Gazans do not blame Hamas

Gazans who survived the battering inflicted by Israel's 22-day military campaign, codenamed Operation Cast Lead, are venturing out and trying to pick up the pieces of their lives.

"People are feeling dazed and confused. Many are desperately trying to contact family members and friends on the few remaining phone lines that operate to see if they are still alive or if they are injured," Abdallah al-Agha from Khan Younis in the south of Gaza told IPS.

"Others are leaving UN shelters for the first time in days to see if and what remains of their homes," added al-Agha.

Elena Qleibo, a Gaza-based aid worker from Oxfam and an ex-Costa Rican ambassador to Israel, said parts of Gaza resembled an apocalypse.

"The destruction wrought on Beit Lahiya, in northern Gaza, and the Zeitoun suburb in eastern Gaza city is immense," Qleibo told IPS. "The sewage is flowing in the streets. Electricity pylons, water and sewage works, municipal and medical buildings, and homes have been leveled."

Initial estimates state that 15 percent or 20,000 of the Gaza Strip's buildings have been damaged, with nearly 30,000 Palestinians forced to find shelter in the UN agency for Palestine refugees (UNRWA) shelters and with family.

Nearly 1,300 Gazans lost their lives, around a third of these children, with a total of more than half of the deaths civilian. The number of injured is pushing 4,000.

"People are extremely angry and the level of hate against Israel is very high. I have lived and worked in Gaza for many years and I have never seen such hatred from the population," said Qleibo.

Gazans are not blaming Hamas, contrary to Israel's wishes. "People laugh at Israel's claims that this was a war against the Islamic resistance organization and not one aimed at civilians."

"They see this as a war against all Palestinians. The number of civilians killed and maimed and the destruction wrought was way too extreme," said Qleibo.

"The scale of death and destruction is most definitely counter-productive. Throughout this conflict so many experts and global leaders have highlighted there is no military solution to this conflict -- an effective political solution is needed," John Ging, the head of Gaza's UNRWA, told Maan News Agency.

UNRWA's main compound in Gaza City, which feeds 750,000 Gazan refugees, half of the total population, was destroyed in an Israeli attack 15 January.

Ging said that 50 aid trucks entered Gaza Saturday, the day Israel announced its unilateral ceasefire.

"But we need hundreds of trucks. The needs are growing exponentially and the pipeline for humanitarian supplies is very narrow. Even those, such as Palestinian Authority (PA) employees, who were not dependent on UNRWA assistance, have become dependent. There is nothing on the market and there is no cash," Ging told Maan.

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