By Katya Adler
BBC News, Gaza
Mariam al-Sharif was born a year ago into a world of conflict and violence.
Her extended family marks her first birthday, crowding around a cake with one pink candle on it**.**
The walls of their front room in northern Gaza are still riddled with bullet and mortar shell holes.
Israel began a three-week long assault on Gaza a couple of hours after Mariam came into the world.
“*Life is hard for my daughter - we still live in fear in Gaza and there is no hope that life will get better *”
Saadiyia al-Sharif,
Gaza resident
Panic and chaos spread throughout Gaza’s main hospital as the dead and injured piled up in the corridors.
Born prematurely, Mariam stayed at the hospital in an incubator, but the overwhelmed doctors could not give her the care she needed.
Nor could Mariam’s mother.
I met Saadiyia al-Sharif just after the war - so happy to cradle her daughter again. They had been separated until Israel’s soldiers left the strip.
The hospital wanted her bed for the wounded.
Once out of hospital, Mrs Sharif was unable able to return as Israeli troops surrounded her house for the duration of the offensive.
Now, she says, she holds Mariam all the time. She cannot bear to let her out of her sight.
But the experience left physical, not just psychological scars.
One year on, Mariam is still undersize and underweight.
Limited supplies
We accompanied her and her mother to a United Nations clinic.
Mariam is examined regularly here but the medicine she needs is often not available. Mariam’s mother blames Israel’s blockade, still in place on Gaza.
GAZA CONFLICT CASUALTIES
- Total Palestinian deaths:
1,409 (PCHR)
1,387 (B’Tselem)
1,166 (Israeli military) - Palestinian children killed:
326 (under 17, PCHR)
252 (under 16, B’tselem)
89 (under 16, Israeli military) - Palestinian civilians killed:
916* (PCHR)
773* (B’tselem)
295 plus 162 unknown (Israeli military) - Israelis killed:
3 civilians
10 security forces (includes 4 by friendly fire)
*Figs exclude about 250 Hamas police officers
PCHR=Palestinian Human Rights Centre, B’Tselem=Israeli human rights group
Voices: Gaza, one year on
Two families struggle to recover
Gallery: Impact on Gaza children
Locals return to rocket-hit towns
Most medicines are allowed into the territory, but their transfer can be slowed by Israeli and Palestinian bureaucracy, and the entry of medical equipment and other supplies is limited.
The World Health Organization says that at the end of November 2009, 125 of 480 essential drugs were at “zero level”, meaning there was less than one month’s stock left.
Israel says the military operation was - and the continuing blockade is - targeted at Hamas, not Gaza’s civilians.
The Islamic movement has controlled Gaza since June 2007, and has launched thousands of rockets and mortars into Israel in recent years.
After weighing and measuring Mariam, Dr Salim Ramadan told us of the frustrations of being a doctor in Gaza.
He said Mariam’s case was typical.
He often prescribes medicines to patients that either turn out not to be available in Gaza or that have been smuggled through tunnels under the border with Egypt, but at such a cost that few Gazans can pay.
Egypt also keeps its border with Gaza almost entirely closed.
“What to do” he asked. “We have 65% of people living here under the poverty line and the situation is just getting worse.”
Fears for the future
Mrs Sharif is also exasperated. As a mother, she should be able to provide for her daughter, she says, but she could not give Mariam her breast milk when she was born as they were kept apart by the war.
Now, a year later, she still cannot protect her - economically, medically or in terms of safety.
"Life is hard for my daughter. We still live in fear in Gaza and there is there is no hope that life will get better. There’s no proper education. No playgrounds she can play in.
“She wants to be like the kids in the Western world, to play, to have complete freedom. In the future if she wants to travel, if she wants a normal life, she can’t have this in Gaza. Israel’s siege controls our lives.”
Twelve months after Israel’s military operation, Gaza is still battered and bruised. Hamas, Israel’s enemy, remains in power.
Mariam’s family, like so many others here, say they trust no-one and fear for the future.