Atfaluna, of Gaza, supply Olive Co-op with a range of beautiful products crafted by deaf adults and children. The range, available from Olive’s office and on-line shop includes ceramic bowls, mugs and plates, camel keyrings and embroidered purses. They are adversely affected by Israeli strikes upon Gaza, as their latest e-mail describes below.

17 July 2006

Dear Olive Co-op,

Thank you so much for asking about us and for your support to Atfaluna. The situation here is extremely nerve-wrecking. Most of the Israeli incursions are taking place in the north, south and middle districts of the Gaza Strip. Coming to work is difficult for some of our employees where an incursion in their area of residence keeps them stranded in their homes for several days, praying that missile shrapnel does not tear through their home or even injure a family member.

When the Israeli military force decided that they wanted to retreive the kidnapped Israeli solder from somewhere in the Gaza Strip the first thing they did was to attack the Gaza Strip with sonic booms. F16 war planes fly at such high speeds and such low altitudes breaking the sound barrier over the city. Windows are broken, buildings are shaken and people are almost scared to death by the unexpected thunder-like sound it makes. On top of all this many people are suffering from ear-aches. Small children are not only traumatised by all that is happening around them, they are often shaken awake by the sound of explosions somewhere in the city. Parents are too scared to send their children to summer camps therefore fun summer actitivites for the children have been put off till next year.

The Palestinian Authority Foreign Ministry is less than 2 minutes walking distance from my home. Located in the middle of a highly populated area, the attack was shocking taking place at 2am in the morning. Of course the air raid completely destroyed the Ministry. Many of the homes, supermarkets and other buildings around it were ruined to a great degree; there were broken windows, torn furniture, knocked down walls and doors. The dust was so dense that it seemed like fog.

More than 16 days ago an F16 war plane attacked the Gaza station power plant in Khan Younis located in the middle of the Gaza Strip. More than 90% of the city lost its power supply and everyone except people with power generators in their homes were kept in complete darkness. (Power generators are also difficult to maintain because there is a major shortage of benzine which is used in working the generators.) No lighting, no boilers, no refrigerators, no lifts for people living in apartments, nothing. Part of the electricity is supplied to the Gaza Strip from Israel which is now the only source of electricity for the entire City.

A somewhat rigid electricity schedule has been made to supply electricity to different areas at a time. Electricity supposedly comes to neighbourhoods at 8 hour intervals, allowing families to enjoy these 8 hours of eletricity, then it is cut off from one area and another area is supplied. In many cases an air raid will again terminate electricity from an area leaving homes with no supply for 24 hours or more until a solution is made to repair a bombed electricity transformer. In many cases food in freezers starts to melt and a lot of it is thrown away. The most difficult time of the day is night time, with no lighting and only a torch or candle to help make your way around the house.

Many homes have water shortages or no water at all since some of the main water supplies have been bombed or electricity is not available to pump water to the homes. It is a true shame that so many people are living in such poor conditions and no one has a solution near. Let’s hope that soon this will all end before more people are killed and everyone loses any hope of a brighter tomorrow.

Best Regards

Ghada
Atfaluna Crafts Boutique
Atfaluna Society for Deaf Children
72 Philisteen Street - P. O. Box 1296
The Gaza Strip, The Palestinian Authority