Word: gaza
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...road that leads to Gaza, a gaudily lettered arch greets travelers with the word WELCOME. But the sights hardly beckon. Watchful Israeli soldiers stand guard as men in gallabiyas ply the road on two-wheeled donkey carts and women in white gauze veils trail their robes through the dust. Melons are sold amid reeking garbage. Rusting wreckage litters the roadsides. The stench of rot and waste is unescapable. Gaza looks like what it is: the last refuge of the dispossessed...
...Gaza has never been anything but occupied territory, in thrall for 500 years to the Ottoman Empire, then to Britain, then Egypt, now Israel. Approximately 28 miles long and five miles wide, Gaza teems with more than 600,000 Palestinians, nearly all of whom fare worse than their 800,000 brethren in the Israeli-occupied West Bank. Wedged between Egypt and Israel, Gaza nonetheless appeared to harbor little of the rebellious anger that seethes in the Palestinian towns in the West Bank. But that is changing. Violent anti-Israel protests have rocked the territory over the past two months. Eight...
After occupying Gaza in 1967, Israel gradually claimed one-third of the strip as "state land" and built 18 Israeli settlements for about 2,200 Jews. Life is far more cramped for Gaza's Palestinians: some 5,440 people occupy each square mile, a density that approaches Hong Kong's. The Jews inhabit a beach-front enclave that is fast growing into an Israeli Riviera. But more than 60% of Gaza's Arabs are refugees, most of whom live in squalid United Nations camps built 40 years ago. In the camp of Nuseirat, Sabha, a 50-year- old woman, finds...
Most Gazans must earn their meager daily bread in Israel. Some 50,000 jam the 44-mile route to Tel Aviv each dawn to sweep streets and haul garbage and build houses. By supplying Israel with cheap labor, Gaza has virtually eliminated unemployment. Even so, Palestinians deeply resent the forced dependence. "We are enslaved," says Rashad Shawwa, 79, mayor of Gaza, who was twice removed from office by Israeli officials. "We have become the servants of Israel...
Israel strictly controls Gaza's commerce, including its primary crops of oranges, lemons and limes, to ensure that the occupied land does not compete with Israel. For security reasons, Israel has limited Gaza's second major industry, fishing, to a narrow slice of the Mediterranean. The result is a retarded economy, with little prospect for growth. Brigadier General Shai Eres, who until last month headed Gaza's civil administration, admits that the shackled economy severely limits the region's prospects. Says Eres: "Of course, there is no independence possible for this area...