Ahmad Kabariti talks to workers across Gaza on May Day to find out what they think of the labor holiday. Most are just happy to be working. Maged al-Dali, 27, an auto painter working in an industrial zone in Shejaiya tells him, “If you work, you are lucky, if not, then you starve.”
Five brothers in the Abu Jazar family in Gaza have suffered serious injuries in the year since the March of Return protests began. Their father Mohammed Abu Jazar says he has no power to stop his sons from demonstrating. “They are natural protesters against injustice.”
Gaza is also unlivable for animals. Four Paws, an animal rescue organization, transported 40 animals to Jordan from a zoo in Rafah after years of poor keeping conditions. The animals include peacocks, ostriches, wolves, monkeys, squirrels, lions, dogs, cats, foxes, porcupines and a hyena. The lions will go on to South Africa.
On Monday, Israel doubled the area where Palestinians can fish in the Mediterranean Sea off of the Gaza Strip as part of Egyptian brokered talks with Hamas. The distance fisherman can operate in was extended from 6 nautical miles at the narrowest sea corridor, to 15 nautical miles at the widest. Yet Gaza fisherman say the relaxed restriction has no impact.
Human waves flooded the Israel-Gaza fence beginning Saturday morning marking the first anniversary of the Great March of Return protests, facing off against Israeli forces behind the fortified barbed-wire fence. The demonstrators gathered despite rain, and even as Egypt is seeking to mediate a deal to end the blockade of Gaza.
Ahmad Kabariti reports from Gaza that long spontaneous queues of people spent the night waiting outside of Gaza’s biggest bakery to buy bread, a scene that usually occurs during war. Muzaffar Batniji, 27, shoemaker, said that his family urged him to buy 200 loaves of pita bread, “just in case of this escalation might continue for a week or more.”
Israel topped the Gaza fence with 10 added feet of barbed wire in anticipation of the million demonstrators called to mark the one year anniversary of the Great March of Return next week. Despite the added fence, soldiers killed two Palestinian men at demonstrations yesterday, bringing the number of dead to 257.
After rockets fired from Gaza landed near Tel Aviv Friday morning, Israel launched 100 raids on the enclave. And the organizers of the Great March of Return suspended the demonstrations in their 51st week out of concern for safety of protesters.
Ahmad Kabariti reports from the 50th week of the Great March of Return, which took place on International Women’s Day.
“What new year are you talking about bro?” said Samar Al-Atrash, 33, a mother of seven children living in a Gaza refugee camp on December 31, 2018. “You need a wizard’s wand to change this misery.” Much of Gaza is impoverished, but conditions are even worse in the camp.