37  |  Proud Israeli Jew 26/09/06
  43.   What about Gilad Shalit???????? 15:37  |  Herbert Kaine 26/09/06
  44.   Klaudia/kibosh ha` adama-"conquest of the land." 15:41  |  Maureen Ann 26/09/06
  45.   # 34 Marilyn 15:49  |  Proud Israeli Jew 26/09/06
  46.   STUPID ARTICLE 15:51  |  CJ 26/09/06
  47.   I see Click Israel is responsible for the world 16:10  |  Jasmine Murphy 26/09/06
  48.   Maral 16:12  |  Margie in Tel Aviv 26/09/06
  49.   You will be so disappointed 16:23  |  Fletch 26/09/06
  50.   # 44-Maureen Ann 16:37  |  Klaudia 26/09/06
  51.   But Fletch, darling 16:38  |  Margie in Tel Aviv 26/09/06
  52.   Even a child can see 16:44  |  Danite 26/09/06
  53.   Margie from Tel Aviv 16:48  |  Fletch 26/09/06
  54.   To Danite 16:53  |  Lebanese in Canada 26/09/06
  55.   To: Marilyn, Clickfool, etc.. Give the Pals a Chance !! 16:56  |  Klaudia 26/09/06
  56.   Let`s Look At This Picture 17:04  |  Yaakov Sullivan 26/09/06
  57.   Didn`t you see a photos of blown up israeli bases, Maureen? 17:07  |  the pope 26/09/06
  58.   Marilyn #34 17:11  |  Gee 26/09/06
  59.   #26 Cyrus 17:14  |  Daniel 26/09/06
  60.   Yonatan`s two things 17:19  |  H50 26/09/06
  61.   Gaza`s plight. 17:23  |  sandra chitayat 26/09/06
  62.   #34 Marilyn, No Proof 17:25  |  CJ 26/09/06
  63.   map of palestine 1946, so where`s the country? 17:30  |  peter 26/09/06
  64.   Gaza is hungry because of the Gazans 17:35  |  Jacob Blues 26/09/06
  65.   Israel also causing starvation in Darfu, India, Ethiopia 17:55  |  Clickfool 26/09/06
  66.   UNRWA must be disbanded 17:57