The trip to Gaza starts in August and we will be taking 2 boats that were purchased with funds raised through various fundraisers. The trip is about 2 days from Cyprus each way and the  stay in Gaza is dependant on Israel letting us land in Gaza’s seaport and letting us leave when we want.That’s why I’m not working the month of August.. We have invitations from 4 entities to welcome us there…. A hospital and some charitable organizations. Israel claims they no longer occupy Gaza but it is Israel who decides who can come and go. Other boats may go with us and the media can follow. About 70 are going on board the 2 boats. We each pay our own way to meet up in Cyprus. Each of the participants in the boats has contributed $1000 dollars as a donation and the money will be used to house us as well as people staying behind to monitor our progress. The money will also pay for boat provisions, medical supplies and other equipment like windup chargers and the like which are useful in a place where the lights have been turned off even hospitals and no fuel to run generators. Of course preemies in hospitals are dying. Below see an incubator with 5 preemies in one incubator! Any one who has access to any kind of useful equipment to donate or refer us to would be most appreciated.  

 

Also any body who knows an entity that can donate hearing aids of all kinds. I have a list of types needed if anyone has that kind of contact and would e-mail me separately. We are bringing medicine, bandages, Gaza is woefully short of all necessities of life..including food and clean water. Anybody who has contacts for water purifying systems that don’t run on electricity or ideas about such things as purifying tablets or camping equipment water purifiers and the like also would be helpful. Drinking water is sparse. We will bring what we need on the boat but would like to donate any thing of this nature to Palestinians who have chronic water purification problems. The lack of electricity has caused them to run raw untreated sewage into the ocean..there are cities with raw sewage in the towns because Israel turned off electricity and will not allow shipment of fuel to run generators.Right now the coast is being polluted but apparently Israel doesn’t seem to care that it is killing fish and the currents will affect the region.

 

We have notified all governments of our trip including USA. Many of us going are grandparents who luckily do not have day to day responsibility for dependents. One of us is going to celebrate her 85th birthday on Board. We all hope to open the world’s view to the suffering in Gaza.

 

peace and love,

Mom,GK,GGK,Kathleen,Kathy,Kat

Kathleen O’Connor Wang 

 

GAZA CITY  - The Israeli siege of Gaza that has restricted access to food, water and medicine is now beginning to hit unborn children and newborn babies.

"Many babies are born suffering from anaemia that they have inherited from their mothers," Dr Salah al-Rantisi, head of the women’s health department at the Palestinian ministry of health in Gaza told IPS. And the mothers are becoming anaemic because they do not now get enough nutrition through pregnancy.

That in turn happens because the Israeli blockade has choked the supply of food and medicines.

Dr al-Rantisi also heads the women’s health unit at Nasser hospital, where about 30 to 40 children are born every day. Many suffer from anaemia, he says.

Anwaar Abu Daqqa, 30, has lost three babies prematurely. The foetuses were malformed as a result of lack of nutrition and medicine for the mother, Dr al-Rantisi said. And in the last case she reached hospital late because she could not find transport.

"Premature babies born dangerously underweight is a daily and increasing phenomenon in Gaza’s hospitals," he says.

The Gaza Strip is poorer and harder hit than the West Bank, but there too there are well documented instances of women having to give birth at checkpoints because of restrictions on movement.

The ministry of health says 9,000 to 10,000 babies are born in the Gaza Strip every month. Of every 1,000 born, 28 die from malnutrition, anaemia and other poverty-related causes. The ministry has no figures for surviving babies suffering from malnutrition.

"There are many cases of pregnant women who need medicines that are not available in Gaza," al-Rantisi said. Most families could not afford them if they were available, he said.

The World Bank said last month that the poverty rate in Gaza is now close to 67 percent and that economic growth last year was zero.

One consequence of poverty is anaemia. The condition, a direct consequence of poor nutrition, is not new to Gaza. The United Nations Relief and Works Agency (UNRWA) reported in 2002 that 19 percent of Gazans suffer from anaemia. That figure is estimated by UNRWA now to be 77.5 percent. Children receive on average only 61 percent of their daily need of calories from UN supplies.

Many of the newly born have been hit by the political situation before they could open their eyes to the world. Of the many deliveries that take place at al-Shifa hospital, the largest in Gaza, no one can tell how many of these children could grow up to live happy and healthy lives. Through the many dangers has arisen awareness of this new one – that sanctions can hit Gazans quite literally prematurely.

The fear of bombing comes later; the first dangers are the lack of food, water and medicines.

Tahani Safi, 29, lies worrying about the caesarean section scheduled for the next day. She suffers from malnutrition, high blood pressure, diabetes, and a shortage of protective water around the child in the womb.

There are many mothers with such difficulties. Such cases can be found at any hospital, but doctors say the number of cases of conditions a result of poor food and medical care in Gaza is now rising. Health authorities have warned that the life and health of countless unborn babies is in serious danger all across Gaza.

So far 146 Gazans have died directly as a result of the Israeli siege, and the border closures and shortage of medication and health care this has brought, according to the ministry of health.

The U.S. celebrated Mothers Day Sunday May 11. No one in Gaza did.

May 17th

Too Quiet in the Harbour

GAZA CITY - It’s been strangely quiet for some time at the port in Gaza. No clanging of hooks, no sounds of creaking cranes or of thumping of nets upon decks. Boat engines, normally puttering and spewing exhaust, lie entombed under covers.

Of the 40,000 fishermen and others who make a living from the catch, only about 700 are still busy, according to the Fishing Syndicate in Gaza. The boats need oil, and Israel will not let the fishermen have it.

"Gaza’s 3,000 fishermen need about 40,000 litres of fuel and 40,000 litres of natural gas a day to operate for this season from March until the end of May," says Nizar Ayash, director of the Fishing Syndicate. Now they get almost nothing.

Jamal al-Assi, 37, attempts to look busy around his idle boat. "My boat feeds 11 families," he says. "What are we going to do? There is no hope when there is no fuel. We can’t work."

"I have been laid off work for nearly two months due to shortage of fuel," says Nasser al-Amodi, 49, one of Gaza’s oldest fishermen. He began his career at age nine, working alongside his father. Later he inherited the business.

Nasser, father of five, had hoped one day to pass the business on to his children. But now, as he does his bit to maintain his gear, he is not so sure. Seventy people, including the families of his brother and crew, have lost income as a result of the blockade.

www.freegaza.org