GAZA: A layer of white ice covers the isolated enclave of Gaza after a rare hail storm

Children come out to play on the streets of Gaza after a rare hail storm. Flooding has worsened roads already in bad condition in the poverty-striken territory. Children in the battle-stricken Gaza Strip had a rare chance on Wednesday (November 21) to glimpse a wintery white layer of ice covering patches of land. The extraordinary view of a landscape layered with large ice balls, from a hail storm, drew children out to the streets to play. Some children collected the ice balls in sacks while others threw handfuls of the hail at their friends in play. But in other areas of the impoverished strip, heavy rainfall flooded streets. Some vehicles were stuck, while others carefully made their way through the flood. The embattled coastal strip of land has been a scene of fierce fighting in recent months after the Islamist Hamas faction seized control of Gaza routing out its rival Fatah group of President Mahmoud Abbas. The recent violence and the split authority in Gaza and the West Bank have worsen daily hardships in the coastal strip. Foreign sanctions and an Israeli blockade have driven Gaza ever deeper into poverty and isolation, and put pressure on Hamas to find a breakthrough without compromising its doctrines. International relief organisations were providing food and other humanitarian services for over one million people in the Gaza Strip, including some 860,000 refugees. Abbas, who is pursuing a peace deal with Israel, has ruled out dialogue with Islamist Hamas unless it submits anew to his authority and gives up Gaza. Israel and the West want Hamas shunned until it accepts coexistence with the Jewish state.

ITN Source | November 22, 2007

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