Poverty a trademark for Gaza refugees

Poverty has been the major feature of the 50-year-old Palestinian refugee Mahmoud al-Ashqar from Shati refugee camp in Gaza City, who has been jobless for seven years.

In 2003, al-Ashqar lost his job as a construction worker in Israel after Israel banned Gaza workers and businessmen from entering its territories as a result of the heating violence between the Palestinians and the Israeli army, or what is commonly known as the Second Intifada.

Like tens of thousands of those who used to work in Israel, al- Ashqar had to count on his savings to meet the needs of his family.

As a refugee, he mainly depends on the food rations, health and education care offered by the United Nations Relief and Works Agency (UNRWA) which cares for refugees who fled or were forced to leave their towns and cities that became part of Israel in the war of its foundation in 1948.

Al-Ashqar has spared no efforts to find a job to feed his eight- member family, but the seven-year-long Israeli blockade and the Egyptian restrictions imposed on the Hamas-ruled Gaza Strip have always hampered his endeavors.

The seaside Gaza Strip is home to 1.8 million people, among whom 1.2 million are living in eight refugee camps.

All al-Ashqar does now is sitting at a small hut in the camp with a group of his jobless refugee neighbors and recalling the sweet memories when they used to make thousands of U.S. dollars through working in Israel. "Chatting and recalling the memories when we worked in Israel is our main job," said al-Ashqar ironically.

In the overcrowded Shati camp, Al-Ashqar and his family members live in a 70-square-meter rundown house that was built by UNRWA six decades ago.

The house is almost empty of furniture with only worn-out leather chairs, an old refrigerator, a washing machine and a broken old-brand TV. Only al-Ashqar and his wife sleep in two small beds, while the children sleep on small mattresses since the father cannot afford buying beds. The old walls of the house almost collapse due to the humidity of the beach which is 100 meters away.

Such a life is very difficult for al-Ashqar, whose five sons, two of them are married, have not got any chance to work in the impoverished Gaza Strip, where unemployment rate stands at 40 percent.

The man did not hide his regret for not building a better house and make a better future for his sons when he used to work in Israel. He mocks himself for being a construction worker who built hundreds of houses for Israelis and could not build a better roof over his kids' heads.

But he also blames UNRWA for not helping him rebuild the house since it is the agency that has to care for refugees. The man has asked UNRWA over ten times to renew his residence, but all his calls have hit a brick wall.

"The walls may collapse anytime, they would seriously fall down over our heads if I do not make some repair from time to time," he said as he sipped from a hot tea cup. "I have asked many organizations, including UNRWA which is the care taker of refugees, to help us restore the house, but they all gave us a cold shoulder. "

The inability of al-Ashqar to provide a better life for his family turned his life into a nightmare. The man, who was once a well-known supporter of many needy families in the Camp, is now knocking the doors of aid organizations to meet the needs of his family.

According to a report released by the Palestinian Central Bureau of Statistics on the eve of the International Day of Refugees, the number of registered Palestinian refugees by UNRWA in January 2014 amounted up to about 5.4 million in the Gaza Strip, West Bank, Jordan, Lebanon and Syria.