Looking for Trouble

On our way to Gaza, by Gerri Haynes

(Gerri Haynes and Laura Hart, of Washington Physicians for Social Responsibility, have returned to Gaza, taking in medicine. Gerri will be sending back reports.)

On the way to Erez and the hoped-for crossing to Gaza… the night held little sleep – the roosters started crowing at 2 a.m., then I had a phone call from Kirkland at 4 a.m. (an invitation to our grandchildren’s for a Santa Claus event). The staff at Neve Shalom is always helpful and sent us off with a breakfast bag and coffee.

We are now driving past Israeli towns north of the Gaza border. Fields of crops fill the spaces between towns – drip irrigation is used extensively here. We see no evidence of rocket damage from last week’s conflict.

Elias from Bethlehem is driving us to Erez. He says he has many Jewish friends – the people are not the problem, the troubles are between the governments. He says tourists stopped coming to Bethlehem during Ahmoud al Shab (Pillar of Cloud).

And now we are at Erez – our friends from Gaza await our call to let them know whether or not we are allowed to pass through the checkpoint.

More to follow…

IN GAZA:

The passage through into the Palestinian side was uneventful– many NGO personnel are making this journey and we were required to wait only a brief time on the Israeli side. Entering into Gaza through the Hamas checkpoint required much more time as we had medicines that required thorough screening.

Now we are in Gaza City. On the way to our hotel, we saw some of the results of last week’s attacks. A four-story government building is now rubble. The Prime Minister’s office building is no more.

We are seeing many friends from other trips and tonight we will have a meeting with Dr. Sarraj of the Gaza Community Mental Health Programme in his home. Our goal is to sort out ways that our next medical service delegation can be most helpful.

There is great sorrow here for the people who were killed or injured in Pillar of Cloud as well as a general sense of relief that this recent warring did not include a ground invasion. There is also a belief that the truce was signed prior to the intervention of the US Secretary of State. The ongoing trauma of war or threat of war is pervasive.