Gaza: a catalogue of hell
Children look among the rubble for any belongings in what used to be their home in Bayr-Al Balah. Photo: Rene Rossignaud.
When photographer Rene Rossignaud passed through the six-foot iron door to enter Gaza from Israel, he thought: "We're going into hell".
Having returned from the war-torn land earlier this month, with thousands of photographs cataloguing his week-long trip, Mr Rossignaud is unable to forget the destruction and the suffering of the people.
But despite barely having enough food for themselves, Palestinians still insist on inviting people inside their homes to offer peanuts, fruit and orange juice, Mr Rossignaud and fellow photographer Nick Critien discovered.
Some of them barely have a place to stay, their homes having been bombed. Children run about in the streets, looking for wood to light fires and warm what is left of their abodes. Others search for any belongings among the rubble.
"The minute you walk through that door, you get a reality check. There, in front of your eyes, is a two-kilometre stretch of what used to be an industrial zone and it is completely destroyed," the 28-year-old photographer said.
Orange trees, which used to fill hectares of land, have been uprooted by Israeli tanks.
Earlier in Tel Aviv, a mere hour-and-a-half away by train, people seemed oblivious to the destruction in Gaza. "We asked for directions to get to Ashqelon and Sderot, two villages close to Gaza, and nobody seemed to know how to get there."
Ashqelon was still getting heavily bombed by Hamas when the two photographers got there on January 31.
"When the missile alarm went off at 7 a.m. on our first day, we did not know what to do. We crouched under the hotel bed and a second later heard a deafening explosion. You only get 10 seconds notice, and we did not even know that the hotel had its own shelters," Mr Rossignaud said.
In Rafah, where there are tunnels connecting the Gaza Strip to Egypt, the two photographers had a close shave with Hamas militants.
"When they saw us with cameras in hand, we were thrown against the car, with guns pointed to our heads." Just minutes after they finally left, Israel bombed Rafah, with many people dying.
Even getting back into Israel was a feat for the two photographers, who spent hours being scanned.
"It was a big difference from Gaza when passport control agents offered us tea when we were leaving the territory," Mr Rossignaud said.
Popular Stories
Update 3: Woman found dead in car,...
Updated: Woman dies in car crash
Part of Dwejra 'Azure window' collapses
The end of the bar that ‘never closed’
Carm Mifsud Bonnici resigns after...
Bundy does not know whether to...
Updated - Jason Micallef demands...
This WAS the night - Kurt makes it...
Petrol price up 6c
In Discussion
Updated - Jason Micallef demands...
Gozo tunnel could take 5-7 years to...
CABS remote controlled aircraft shot...
Joseph Calleja condemns portrayal of...
Carm Mifsud Bonnici resigns after...
Updated: Labour would give...
CABS drone shot down
Second group of migrants arrives
Adrian Vassallo in scathing...
5 Comments
Post comment
Please sign in or create your Account to post comments.
Robert Callus
Feb 9th 2009, 15:30
@H Dempster
I understand your point and for a long time I agreed with that position. However measures against Palestinians have escalated to mega proportions. Gaza is one big prison, a prison created by Israel, the same state that created Hamas in order to defeat the PLO.
I don't justfy rockets hitting civilians, but if I put myself in their shoes, these people can't reason like we are here. They've seen too much, they are seeing too much. I'm a pacifist, however, I don't trust even myself if another state took my home, my social life and my family.
The Hamas rockets are actually working against Palestinians. They do little harm to Israel, but give it the authority to fight also the media war. But try to explain this to people living in a giant prison, quickly turning into a giant coffin
Mario Zammit
Feb 9th 2009, 15:03
Two wrongs don't make one right! If the holcaust was condemnable so should this kind of retaliation on the part of Israel.
This is not a case of a tooth for a tooth but rather a thousand teeth for a tooth.
Nobody take the Israelis seriously. They've produced too many holocaust films just to play the victims. These last sixty years have proved otherwise. If it wasn't for US backing the situation would be very very different!
A. Muscat
Feb 9th 2009, 13:39
A hint about sieged Gaza and beleaguered Gazans
If any body think Gaza is ‘free’ this is the joke of all jokes!
Prisoners usually occupy 95 % of the total prison area, while the left 5% of the total area of the prison controlled by prison managements and guards. Can we say prisoners are free? Israel controls the 5% area that allows basic necessaries for Gazans, water .electricity drainage, fuel, food supply ….. Etc.
Same conditions apply on all parts of villages where Palestinians live. If you think that peoples not of Hamas are better off, please think again. President Mahmoud Abbas does not have an authority over himself, to get out of the west bank he MUST get permission from Israeli’s police.
Israel has been committing war crimes, systematic terrorism and using state of the art war machines for decades but they fail to break Palestinian’s will. History proved that no occupation last forever and people’s will never be defeated as long as occupation exist.
Its becoming visible after the more failure than success military operations the Israel’s army turned Gaza from a big prison to an abattoir.
H Dempster
Feb 9th 2009, 12:15
I pity the palestinians on one hand but i also feel a grudge towards them since although they are supposedly trying to negotiate peace they still continue to shoot rockets , which is undermining the treaty. One never bites that hand that tries to feed you.
Mario Tabone-Vassallo
Feb 9th 2009, 11:55
Kull gwerra li kien fiha l-Izrajel dejjem hataf iktar art, kontra kull ligi internazzjonali u kull decizjoni tal-Gnus Maghquda. Jassar il-gens Palestinjan f'zewg Kampijiet ta' Koncentrament, Gaza u c-Cisgordanja. Qatel mitt Palestinjan ghal kull Izrajeljan li nqatel. Rajna l-istess fl-ahhar gwerra. Hasra li l-gens Lhudi li bghata tant dakinhar nesa u qed jaghmel l-istess lill-gens Palestinjan