The Gaza Strip: Life Under the Power of Terror. Without the right to a normal life: the blockade in the Gaza Strip continues for the tenth year Interesting stories from life in the Gaza Strip

Today I invite you to visit the city of Gaza, to look at it also through the eyes of Arab photographers, to make sure that the inhabitants of the so-called "occupied territory" even live well ...

Moreover, "occupied Gaza" is in the top 100 countries in terms of living standards. (information provided by a colleague a95t ) and occupy an honorable hundredth place . The Arabs of Gaza (Palestinian is a fictional nationality after 1967) even got along pretty well. They live just as well as oil-rich Azerbaijan, which is one position higher and unequivocally, the Arabs of Gaza live much better than their brothers in Syria, Algeria and Egypt, who constantly call for the release of "gas workers" from occupation ..
It’s time for them to write letters to the Knesset themselves with pleas for the occupation of their own territories by Israel ...
In the meantime, let's take a short tour, Arab photographers are already ready to show off their "occupied" city:

Panoramic photos, so to speak ... (in a selection of photos of different sizes.).

And this is a view of Gaza from the sea ...

As we can see, many "blockade" have their own yachts ...

A cozy restaurant, right on the beach, where the “starving” city admires the sunset…

Let's not forget that the city is located in the desert, but there is greenery all around ...

A view of the bay, where every morning exhausted, ragged, hungry children come to meet Turkish ships carrying, in addition to food, also cement for the construction of ... houses, because the city was wiped off the face of the earth by the damned Zionists ...

This is what Gaza looks like at night. The Israelis will tell you how much gas workers pay for a kilowatt / hour of electricity, but probably it is free for them ...

After constant rallies against the occupation, the gas workers simply need to relax in the cool, on the seashore, in a cozy restaurant, starve while looking at the menu ...

Hungry fishermen cut through the free gasoline provided by the occupiers along the coastline, on which expensive houses stand ... By the way, no housing offices or cooperatives, everything is privately owned ...
What does it mean a house in private ownership is not necessary to explain?

And it was an “occupation” bomb that fell into the park, now a holy spring is beating right out of the ground ...

One of the streets... With magnificent houses…

And this is the hospital of the Red Crescent ... A miserable medical assistant's station, like in some Siberian town a thousand miles from the railway ...

Here I would like to make a small digression... And how many Russians, who tirelessly curse the Israeli military, the Zionist occupiers, demand to lift the blockade from Gaza, have something like this housing?
After all, driving a hundred kilometers from Moscow or St. Petersburg can generally get stuck, because there are no roads at all and people live in barracks, maybe the Russians will stop looking at what is happening thousands of kilometers away from them, not demanding, calling names and threatening Jews, but rather demand from their government that they live, as in the "blockade" Gaza?
Come out to Red Square, not to the Israeli embassy and wear slogans there: “I want to live., As in besieged Gaza!”

During the Zionist blockade, every Arab has the opportunity to play in the stadium .. Take a break from malnutrition and life in communal apartments, Khrushchev, barracks and sheds ...

Well, when something happens, when the finger hurts from the fact that many times the Kalasha trigger was pressed, when diarrhea, and when scrofula, every Arab will end up in such a modern hospital, where doctors educated at European universities will definitely help him ...
Under one of these clinics, the leadership of Hamas is constantly hiding, afraid of being destroyed by the Israelis...
Speaking of doctors from European countries…
Why do you think they go there and who exactly goes there?
Once upon a time, my colleague Berge Mevoldo received an interesting job offer in Darfur with a very high salary, but he politely refused, so he told me who exactly was going to work as doctors, for some reason we were talking about doctors traveling to work in Africa, in “occupied” Gaza… Those who did not find work in their homeland go… Berhe smiled slyly and asked: “Can you imagine a good doctor not finding a job in Germany, France or the States? A good doctor does not need to go anywhere. A good doctor at home will earn a lot, he does not need handouts from any humanitarian organizations, even very large ones ....” You can read about the adventures of my colleague.

Well, we continue our journey through Gaza, since Arab photographers have directly hired to dispel our ideas about such concepts as "occupation" or "blockade".

And even they have factories, probably working ...

Today is Sunday, which means it's time for a foreign photo trip. A hot, but not the most favorable country for holidays awaits us, seen through the eyes of a TV journalist Grigory Bedenko.

In the Gaza Strip, we filmed material for a documentary film for the next inter-confessional congress in Astana. To be honest, I don’t want to go into the intricacies of the bloody Palestinian-Israeli conflict, you can write about it endlessly, and, moreover, the point of no return in this conflict was passed 40-50 years ago, which today makes any smart writing completely useless. In this report, some of my subjective impressions, which I tried to convey in photographs. I want to warn you right away that I do not pretend to be the ultimate truth and everything filmed and written is solely my personal point of view.

In Gaza, I met a wonderful man, VGTRK correspondent Tarek Alyan. He is in the center of the picture. Tarek was our guide, he speaks excellent Russian, studied in Samara at the Institute of Culture. His wife is an ethnic Kazakh.

To get here from Israel and return safely, you must, firstly, have a multiple-entry Israeli visa. The sector for Israel is abroad, and if you have a single-entry visa, you can be stuck in Gaza forever, they will not let you back. Especially if there is no Egyptian visa. In addition, one must have special accreditation from the Israeli Ministry of Information. But it is almost impossible to get it, this piece of paper was punched by diplomats of the Kazakh embassy for a week. Then from Tel Aviv you need to drive for a long time to the Erez checkpoint. This checkpoint is a huge fortified fortress, almost like in Hollywood post-apocalyptic films.

The first sensation from Gaza is a mixture of Chechnya of 1996 and Afghanistan of 2002.

From the Erez checkpoint, you have to stomp a couple of kilometers on foot to the Hamas police post, the documents are checked there purely symbolically. Local men make a living by carrying hefty suitcases around the exclusion zone in 40-degree heat.

The porter charges about $20 for his services.

Gaza residents are not allowed into Israel. Only Israeli Arabs, foreigners and representatives of international organizations.

Destroyed houses are everywhere here - the consequences of pinpoint Israeli airstrikes and large military operations Cast Lead (2008) and Pillar of Cloud (2012).

Fuel is imported into Gaza in limited quantities, the blockade does not provide for the supply of fuel and lubricants for private cars of citizens. Tarek drove us in his editorial car, on gasoline, which is smuggled in canisters from Egypt through the laid underground tunnels. Horse-drawn transport is one of the main ones here.

A very characteristic detail of the local landscape design. Above every house destroyed as a result of the bombing, where people died, the flags of the non-existent State of Palestine are sure to flutter.

From the report of the Department for Coordination of the Government of Israel in the Territories (COGAT): from November 2012 to mid-February 2013 (agricultural season), tomatoes (27.8 tons), cherry tomatoes (80.6 tons), vegetable pepper (15.5 tons), various herbs (12.4 tons), strawberries (184 tons) and more than 2.2 million flowers.

People who lost their roof over their heads as a result of military operations and bombing. The emblem of Rotary International is on the tents.

A group of strong bearded men distributes humanitarian aid provided by the UN and other international organizations to the disadvantaged.

The kid got a bag of pita for the whole family.

An interesting detail: according to various estimates, from 1.06 million to 1.6 million people live on the territory of 360 km². The birth rate in the Gaza Strip is one of the highest in the world, with more than half of the population under the age of 15.

What struck me the most about Gaza was the eyes of the people. I haven't seen these anywhere else.

An elderly woman from a campground.

These children hardly go to school.

Cargo that Israel allows into Gaza: medicines, food, detergents and fuel for power plants in limited quantities.

Goods that Israel does not let through: building materials (including cement), refrigerators, washing machines, car parts, fabrics, thread, needles, light bulbs, matches, books, musical instruments, crayons, clothes, shoes, mattresses, sheets, blankets, knives and scissors, dishes, glasses.

Mostly the civilian population suffers from the blockade. The main goal of the blockade - to stop the shelling of Israeli territory with unguided projectiles - has not yet been achieved.

The lack of building materials is perhaps the main problem. People are forced to dismantle destroyed houses in order to build new ones or repair old ones.

Interestingly, there are places in Gaza where, by all indications, carpet bombing took place. And there are those who are not affected at all. This wild contrast makes a very strange impression.

Obviously, representatives of “armed Palestinian groups” lived in such houses (in relation to the sector, this is Hamas, according to the Israeli definition, terrorists), or weapons were stored in them, or these weapons were produced.

Hamas' visual agitation is a special song. Ideological suicides with the faces of junior researchers at the Institute of Astrophysics were painted by an unknown Arab artist in detail and with love.

And in this composition, I was most struck by the happy Sheikh Ahmed Yassin in paradise with flowers and butterflies.

In general, to become a blue-eyed good man with an Israeli NEGEV NG7 machine gun of 7.62 caliber at the ready is an honor and prestige here.

But with this ruined house I had an interesting story. I wanted to shoot it from the top point and slowly began to climb the hill from behind. And then, somewhere in the sky above my head, I heard a soft buzzing. The sound was very reminiscent of the one that comes from a radio-controlled model aircraft. I looked up and saw nothing. After a while it dawned on me that it was a miniature, well-camouflaged Israeli drone. With their help, special services monitor the activity of militants.

It happened in the very center of the city.

The Israeli authorities claim that the ban on the import of building materials and metal into Gaza exists because they are used by Hamas to build military fortifications, including underground bunkers, and to manufacture rockets to bombard Israeli territory.

In 2008, as a result of Operation Cast Lead, 50,000 residents of the sector's cities were left homeless. In 2012, during Operation Pillar of Cloud, Israel attacked 1,500 different targets.

It's hard to even imagine what's going on in the minds of these guys.

There is something in ordinary residents of Gaza that causes not even sympathy, but some special sympathy.

They are hostages of a terrible unsolvable situation.

And they have a heightened sense of self-esteem ...

…and in some cases pride.

The kids are just sorry...

But this is the work of Tarek Alyan. I let him hold the camera while writing stand up, and he immediately took advantage of it!

It's strange, but for some reason the pigeons remained on the ruins of a residential building and were not going to fly anywhere.

We spent the night in a hotel called Adam, on the Mediterranean coast. For the first time in my life, I spent the night in an 8-story building, in which, apart from me, my cameraman Nikolai Kishenin and two or three hotel workers, there was no one else. At night I woke up from a deafening silence, interrupted by distant shots from a machine gun. Who fired at whom and why remains a mystery. It was a strange feeling.

From the terrace of the hotel opened a picturesque view.

A group of young guys were doing something so incomprehensible on the shore.

Fishing was once one of the main branches of the local economy. But in 2005, the Israelis left here, and in 2007 Hamas won the elections. Since then, without exception, all the inhabitants of the enclave have received the status of "terrorists". Now the territory is blocked from the sea, it is impossible to fish. Tarek said that if the crew of an Israeli patrol ship is in a good mood, he warns a boat that has sailed far away that it would be nice for her to go back, and if they are in a bad mood, they immediately begin to shoot. The history of the “Freedom Flotilla”, which took place in 2010, is well known to everyone.

At the city cemetery.

The graves are very new.

But this is an automotive rarity - a completely unique six-door Mercedes. At one time they were made by special order. Such a taxi in Gaza.

It is curious that all the fruits in the bazaar are Egyptian. According to Tarek Alyan, traders complain that the goods are contraband, and local residents do not have the money to buy them.

Strawberries in Gaza are the heritage of the Israelis, it was they who taught the Arabs how to grow them.

Twin brothers exchange shekels for dollars, euros and other currencies. By the way, in the territory of the entire Palestinian autonomy, shekels are calculated.

Tarek said it was the home of Islamic resistance movement chairman Khaled Mashaal. It's amazing that no one has touched it yet.

In the hospital, I found recovering militants.

Everyone was calm, one might even say that they were in a good mood.

Students of the local Islamic university. What they teach there, one can only guess.

On one of the streets, I noticed children playing with a tractor, which, judging by its condition, had stood in this place without moving for several years.

But the most important thing in this episode was not the tractor and not even the children, but the wall of the building - all covered with holes - maybe from bullets, or maybe from shell fragments.

This is how militants are being targeted - boom, and hardly anyone will want to remove the rusty frame of a car from the roadway. A kind of segment of local urban design.

Militants in one of the city squares in the center of Gaza.

On our way back to Israel, at the Erez checkpoint, one of the deepest and most thorough searches of my life took place. It makes no sense to describe everything, it is enough to mention only one episode. The checkpoint staff became suspicious of my right leg prosthesis. Then I was taken to the “death row”. This is such a small room, where instead of a floor there is a grate, and at the bottom there is a pit about six meters deep. There is an introscope in the room, as during inspection at the airport. The operator sits behind an armored door and thick bulletproof glass. In general, if a suicide bomber decides that his time has come, he can set off the “shahid belt” right in this room. There will be no particular harm to the checkpoint, since everything that remains after the explosion will simply fall into the pit.

In Israel, just after Gaza, we drove to the Negev desert, where the artillery field training center is located.

The next training camp was just going on, and the boys were called to restore their fighting skills for a month.

Heavy self-propelled howitzers M-109 are in service here.

High-explosive shells of 155 mm caliber.

I was struck by how 20-year-old guys easily treat their service and weapons.

It feels like they are born with guns.

Zelda armored personnel carrier based on the American M-113.

Well, this is for us, foreign journalists.

And smiles for us too!

Shooting at the range takes place almost the entire daylight hours.

M-109 with a transport-loading vehicle in position.

Nobody saves shells here.

And one more funny story related to our business trip to the Gaza Strip. Approximately three days before our departure, a delegation from the National Space Agency headed by Talgat Musabayev arrived in Kazakhstan. Ambassador Galym Orazbakov organized a meeting with Israeli President Shimon Peres. In one of the premises of the residence, a very serious lady in military uniform gave me a thorough interrogation. She asked me many things: if I have friends in Gaza, what did I do there, and so on. But the last question killed me: “Did they send anything from Gaza to President Shimon Peres through you?” Of course they did, Mr. President! Greetings!

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Today I invite you to visit the city of Gaza, to look at it also through the eyes of Arab photographers, to make sure that the inhabitants of the so-called "occupied territory" even live well ...

Panoramic photos, so to speak ... (in a selection of photos of different sizes.).

Show me traces of occupation and blockade...

And this is a view of Gaza from the sea ...

As we can see, many "blockade" have their own yachts ...

A cozy restaurant, right on the beach, where the “starving” city admires the sunset…

Let's not forget that the city is located in the desert, but there is greenery all around ...

This is what Gaza looks like at night. The Israelis will tell you how much gas workers pay for a kilowatt / hour of electricity, but probably it is free for them ...

After constant rallies against the occupation, the gas workers simply need to relax in the cool, on the seashore, in a cozy restaurant, starve while looking at the menu ...

And it was an “occupation” bomb that fell into the park, now a holy spring is beating right out of the ground ...

One of the streets... With magnificent houses…

And this is the hospital of the Red Crescent ... A miserable medical assistant's station, like in some Siberian town a thousand miles from the railway ...

During the Zionist blockade, every Arab has the opportunity to play in the stadium .. Take a break from malnutrition and life in communal apartments, Khrushchev, barracks and sheds ...

Well, we continue our journey through Gaza, since Arab photographers have directly hired to dispel our ideas about such concepts as "occupation" or "blockade".

And even they have factories, probably working ...

A small square with a monument to one of the many martyrs who blew up a bus or bus stop in Israel…

Another restaurant where the inhabitants of the occupied city indulge in dreams of freedom...

And in the evenings, the Arabs dream of freedom in clubs and expensive restaurants….

The traitors do not sleep, they deliberately turn on the lights at night to make it easier for Israeli planes to find the right targets ...

Embankment…

Arabs, dreaming of freedom, fall into a depressed state and move away from the world to mourn in such villas, swim in their own pool ... Sit on the shores of the Mediterranean Sea, listen to the sound of the surf ...
The fate of a real blockade is heavy ...

And here is the bus station… blockade survivors ride in buses with villour seats and air conditioners… Because it’s simply impossible to do otherwise… It’s hot, it’s understandable If there is no air conditioner, then those who in Russia drank all the water in the tap will be to blame for this …

There are still signs of occupation, take a closer look. See? The tower, as in the USSR, in the camps ... There, for sure, a khamasyatnik sits in the city guarding, like a guard of the zone ...

Well, here, for sure, is a school, in the basement of which there is a workshop for the production of shahid belts or rockets, with which they fire at the “occupiers” every now and then in gratitude for tens of thousands of tons of free cargo……

Our tour, alas, has come to an end, but I think we will turn to the topic of life in the “occupied territories” more than once

The Arabs of Gaza (Palestinian is a fictional nationality after 1967) even got along pretty well. They live just as well as oil-rich Azerbaijan, which is one position higher and unequivocally, the Arabs of Gaza live much better than their brothers in Syria (before the war - approx. Grimnir), Algeria and Egypt, who constantly call for release " gas workers" from the occupation..
It’s time for them to write letters to the Knesset themselves, pleading for Israel to occupy their own territories…
In the meantime, let's take a short tour, Arab photographers have already prepared to show off their "occupied" city:

Panoramic photos, so to speak ... (in a selection of photos of different sizes.).

Show me traces of occupation and blockade...

And this is a view of Gaza from the sea ...

As we can see, many "blockade" have their own yachts ...

A cozy restaurant, right on the beach, where the “starving” city admires the sunset…

Let's not forget that the city is located in the desert, but there is greenery all around ...

This is what Gaza looks like at night.

After constant rallies against the occupation, the gas workers simply need to relax in the cool, on the seashore, in a cozy restaurant, starve while looking at the menu ...

And it was an “occupation” bomb that fell into the park, now a holy spring is beating right out of the ground ...

One of the streets... With magnificent houses…

And this is the hospital of the Red Crescent ... A miserable medical assistant's station, like in some Siberian town a thousand miles from the railway ...

Here I would like to make a small digression... And how many Russians, who tirelessly curse the Israeli military, the Zionist occupiers, demand to lift the blockade from Gaza, have something like this housing?
After all, driving a hundred kilometers from Moscow or St. Petersburg can generally get stuck, because there are no roads at all and people live in barracks, maybe the Russians will stop looking at what is happening thousands of kilometers away from them, not demanding, calling names and threatening Jews, but rather demand from their government that they live, as in the "blockade" Gaza?
Come out to Red Square, and not to the Israeli embassy and wear slogans there: “I want to live., As in besieged Gaza!”

During the Zionist blockade, every Arab has the opportunity to play in the stadium .. Take a break from malnutrition and life in communal apartments, Khrushchev, barracks and sheds ...

Well, we continue our journey through Gaza, since Arab photographers have directly hired to dispel our ideas about such concepts as "occupation" or "blockade".

And even they have factories, probably working ...

A small square with a monument to one of the many martyrs who blew up a bus or bus stop in Israel…

Another restaurant where the inhabitants of the occupied city indulge in dreams of freedom...

There are still signs of occupation, take a closer look. See? The tower, as in the USSR, in the camps ... There, for sure, a khamasyatnik sits in the city guarding, like a guard of the zone ...

Our tour, alas, has come to an end, but I think we will turn to the topic of life in the “occupied territories” more than once