Tag: Eva Bartlett

Piecing the injured back together

Eva Bartlett | Inter Press Service

10 August 2009

Following consultation with him and with the specialist in prosthetics and orthotics rehabilitation from the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC), many will begin the long road to treatment.

“It was the second day of the war,” says Omar Al-Ghrub (24), referring to the three weeks of Israel attacks in the winter of 2008-2009. “I was working that day,” he said. By day he worked in the Al-Waleed marble and granite factory northwest of Gaza city, and by night served as its watchman.

A missile struck, and Ghrub lost both his legs. Six months later, he waits for the stumps to heal enough to begin the process of fitting artificial legs, and learning to walk anew.

Loay Al-Najjar, 22, also lost both his legs. At 11 pm Jan. 13, Najjar was trying to help his sister evacuate a house that had been hit by shelling in the Khoza’a region, east of Khan Younis. “I was hit by a drone missile,” says Najjar. His legs were lacerated with shrapnel. But he is one of the luckier ones; he was able to travel to Saudi Arabia where he received treatment for three months, and artificial legs.

Ghrub and Najjar are among the many waiting for a consultation this particular Saturday. The artificial limb centre is unique in that it makes and fits the limbs on the premises. With the help of staff from the ICRC and Doctors Without Borders (MSF), it also provides physiotherapy and other support.

The centre is overcrowded – it is the only one of its kind. The waiting list has lengthened dramatically since the Israeli attacks on Gaza. Gaza’s Ministry of Health says between 120-150 new patients have had to have amputations following the Israeli attacks on Gaza. Gerd Van de Velde, head of the ICRC’s physical rehabilitation team in Gaza, says the number could rise with patients whose wounds worsen.

“Even now we are getting new patients,” says Van de Velde. “Some patients are having problems with their stumps as they were not cared for properly during their initial treatment due to the hectic situation. At the time, treatment was focussed on life-saving.”

In January 2008, five to ten patients came on a Saturday; now there are at least 30. ICRC figures show that in 2008, 63 patients received 71 prosthetic limbs (some had multiple amputations), and the centre served 1,500 patients. In the first half of 2009, 1,018 patients have come to the centre, 53 for prosthetic limbs.

“We have 146 patients on the waiting list, including 101 with war wounds,” says Van de Velde. “Of these, over 50 percent are above the knee amputations.” Blast injuries become even more complicated, because shrapnel must be extracted from the stump of the limb before it can heal enough for prosthetics treatment.

A few years ago, the centre used its funding to pay all the costs of the materials. Nearly all came from a specialist company in Germany, some were bought at twice their usual price from an Israeli importer.

Now, the ICRC, which began working with the centre in November 2007, supplies most of the materials, buying directly from the manufacturer, and also facilitating transfer through Israel. The centre also gets help from the United Nations Relief and Works Agency (UNRWA), Handicap International and Islamic Relief.

Van de Velde sees early hospital care, or the lack of it, as the origin of the problem for many of the patients. In a crisis, he said, “patients are evacuated quickly to make room for new patients. They did not receive the treatment and follow-up physiotherapy that they needed.”

The ICRC has now taken on a second, hospital-based project. “We’ve started with Shifa hospital, and hope to expand to Gaza’s other hospitals, focussing on quality of post-surgical physiotherapy care and ensuring that patients receive the treatment that they need.” Likewise, MSF is working throughout the Gaza Strip to provide post-operation wounds care and physiotherapy.

At the artificial limbs centre, taking a pause from casting and sculpting limbs, Nabil Farah and Mohammed Ziada, two of four specialists in prosthetics, take turns to demonstrate work at the centre. The specialists have both studied abroad, in Germany and in India, and want the trainees here to be sent for specialised studies. But with the siege on Gaza and the sealed borders, it has become difficult to leave Gaza.

Likewise, says Farah, many specialists want to come to Gaza to train technicians in making and working with prosthetic limbs, but they cannot enter because of the siege. But on Jul. 1, after much coordination with the Israeli authorities, the ICRC was able to send two Palestinians to India for an internationally recognised 18-month training programme. Van de Velde says the ICRC plans to send three more to be trained next year, with the aim of building a pool of qualified technicians.

All sorts of people were injured in the last assault. “During the first and second Intifadas (Palestinian uprisings, 1987-1991 and then from September 2000), most of the injuries were among the shebab (young men),” says Mohammed Ziada. “But in this last war, most of the injuries were people other than shebab: elderly, children, women…”

While the current focus is on people injured in the assault, the artificial limb centre also tackles birth disabilities. “Each month we normally make 20 to 30 braces for straightening legs,” says Farah. “This cures more than 80 percent of patients.”

Farah points to several siege-related difficulties the centre faces. The artificial limb centre uses hundreds of different parts, plastics and materials to make the prosthetic arms and legs. “Without even just one of the materials, the limb cannot be made. We don’t have the materials or the chemicals in Gaza to make the limbs.” Israel often prevents or greatly delays materials from entering, says Farah.

Walking through a storage room, Farah points out various empty shelves. Among clusters of different weaves of stocking net cloth used in the making of limbs, size 10 shelf sits empty. “We haven’t had size 10 for the last month,” Farah says.

Also absent are artificial foot parts L23, unavailable for the last 10 days, and R24 and R25, depleted for the last two months. “We help first those who need help the most,” says Farah.

Gerde Van de Velde says, however, that “not one patient had to wait because of a lack of material.” Items like the cloth can be substituted by a closely related size, he says. He admits there are restrictions on certain chemicals, but adds that these are more related to international law, and delayed by other bureaucratic procedures regarding the transport of chemicals.

Farah cites some sample costs: a below-the-knee prosthetic is about 800 dollars. An above-the-knee limb is twice as much. An arm costs 1,200 dollars. Yet these seemingly expensive limbs cost a fraction of what they might in other countries.

“Our salaries are very low,” says Farah. “We aren’t working for the money, obviously. We’re working for the many Palestinians who need limbs and therapy.”

And still they run these taxis

Eva Bartlett | Inter Press Service

3 August 2009

“It cost over 1,000 dollars. Before the siege, it would have been 500 to 1000 shekels (roughly 125 to 250 dollars), at most 250 dollars. Anyway, I had to buy it; you need to maintain the car when you use it all the time.”

The father of five drives one of Gaza’s many run-down taxis, working round the clock but earning just enough to get by. “I work day and night, but only for 20 shekels (five dollars), or sometimes 50 shekels (12 dollars) per day. That’s only enough to buy food and cover my children’s needs.”

Salleh lists the other expenses his meagre salary will not cover: “I can’t afford a licence or car insurance, they’re very expensive. I’ve gone four years without them. If I have an accident, I could go to jail for not having the licence on insurance.”

Rami Dawoud, translator for Adnan Abu Oada from the Ministry of Transport says the ministry offers discounts to some people whose financial situation is dire. But a licence which costs 100 shekels, and insurance that costs 1,500 shekels or more are beyond the reach of many like Salleh who can’t make ends meet as it is.

Even though six months have passed since Israel’s brutal three-week bombardment of Gaza, Salleh, like many other Palestinians, has not been able to repair the damage. “I can’t replace the windows and doors in my house, they were broken during the war. For the most part you can’t find them in Gaza, and if they’ve been brought in through the tunnels then they’re far too expensive.”

Facing the debt of an unpaid car part, needed insurance, and daily expenses, the driver is considering other ways of making money. “Maybe I’ll have to sell my wife’s only jewellery to pay the bills. Maybe I’ll have to sell our refrigerator and television. That might bring 700 shekels (under 200 dollars).”

Salleh isn’t alone in his financial worries. “It’s not just me. All of the drivers have problems: problems getting spare parts to service our cars; problems earning enough money; even problems giving correct change. Every day I have difficulties because of change: there are almost no half-shekels in Gaza any more.”

The copper pieces equivalent to about 12 cents are indeed scarce in Gaza. This is a part of the siege-induced currency crisis which is affecting all Palestinians in Gaza. “Some customers don’t care about the change. I give others items worth half a shekel, like gum or tissues.

“But some people want the half shekel…maybe they are students, jobless, or poor, so they need it. But what can I do if I can’t find them?”

Awad Zarga has eight people in his family to care for. Two of his children are in university. “Each semester costs 400 dollars per student. My kids need 10 shekels a day to go to and from university and for their expenses.” Zarga drives a taxi which he says earns him 50 shekels on a good day. Within five minutes of driving, the car stalls twice. “It’s the Egyptian petrol,” he says. “It’s no good.” But this fuel which comes through the tunnels is cheaper, at 2.5 shekels a litre. Israeli fuel, when it’s allowed into Gaza, costs six shekels per litre.

Zarga’s route takes him over some of Gaza’s ruddier streets, pot-holed and in need of re-paving. Many of Gaza’s roads have long been in a state of disrepair, or were more recently torn apart by invading Israeli tanks and bulldozers during the war on Gaza.

Issam drives a beat-up two door car. Torn plastic sheeting replaces the rear window, the fumes of cheap gasoline permeate the car. The windshield has two large crack points, obscuring the view outside. Bits of tape are plastered on doors and surfaces, somehow holding things together, including the door panelling.

The left back passenger door must be opened from the outside. And the ignition has stopped working, meaning every time the car is turned on or off it has to be done by hot-wiring it.

“We pay rent for our house. Whatever I earn goes towards our daily needs and the rent. I dream of owning and farming my own land, but with this kind of money that’s impossible,” he says.

Under the Israeli-led siege on Gaza, import of spare parts for all types of machinery including automobiles has largely stopped, save via the tunnels. Replacements are expensive and of poor quality.

Rami Dawoud confirms that no cars, new or used, have been allowed into Gaza in the last three years. Gaza currently has around 45,000 cars, of which many are worn-down, damaged, in need of parts unavailable in Gaza, or on their last legs. According to the Ministry of Transport, 1,197 cars were damaged during the war, another 565 were completely destroyed.

“The only new vehicles we’ve gotten in the past three years have been donations from the convoys entering Gaza or other outside supporters,” said Dawoud. “We used to get spare parts for car maintenance from the West Bank, from Egypt, and from Israel. But that has stopped.”

Nabil, a central Gaza resident, drives only at night. “I can’t afford the insurance,” he says, “and I’m worried that if I drive during the day, the police will stop me and take away my car.”

Before the borders between Gaza and Israel were sealed, Nabil worked as a taxi driver in Israel. When he was relegated to finding work in Gaza’s destroyed economy, he opted like so many others to drive a taxi, one of the few remaining types of work. The 25 years old car he bought for 1,200 dollars suffices for the task, but requires upkeep.

The father of 18 struggles on the 40-50 shekels he can earn per night. From this income, Nabil must spend roughly 200 shekels per month on car maintenance and fuel.

“When I do get stopped by the police, I ask them: ‘How can I pay for the insurance? Where will I get the money? I can barely feed my kids.”

Nabil also fails to pay his water and electricity bills, and cannot afford the wheelchairs his two 18-year-old disabled twins need. Thirteen of his children are in school, and over the school year have different expenses. Four of his sons sometimes get work with fishers, if the haul is good. On such a day they might bring home another 20 shekels for the family’s needs.

If he had the choice, Nabil says he’d take any type of employment. “I just want to work without problems with police, like in construction. Work like anyone else.”

Taxi drivers in Gaza, many of whose former professions are no longer possible, can either wait for the day when borders open, or make do with the cars they have, such as they are.

Well-watered and soldier-free: the good old days on Palestinian farmland

Eva Bartlett | In Gaza

23 July 2009

The young farm worker wasn’t oblivious to the danger: working in the Israeli-imposed “buffer zone” is no task for the faint-hearted. But, like so many, he either needed the paid labour, or his family depends on the land.

The farmers had returned two days after their land was again ravaged by Israeli military bulldozers and tanks: 2 and 4 of each respectively. The war machines ate up the land, finished off a house they’d not quite destroyed the last time, and tore up a water source, the farmers’ well.

The day after the incursion, Yousef, one of the farmers, had dared to peek at the well, doing so furtively although it is on their land. The Israeli army incursion into Abassan Jeddida, just east of southern Gaza’s Khan Younis, had ended the same afternoon it started –July 21st –but the farmers knew all too well that Israeli military jeeps, hummers, tanks and military bulldozers lay just 400 metres away over the Green Line border, and that the Israeli soldiers running the machines are generous with their gunshots.

Yousef’s land lies near that of land where Anwar al-Buraim (27) [**note: al-Buraim is also found transliterated as al-Ibrim] was martyred on January 27th, shot dead by Israeli soldiers as he worked the land. It’s the same land where his cousin Mohammed al-Buraim (20) was shot in the ankle weeks later, also targeted by Israeli soldiers as he worked. The cousins were farm labourers, working to support large, impoverished families living in the region.

From his assessment of the well, Yousef gathered that the reason he couldn’t water his crops was that the motor had been destroyed. The following day, accompanied by ISM human rights workers, two of the farmers set to repairing the razed electrical lines and motor.

As the morning quickly heated up, farmers in nearby fields worked hurriedly to harvest parsley, wanting to finish before the intense heat as well as before any intense Israeli army shooting.

Plump hot chilli peppers and fresh parsley evidence how recent the incursion was: just two days without water, the plants are surviving. Much more and they will begin to wither, like life in the “buffer zone”.

27 dunums (1 dunum=1000 square metres) of chillis and 10 dunums of parsely depend on the destroyed water source.For Palestinians in Gaza, these are two of the most vital ingredients.

The farmers returned unsuccessful, but undefeated: if they can find and afford the parts to repair the motor to the well’s pump, they can re-gain their source of water. But in encaged Gaza, under a full siege which allows less than 40 items into the Strip, finding replacement parts could prove difficult, expensive, and could mean waiting for items to come through the tunnels.

He knows his farming life is hard, dangerous, filled with impossible obstacles…but does the young farm worker know how easy it could be, without the collective punishment of the Israeli army’s indiscriminate shooting at civilians in and beyond the Israeli-imposed‘300m buffer zone’, the burning of cropland, and the destruction of such infrastructure as wells, irrigation piping, greenhouses, farming equipment and tractors? Yes, he knows, he remembers, he longs for those days again. The good days when a chilli ripened under the sun, and was watered and harvested without haste.

Malnutrition begins to bite

Eva Bartlett | Inter Press Service

15 July 2009

“There are some people who buy frozen meat, because it’s much cheaper: 20 shekels (five dollars) per kilo versus 60 shekels for fresh beef.”

According to the 45-year-old father of ten, while business is in general terrible, the better days are early in the month, when those with salaried jobs often receive their pay.

“On average, I might make 200 shekels a day in the first five days of the new month. Before the siege, it was 450 shekels a day. I do have some more regular customers. But they have no money. They keep a tab, and pay when they can.”

Like many Palestinians, Jerjowi used to work in Israel. “When Israel closed the borders, I had no work. So I opened a butcher shop.”

On a normal day, Jerjowi says he only earns at best 100 shekels, not enough to cover the rent of his shop – 4,000 dollars a year – nor that of his family’s homes. “My three sons are all married. Together, our house rents are 200 shekels per month. We’re not earning that money. And there are daily expenses, like electricity and water.”

With unemployment rates at 50 percent in Gaza, and 80 percent of Gazan Palestinians dependent on food aid hand-outs, it’s no wonder that Jerjowi’s business isn’t booming.

But the problem lies not only with Gaza’s siege-shattered economy and the great poverty this has created; it is also the scarcity of beef.

After the three weeks of the Israeli air, land and sea bombardment which killed over 1,400 people, Gaza’s agricultural sector is devastated, and that includes the beef farmers. The United Nations Development Project reports that 17 percent of Gaza’s livestock and nearly ten percent of the poultry were killed during the war. And even before the Israeli attacks, in November 2008 Gaza’s Ministry of Agriculture was already warning of a “real food disaster” due to the siege on animal feed and livestock, directly affecting the well-being of what livestock did exist in Gaza.

Gazan Palestinians have tried to make up for the deficit of cattle by bringing calves and sheep through the tunnels from Egypt. Yet, the prices are high, above the budgets of most.

On Jun. 19, for the first time since Oct. 31 2008, Israel allowed livestock into Gaza: 15 trucks. This number falls far below not only the nutritional needs of Gaza’s residents, but also the capacity of the border crossing to receive trucks.

In 2008 and 2007, according to the Office for Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA) the monthly total of livestock trucks entering Gaza varied from 20 to 207, keeping with the trend of severely restricting Gaza’s livestock imports under the Israeli-led siege.

Prior to Jun. 19, the only cattle shipment overland into Gaza was on Oct. 31 2008, with a monthly total 78 trucks…to last nearly nine months. The Coordinator of the Israeli Government Activities in the Territories (COGAT) previously suggested an amount of 300 cows weekly as the minimum for the nutrition of Gaza’s 1.5 million people.

According to the UN and various non-governmental organisations, the trickle of goods entering Gaza now is just a quarter of that prior to the siege, the majority of which is limited to basic food aid items. The aid-dependent families have moved from a balanced diet to one consisting mainly of sugar and carbohydrates, lacking in vitamins and proteins.

The World Health Organisation (WHO) cites an increase in growth-stunting malnourishment, now at over 10 percent of children, attributed to a chronic lack of protein, iron, and essential vitamins. The WHO further warns of increasing anaemia rates: 65 percent among children below 12 months of age, and 35 percent among pregnant women.

The United Nations Children’s Fund (Unicef), the World Health Organisation (WHO), and Gaza’s Ard Al-Insan centre for nutrition, among various bodies, note the link between malnutrition and a deficiency of protein and vegetables in the diet.

An International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) June 2009 report notes that the effects of a restricted diet also include “difficulty in fighting off infections, fatigue and a reduced capacity to learn.” The ICRC warns of the long-term ramifications on Gaza’s malnourished children.

In June 2009, 38 NGOs, including Oxfam, Care World Vision, and UN bodies, called for an end to the siege, citing the need for normalised trade with Gaza. The ICRC June report likewise called for resumption of imports and exports, but warned that the situation has deteriorated to an extent that Gaza will need years to recover.

For Yousef al Jerjowi, who has scaled down his opening hours due to the lack of customers, the siege couldn’t end soon enough. Jerjowi’s three sons work in his shop, saving him 40 shekels daily wages for an employee. “If my sons didn’t work here, I’d have to close the shop.”

Finding fish, but Israelis too

Eva Bartlett | Inter Press Service

1 July 2009

At 6am on Jun. 16, Sadallah and his brother Abdel Hadi Sadallah, in their early twenties, went roughly 400 metres out to sea off the coast of Sudaniya in Gaza’s northwest. “We wanted to bring in nets we had left out the night before,” says Sadallah.

Their small fishing boat, known as a hassaka, was in Palestinian fishing waters when three Israeli navy boats approached the brothers.

“After they opened fire on us, we paddled about three kilometres west where a larger Israeli gunboat was waiting. When we were about 30 metres from the gunboat, Israeli soldiers ordered us to take off our clothes, jump into the water, and swim towards them.”

The gunboat, Sadallah said, moved half a kilometre away after the two fishermen had jumped into the water. “We swam for about 15 minutes to reach it,” he said. “Then they took us aboard and handcuffed and blindfolded us.” In illegal detention later in Israel’s Ashdod port, the two were interrogated, but not charged. They were released at the Erez crossing more than 14 hours after their abduction.

The Sadallahs’ hassaka remains in Ashdod, along with what Palestinian fishermen attest are an increasing number of their fishing vessels.

The hassaka will cost 4,000 shekels (about 1,000 dollars) to replace, double the normal price because of the siege on Gaza. The missing nets cost more: 6,000 shekels. “And fishing is our only source of income,” the now jobless Sadallah says.

Jihad Sultan, also from Sudaniya, spoke of his abduction by the Israeli navy a month earlier, on May 27.

“It’s the third time I was abducted,” he said. “The Israelis accused me of crossing into the ‘no-go zone’, but I didn’t.” In Ashdod, Sultan said he saw “a building filled with nets which I’m sure are stolen Palestinian nets.”

Zaki Taroush and his 17-year-old son Zayed were fishing 600 metres off the coast and 200 metres south of the closed zone the same day Sultan was abducted. They were likewise forced under the live fire of Israeli soldiers to paddle their hassaka west to a waiting Israeli gunboat where they underwent the same, standard, procedure: strip, swim, abduction, handcuffing and blindfolding.

In detention, they were accused of being in off-limits waters, in what is known as the ‘K’ zone. Tarroush had been abducted along with seven other fishermen just three months earlier, on Mar. 13, under similar circumstances, also losing his net when Israeli soldiers cut the ropes. Following that abduction, the Israelis kept his hassaka, returning it nearly two months later, the 150 shekels transport of which he had to pay.

Under the Oslo interim agreement, Palestinian fishermen were accorded a 20 nautical mile fishing limit, one which Israel has since repeatedly, unilaterally, downsized to as little as three miles.

In Sudaniya, Jihad Sultan explains his work on a beached, broken hassaka. “This was taken by the Israelis. When it was returned to us, it had been badly damaged. I’m certain it was dropped on cement,” he said, pointing to long splits in the wood. “It needs to be entirely rebuilt.”

One of the problems now, Sultan explained, is the lack of materials for repairing the boat. “It will cost nearly 3,500 just to repair the boat.” Fishing nets also are comprised of several unavailable or highly expensive parts.

“The steel bits on the netting cost 15 shekels a kilo, versus six shekels before the siege. But they are very hard to find now. Rope used to cost 20 shekels per 100 metres, but now it’s 50 shekels and completely unavailable. Sometimes it is brought through the tunnels, but the quality is poor. Even the buoys which hold the nets up are triple the price, at two shekels apiece, and can’t be found in Gaza.”

With so many parts unavailable in Gaza, Sultan said that to make a ‘new’ net fishermen sew together bits from old nets. To worsen matters, “when the Israeli soldiers don’t find any fishermen to arrest, they often cut or take our nets.”

On the beach near Sultan’s broken hassaka, Awad Assaida’s bullet-latticed hassaka sits unused, waiting for repairs. “I was in the boat when the Israelis attacked,” said Salim Naiman. “They shot at me for around 30 minutes, from all around me.” Naiman said that when the Israelis finally left, a Palestinian fishing launch nearby towed the boat to shore. Over 50 bullet holes punctured the sides, top and interior of the hassaka. The attacks are by no means limited to the northern areas, but occur all along Gaza’s coast. Nor are the attacks limited to recent times – they go at least a decade back. The Israeli navy’s policy of assault and intimidation has killed at least six fishermen in the last four years, including Hani Najjar, shot in the head by Israeli soldiers in October 2006 while fishing roughly 2.5 miles off the coast of Deir Al-Balah.

Since Jan. 18 this year when the assault on Gaza ended, five fishermen are known to have been wounded at sea, five more injured on the shore, more than 40 abducted, at least 17 boats taken, and dozens more damaged. Of the boats that have been returned, all have suffered damage or theft of equipment while in custody of the Israeli authorities.

Sultan believes one reason for the severe attacks on Palestinian fishermen is political. “The water near the ‘K’ area is rich in fish. The Israelis know this and don’t want Palestinian fishermen benefiting from it. It’s part of the siege.”