The folks in Gaza seem to be getting it from all sides--Israel, Hamas, Egypt, and anyone else who seems to want a piece of the misery action. Currently, Gaza is under a blockade by the Israeli government. Documents revealed in a court case earlier this month revealed the list of items that Israel allows to be imported to Gaza. The Israeli human rights group, Gisha, filed suit against the government "to squeeze information from the state about what exactly is allowed for import to Gaza, and why."
Few, if any independent analysts believe the permitted items to be sufficient. To that end, several humanitarian missions have gone to Gaza to try to alleviate the situation there, as well as garner public relations victories. The current mission, named the Freedom Flotilla, is attempting to bring in several thousand pounds of foodstuffs, medicine, building materials, and other supplies. Israel has said they will stop the flotilla, arguing that there are prohibited items aboard.
Now, to make matters worse, Hamas and like-minded fundamentalists are strengthening their own death grip on the beleaguered residents.
Most Daily Kos observers of the conflict are already aware of home demolitions conducted by the Hamas authorities in Gaza. Earlier this month, Hamas destroyed twenty or so homes, arguing they had been illegally built on government land. This brought comparisons to past actions by Israel against Palestinian home owners:
"Hamas has proven to be identical to the Israeli occupation," Ahmed Assaf, a spokesman for the rival Fatah movement of Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas, said on Tuesday. Fatah lost the Gaza Strip to Hamas in fighting in 2007.
Israeli forces often carried out home demolitions in the southern Gaza town of Rafah, along the Egyptian border, during a Palestinian uprising that began in 2000, saying the dwellings provided cover for militants.
In today's Ha'aretz, we learn that there are more demolitions expected to build a religious center. These demolitions had begun earlier but were halted because of public outcry. Now, the Palestinian Center for Human Rights believes they will resume:
The Hamas government in the Gaza Strip plans to raze another 180 Palestinian houses, on top of the 20 it recently demolished in the southern town of Rafah, the Palestinian Center for Human Rights charged on Thursday.
The 20 houses already destroyed were home to some 150 people, who are now homeless and living in tents, the organization said.
The government said it razed the houses because they were built illegally on government land. The organization said that Hamas plans to use the same pretext to demolish houses in Khan Yunis and other towns.
As if it couldn't get worse, religious zealots destroyed the U.N.'s summer camp on the grounds that the activities at the camp were immoral:
Masked gunmen attacked a U.N.-run summer camp for children on Sunday after militants in the Gaza Strip accused the United Nations of promoting immorality in the religiously conservative enclave controlled by Hamas Islamists.
About 20 men, some carrying assault rifles, tore up large plastic tents and burned storage facilities at the site, where tens of thousands of children are due to attend camp sessions, said Ibrahim Elewa, a private guard who was on duty when they struck.
Two days earlier, a previously unknown militant group, "The Free of the Homeland," issued a statement criticizing the camp's organizer, the United Nations Relief and Works Agency (UNRWA), for, "teaching schoolgirls fitness, dancing and immorality."
Despite pledging to punish the perpetrators of this crime, Hamas has already "made its own move against what it viewed as immoral conduct, sending police to break up the Gaza Strip's first major hip-hop concert. It said organizers failed to get a permit."
Given the growing malfeasance and misfeasance by Hamas, one might think Israel would be well-advised to allow in the humanitarian goods mentioned at the beginning of this diary. Improving the lives of the besieged here would lessen the power and influence of groups like Hamas, "The Free of the Homeland," and other religious fanatic and terrorist organizations.