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SUNDAY 13 JULY 2014 • [email protected] • www.thepeninsulaqatar.com • 4455 7741 inside Dawn of the COMMUNITY Planet of the • The Pearl-Qatar hosts Qatar Charity’s Apes serves up Al Baraha Ramadan tent thrilling action P | 4 P | 8-9 MARKETPLACE • Aster Medical Centre opens new CT scan unit P | 5 HEALTH • Combining vaccines may help eradicate polio P | 7 WHEELS • Nissan NV200 van: The latest trend out of New York? P | 11 RAMADAN IN TECHNOLOGY • Digital warriors battle to get African GAZA games on phones P | 12 Life under missile-fire LEARN ARABIC Over a hundred have died — mostly women • Learn commonly and children in their own homes — and food used Arabic words prices are rising fast as supplies dry up. and their meanings P | 13 2 PLUS | SUNDAY 13 JULY 2014 COVER STORY Gaza families caught in a tragic catch-22 BY PETER BEAUMONT Al-Azhar Park — next to the univer- deemed safer from bomb blasts. For the 1.8 sity of the same name — and Barcelona In Israel’s intensive bombing cam- N GAZA’S largely deserted park with its climbing frames, lawns paign of the Gaza Strip, and more than million people streets, the first thing you and basketball courts, are empty. 100 Palestinians have been killed, many living in Gaza, notice is the absence of chil- The few children who are outside of them children. More than 670 are dren. The beach, usually play in the sheltered spaces between injured. Families here have settled into this means crowded on Friday afternoons, tall apartment blocks and the narrow a tense wartime regime, a daily rou- is empty save for a handful of lanes of the poorer neighbourhoods, a tine hard-learned from Israel’s pre- that long Ifishermen casting hand nets into the few feet from their doors under the vious military campaigns of 2008-09 surf next to the harbour wall. watchful eyes of their parents: places and 2012. Ramadan days Unlike Israel, there are no bomb shelters in Gaza. There are no sirens will continue to to warn of incoming missiles and no Iron Dome to shoot them down. The be defined by only warning, and one provided only intermittently, is that from those drop- limited exposure ping the bombs — supplied by phone, text or a warning shot to the roof. to the open air. Under the ever-present hum of circling drones, squeal of jets, bomb- blasts and the thud of naval gunfire from the sea, most women and children are stuck indoors, often in buildings without electricity. strikes have been in accordance with These. Afraid to leave their homes international humanitarian law and when the Israeli warplanes do drop international human rights law.” their bombs on Gaza’s neighbourhoods, The Israeli prime minister, Binyamin it is the women and children sheltering Netanyahu, has rejected the criticism in the buildings where they instinc- of international and local human rights tively feel safest who are dying. groups and vowed to continue with the Israel has said it is training its mis- campaign. siles on Gaza’s homes – a practice the “No international pressure will pre- United Nations Human Rights Office vent Israel from continuing its opera- says may violate international law – tion in Gaza … The leaders of Hamas because Hamas and other militants are are hiding behind the citizens of Gaza, hiding inside. and they are responsible for all casual- “We have received disturbing reports ties,” he said. that many of the civilian casualties, For the 1.8 million people living in including of children, occurred as a Gaza, this means that long Ramadan result of strikes on homes,” Ravina days – from before dawn until the late Shamdasani, a UN spokeswoman bedtime traditional during the fasting said on Thursday. “Such reports raise month – will continue to be defined by doubts about whether the Israeli air limited exposure to the open air. PLUS | SUNDAY 13 JULY 2014 3 Gaza City’s central Firas market is usually packed with shoppers shoul- A Palestinian family stands at der to shoulder, looking for fruit and the balcony of their house as vegetables after noon prayers. This they look at a neighbouring Friday a few people were bustling building which was targeted along its lanes. Hamdi Haboush, 63, sat in an Israeli military strike in outside the hardware store where he Gaza City. sells brush heads and squeegees, spice racks and spades. “I haven’t had any customers at all today,” he said. “I only opened because I couldn’t bear staying in the house. There are 50 of my family in our building, including twenty grandchildren. “It’s only really me who is going to early prayers at the moment [at four in the morning]. But it’s the most frightening time for bombs so I walk close to the walls on my way to mosque. “Otherwise no-one is going out. There’s no work and nothing to do. Nowhere safe to go. Everyone is in a state of panic wondering when a bomb will fall. “We have two metres square of space where the younger children can play. Last night some of the grandchildren came to me and said: ‘Why are you going to open your shop? It’s scary.’ But I have to come out to change my mood.” No-one is going out. Other men standing or sitting by their empty shops and stalls said the There’s no work and same. There is no money to be made – only relief from households going nothing to do. Nowhere said. “Our older children stay at home “crazy”. with the youngest. The prices are the If, as Haboush says, early morning biggest problem. There is no fish,” prayers are quiet, a steady stream of safe to go. Everyone is in he added, indicating a shuttered fish men and older boys filed in to the main stall. “And because it is so hard for the mosque in Radwan for Friday prayers. a state of panic wondering farmers to harvest and bring their pro- Mahmoud Karazem, 30, arrived late duce to the market, some prices have and in a hurry. He has grown used to when a bomb will fall. quadrupled.” the bombs over the years and different Others who had ventured out campaigns: “It’s normal.” Life under explained the judgement call: Roads advanced missile-fire is not yet normal used it, but sometimes it doesn’t work.” community and “the silence of the exposed to the sea, and therefore for his wife and two young toddlers. The imam began his sermon with a Arab world”. Mahmoud Khalija went to Israel’s naval gunships, are to be “My wife is at home with the chil- message to worshippers that they were to buy groceries after midday prayers. avoided. Roads bordering farmland dren. They are one and a half and engaged in a fight of “good against evil”. A worker at Gaza City’s Shifa hospital, where rockets are launched, are driven almost three. I try to reassure them Ramadan “is a time of victories” he he said he is attempting to go about his through quickly, if at all. but when a bomb explodes it bursts said before condemning the complic- life as “normally as possible”. In Gaza, wealth cannot inoculate the bubble. I cuddle them to get them ity of America and the international “My wife is going to work too,” he you from fear. In affluent neighbourhoods, where the buildings are taller and more widely spaced, the sound of A Palestinian woman carries a small the dropping missiles rings more loudly child as she makes her way through rub- and clearly than in the huddled, poorer ble in front of the destroyed Al Tawfeeq neighbourhoods and refugee camps. They are also closer to the naval boats mosque following an airstrike in Al pounding the coast with artillery fire. Nusairat refugee camp in the central In Tal Al Hawa, a neighbour- Gaza Strip. hood hit hard in the 2008-09 conflict, Hazem Farwana, 38, a baker, is mak- ing Ramadan pancakes. He and his son Samir, 12, sell them for a £1.50 a kilo from a stall in front of a falafel takeaway. Pancakes are the treat of any Iftar meal at the end of a day of fasting. They are served with nuts, cheese or dates and normally eaten before families go out visiting, sitting up late into the night. But Farwana and his wife have not gone visiting this week: “We are not living a normal life. “People are stuck indoors. All they can do is eat. I have four children under 16 — I won’t let them go too far from home.” As he spoke, a bomb exploded in the distance, close enough for a shock- wave to rattle the window frames over- head. Suddenly philosophical, Farwana added: “If I am going to die then I will die. I can die in the open as easily as I can indoors.” THE GUARDIAN 4 PLUS | SUNDAY 13 JULY 2014 COMMUNITY/MARKETPLACE Almuftah conducts roadshows of Sharp Intelligent Touch Board HARP Middle East and endeavour to create the best interac- Almuftah Trading & tive experience for employees and stu- Contracting WLL, part of dents,” according to Tomoo Shimizu, Almuftah Group, conducted Director Business Solutions Division road shows at Tornado of Sharp Middle East & Africa. STower and Qatar Foundation to pre- Ibrahim A Al Muftah, Managing view the latest Sharp Intelligent Touch Director of Almuftah Group, said: Board (ITB) for corporate, educational “The road show at Tornado Tower was & training establishments.

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