20 images Created 9 May 2017
GAZA, THE AFTERMATH
19 October 2014. The first autumn rains are falling. On the road between Erez (the only humanitarian crossing point opened by Israel) and Gaza, I drive by the destroyed Al-Nahda towers, in the north of Gaza, a sad reflection of the scale of the damage done by the bombings in the summer. In Gaza, life has slowly resumed its course since the end of hostilities on 26 August. No district has been spared by the war: in every street, one house or more has been destroyed. The people of Gaza usually celebrate the first autumn rain, because it purifies the air and feeds the soil, but that year, thoughts were with the people who had no shelter and who had to face the cold and the rain.
This summer’s conflict in Gaza between the Israeli army on one side and Hamas and Islamic Jihad forces on the other caused 2,502 dead on the Palestinian side and 71 on the Israeli side (among whom were 66 soldiers). There were 1,583 civilian Palestinian victims, 521 of them were children and 283 were women (figures published by the UN Humanitarian Affairs office) Since that cease-fire, the same organisation has registered as many as 100, 000 displaced people in the Gaza Strip, 28, 000 of them have found refuge in UNRWA schools that were turned into shelters. The others were given temporary shelter by relatives or went back to live in the rubble of their house hoping to receive financial aid for reconstruction.
It is amid those families that one can perceive the reconstruction process, be it psychological or material. The families of Gaza, like in many Arab countries, gather many generations under one single roof. Many of them have been directly or indirectly impacted by the Israeli-Palestinian conflict through refugee status, death of relatives, injuries, imprisonment, unemployment, destruction of houses and dispossession of land.
The objective of my work is to try and answer my questions, by depicting the living conditions and the mental state of some families in Gaza whose houses have been damaged or totally destroyed by the Israeli bombings. Between October 2014 and February 2016, I shared the daily life of the Abu Ouda, Al Najar, AlSabagh and Al Batneeny families. I was very aware of the numerous difficulties of their life but also of their determination to rebuild a peaceful life.
The people of Gaza are naturally very welcoming, but they also want to show the whole world what they endure. Because everything that seems so obvious to us like education, household tasks, work becomes a constant fight in Gaza, it’s a struggle to remain dignified and preserve the future.
It took me time to bear witness to the living conditions of those families. At a moment though, one has to stop recording, if you want the book to exist....
https://www.collectiondesphotographes.com/gaza-the-aftermath.html
This story was awarded by the "Prix Ani Pixpalace in 2018" at the photojournalism festival "Visa pour l'image" in Perpignan.
This summer’s conflict in Gaza between the Israeli army on one side and Hamas and Islamic Jihad forces on the other caused 2,502 dead on the Palestinian side and 71 on the Israeli side (among whom were 66 soldiers). There were 1,583 civilian Palestinian victims, 521 of them were children and 283 were women (figures published by the UN Humanitarian Affairs office) Since that cease-fire, the same organisation has registered as many as 100, 000 displaced people in the Gaza Strip, 28, 000 of them have found refuge in UNRWA schools that were turned into shelters. The others were given temporary shelter by relatives or went back to live in the rubble of their house hoping to receive financial aid for reconstruction.
It is amid those families that one can perceive the reconstruction process, be it psychological or material. The families of Gaza, like in many Arab countries, gather many generations under one single roof. Many of them have been directly or indirectly impacted by the Israeli-Palestinian conflict through refugee status, death of relatives, injuries, imprisonment, unemployment, destruction of houses and dispossession of land.
The objective of my work is to try and answer my questions, by depicting the living conditions and the mental state of some families in Gaza whose houses have been damaged or totally destroyed by the Israeli bombings. Between October 2014 and February 2016, I shared the daily life of the Abu Ouda, Al Najar, AlSabagh and Al Batneeny families. I was very aware of the numerous difficulties of their life but also of their determination to rebuild a peaceful life.
The people of Gaza are naturally very welcoming, but they also want to show the whole world what they endure. Because everything that seems so obvious to us like education, household tasks, work becomes a constant fight in Gaza, it’s a struggle to remain dignified and preserve the future.
It took me time to bear witness to the living conditions of those families. At a moment though, one has to stop recording, if you want the book to exist....
https://www.collectiondesphotographes.com/gaza-the-aftermath.html
This story was awarded by the "Prix Ani Pixpalace in 2018" at the photojournalism festival "Visa pour l'image" in Perpignan.
