Even the Dead Have no Rest in Beit Hanoun
By Alex Snary, National Director, World Vision Jerusalem, West Bank and Gaza
Beit Hanoun's once vibrant agricultural community, known locally as 'Kfar Shalom' in Hebrew because of their peaceful attitude to the Israelis, lies in ruins.
Massive Israeli artillery bombardment has destroyed entire neighbourhoods, blanketing everything in a layer of grey cement dust. The smell of death, the bodies of loved ones still buried in the rubble assaults your senses. In every direction, collapsed houses can be seen representing the collapsed lives of their owners. People have lost everything; their place of shelter, their businesses, their assets and their loved ones.
Yesterday, while entering Gaza I heard the booming of the Israeli artillery as the rounds flew overhead and the saw them strike Beit Hanoun. I remember praying for any children who might be in the area but like much of the world I had little understanding of the effect such a bombardment has on the lives of civilians caught under it.
"I can't even find shoes to wear," says Nahed Al Kafarna
People like Nahed Al Kafarna and her family, who we met today in Beit Hanoun as she was trying to find something to salvage from the pile of rubble that was once her home. Her children find an electric fan and her husband a sack of onions "I can't even find shoes to wear," she tells me.
They ask us for water for the children and as we share what we have. They recount the horror of trying to flee from their home as the artillery rained down. Eleven of their family members did not escape and were trapped as the house collapsed. One of the bodies still is buried in the rubble.
The survivors made it to the local hospital only to be forced to flee again after the hospital was fired upon. They tried to find shelter in a second hospital but there was no room. Finally, they joined other families sheltering in Gaza city without food, water or the means to sustain themselves.
It is clear that even the dead of Beit Hanoun have no rest.
As we gave them directions to our food distribution centre it seemed such a small gesture compared to what they had suffered and what they will no doubt continue to suffer. No one knows how long the fighting will continue, but with emergency services, the UN and humanitarian agencies overwhelmed by the scale of the emergency, communicable diseases breaking out in the overcrowded shelters and tens of thousands of people homeless, one thing is certain, the suffering of the people of Gaza will continue for a long time to come.
For now as I walk past the broken grave stones of Beit Hanoun's destroyed cemetery it is clear that even the dead of Beit Hanoun have no rest.
