Since 2007 the Gaza Strip has been under an illegal siege imposed unilaterally by Israel in open violation of international humanitarian law. The siege represents a collective punishement for the entire civil population of Gaza, consisting of 1,7 million people, imposing harsh restrictions of movement to people and goods in both directions and isolatineg almost completely the Strip from the rest of the world. 

 

Between the 27 December 2008 and 18 January 2009, Israel conducted the Operation Cast Lead, one of the most violent and brutal military offensive in the history of the occupation, causing the death of 1.419 people, 318 of whom were children. Incalculable damages had been inflicted to the agricultural sector, to industrial factories, to the health, water and electric infrastructures. During the 22 days of the attack the Israeli army destroyed more than 3.500 dwellings and caused the displacement of at least 20.000 people. The border area, called “buffer zone”, was subject to a systematic military action of house demolition and levelling of extended rural areas with the aim of depopulating the whole area.

 

The buffer zone is a completely militarized area imposed by Israel. From the border with Israel it extends inside Gazan territory. Its limit claimed by Israel to be 300 meters is actually undefined. The Israeli army in fact undertakes incursions and shoots at will up to more than a  kilometer inside the Gaza Strip. The buffer zone comprises more than the 35% of the agriculture land of Gaza to which farmers cannot access anymore, without risking their life.

 

This reportage wants to give voice to the families of farmers from the buffer zone that were affected during the war. Collected three years after operation Cast Lead, their testimonies tell how the consequences of the war have marked indedibly the lives of those who lost family members, homes and access to the land. As well as how the lives of entire families and generations of Palestinians have been marked by the Israeli occupation, of which operation Cast Lead is only one of the most drammatic episodes.

 

The aim is not to show poverty, but the impoverishment imposed on these people who with difficulty but with courage react to the loss of everything built  in a lifetime. Their stories tell the surprising strength with whom women and men of Gaza daily resist to the inhumane and soul destroying effects of the siege. A strength that rises from a profound sense of dignity, which in Arabic is karama.