Jerome Delay started this project… it’s accessible through the Msnbc website. Captions are theirs.
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Gaza City at dusk: 1.3 million Palestinians live in the Gaza Strip amid Israel, Egypt and the Mediterrenean Sea. During the past three years of violence with Israel, the people of the strip have been hemmed into an area a few miles wide and 20 miles long, ringed by fences, barbed wire and watchtowers. In these pictures, Associated Press photojournalist Jerome Delay documents life in the Gaza Strip in late September 2003.
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Maher, a 35-year-old gold trader, sits outside his shop in Gaza City’s Gold Market. The Gazan economy has been shattered by years of border closures and violence.
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A Palestinian child stares at gunmen demonstrating in Beit Lahiya, Gaza Strip. Roughly half of the residents of the Gaza Strip are under 15 years old.
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Islamic Jihad gunmen walk through traffic on the periphery of a demonstation in the Beach refugee Camp, home to some of the 850,000 Palestinian refugees who have registered with U.N. relief agencies in the Gaza Strip.
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Fresh blood from a Palestinian killed by Israeli soldiers Sept. 25 stains the wall in a house that was raided by Israeli forces overnight in the Bureij refugee camp. Two Palestinians were killed during the raid to arrest Islamic Jihad and Hamas militants. Five Israeli soldiers were wounded.
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Palestinian women weep as the remains of Nour Abo Ermanah, 19, killed during the Sept. 25 raid, are brought to his home in the Bureij refugee camp.
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A Catholic nun prays during Sunday evening Mass at Gaza City's Der El Latin Church.
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Palestinians in Gaza tend to be more conservative and devout than those in the slightly more prosperous West Bank. Islam is a dominant force: Most women wear headscarves, and most men attend Friday prayers like these held in front of a closed shop because a mosque nearby is full.
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A Palestinian police officer takes part in a mock kidnap-and-rescue operation during graduation ceremonies for cadets in Gaza City. The Palestinian Authority doesn't have military troops, but it does have a public protection force and a civil police force. Their inability to stop attacks against Israeli settlements in Gaza and rocket attacks against nearby Israeli towns is Israel's justification for frequent military incursions into the strip.
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Clothes for sale are displayed in a makeshift store under tobacco advertisements in downtown Gaza City. The billboards proclaim "Your Best Choice," while warning of the the health hazards of smoking.
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Palestinian children gather near a house that was raided by Israeli forces in the Bureij refugee camp on Sept. 25. The grafitti say, in part: "Jerusalem Brigades: We are the Martyr's troops." The Jerusalem Brigade is an arm of Islamic Jihad, a militant group that has claimed responsibility for suicide attacks against Israeli civilians.
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Though a dip in the sea provides a diversion for these Palestinians in Gaza City, environmental issues like desertification, salination of fresh water, water-borne disease and soil degradation compound the hardship of life in the strip.
did you hear some of the voiceovers? one place where he says how its hard not to feel for their pain because its so genuine, he sounds so defensive. i wonder why.