News stories by Eva Bartlett, page 7

There are few parks and green spaces in Gaza, and those that exist are crowded with people hungry for nature. Day and night, people of all ages flock to the Joondi, or the park of the Unknown Soldier, in central Gaza City.

In a backstreet open-air café in Gaza late at night, Khaled Harara from the Black Unit Band starts to talk about rap.

Until Monday, Omar and Khaled Al-Habil were the owners of a 20m fishing trawler staffed by five or six fishermen at a time, but employing around 18 in cycles. But that morning the vessel came under heavy Israeli navy machine-gun fire, and then shelling. The trawler caught fire.

Abu Abed can't make a profit, and although 54 years old, he still has not married. 'I can't pay my rent, I can't afford a wedding.'

On a Saturday morning in Gaza city, the Artificial Limb and Polio Centre (ALPC) is filled with people waiting to see the director, Dr. Hazem Al-Shawwa.

Salleh wonders how he will pay for a replacement car part he bought from the tunnels black market.

'No one is buying meat these days,' says Yousef Al-Jerjowi, sitting next to his butcher shop devoid of customers.

'They told us 'go west or we will shoot you',' says Ashraf Sadallah. 'Initially, we refused, so they began shooting very close all around our boat.'

'Biddun mey, fish heyya', they say in Arabic for a universal truth: 'Without water, there is no life'.

Jihad el-Shaar is pleased with his mud-brick house in the Moraj district of Gaza. The 80-square metre home is a basic one-storey, two-bedroom design, with a small kitchen, bathroom and sitting room, made mostly with mud and straw.