I can’t answer my kids’ questions about electricity

Heba Zayyan in Gaza City, The Independent Open House, 22.2.08. For over six months now, the Gaza siege has been causing suffering and various deprivations to a large population in the Gaza Strip. In the last month, electricity has been rare in most of the Gazan houses. On average, we used to get it 8 hours off a day. As irritating and life-confusing as that can be, it did not reach the limit of totally crippling daily activities until the new Israeli measures of stopping the gas and fuel from entering Gaza began. So in the coldest weather that Gaza had experienced since long and during universities final semester’s exams, Gaza sank into complete darkness. So neither electrical or gas heating became available, most bakeries and bread shops closed their doors, few cars were just moving in the streets with almost complete cut-off of transportation from the south and north of Gaza to Gaza City. And don't forget the hospital's shortage of fuel for generators, as of course they have no electricity either, which endangers the lives of so many patients in the ICU unit.

When it comes to functioning inside the house, things get more difficult without electricity with water cut (because it is dependent on the electricity for water generators), and without doubt being not able to use elevators, wash our clothes, watch T.V, or simply socialize or visit others as all people have the same problem. More saddening still, is the complete impotence and black-out we have in answering our kids’ questions about why the electricity is off, or why it is freezing cold in the living room! Getting asked all the time, “Do you have an extra gas cylinder or did you get the electricity at all last night?” adds up to this suffocating feeling of helplessness. In my opinion, this last crisis has magnified the feeling of insecurity and fear inside Gazans’ hearts and minds, knowing that the situation can get even worse at any second. And what’s more difficult than expecting the worst to come?

Actually, the Gaza humanitarian crisis has been ongoing for a while. The siege has crippled people’s lives, turning the day to day living into a struggle. You keep hearing stories about a sick child or a sick mother whose lives, as all human beings, are of a great importance to their families and beloved and who are constantly denied a permit to get outside the Gaza Strip for treatment. The hospitals in Gaza are working full time with very limited equipment and with clear inabilities to treat seriously-ill patients. Students who study abroad are deprived the right to join their universities, and those who apply for scholarships can never meet the deadlines because of lateness of usual mail means.

Prices have skyrocketed for most of the food items and medicine- if any for certain types. Entire sectors were put out of jobs, such as engineers, contractors, and construction workers due to lack or actual inexistence of construction material, adding more and more people to the unemployment list. In a nutshell, the Gaza Strip residents are constantly denied their basic human rights with extremely high rates of poverty and unemployment combined with feelings of dehumanization, negative anticipation, and seclusion.

Heba Zayyan writes a blog from Gaza.