Feature: Shock, sadness at funeral of baby at Gaza displaced shelter

Shock and sadness pervaded on Tuesday at the funeral of a baby boy, who was burned to death on Monday night in a fire that flamed at one of the classrooms in a school that shelters hundreds of displaced Palestinian refugees in northern Gaza Strip.

The burned corpse of the 9-month-old Izedin al-Kafarna was buried in a graveyard in the northern Gaza Strip town of Beit Hanoun, amid large outrage of the mourners, who chanted slogans against the delaying of reconstruction process in the Gaza Strip.

On July 8, Israel waged a large-scale military air and ground military offensive on the Gaza Strip, which went on for 50 days. The offensive, which killed 2,200 Palestinians, also left large destruction in housing, infrastructure, industry and agriculture.

On Oct. 12, Arab and international donors, who met in Cairo for two days, pledged 5.4 billion U.S. dollars for reconstructing what had been destroyed in the impoverished coastal enclave by the Israeli offensive. Thousands of families are still displaced after they lost their homes, which were totally destroyed.

The family of the baby boy is one of the families which lost their houses in Beit Hanoun. The family, including the parents of the boy, have been living at one of the schools, run by the United Nations Relief and Work Agency (UNRWA), which is used as a shelter for displaced refugees.

Security investigation showed that the fire flamed in the classroom, where the baby and his family are staying, was due to an electric failure. The following day, the classroom's walls looked black, while the humble furniture of the family was totally damaged by the fire.

Witnesses who live in the school as well as officials said that the family of the boy consists of 16 people, which included the infant's parents and the brothers, sisters and parents of the baby's father. The parents and the brother of the baby were also injured.

Nader, the cousin of the baby, told Xinhua that the family members were all surprised by a sudden fire that burned the classroom, saying "we rushed to fight the fire and we hardly managed to rescue the parents, and two other children who were moderately injured.

"The baby was in his cradle and as soon as we rescued the life of the family members, we went back and found the boy already burned to death," said Nadder with sadness. He blamed the residents who were in the school when the accident happened and how they failed to help rescue the boy's life.

The father of the baby carried the remains of his son on his way to the graveyard with tears in his eyes and sadness clear on his face. Dozens of displaced residents at the school gathered around the body of the baby boy and showed deep sympathy.

In this school there are 85 displaced families. The school is one of three shelters in Beit Hanoun that is close to borders between northern Gaza Strip and Israel. The town was subjected to the large-scale military ground operation during the Israeli offensive on the Gaza Strip last summer.

According to official UN figures, around 20,000 residents of Beit Hanoun had become displaced where 1,600 houses in the town were destroyed by tanks shells and warplanes missiles. Hundreds of houses were partially damaged; many of these houses still don't fit for living.

Mohamed al-Kafarana, mayor of the town, told a news briefing held at the UN school in the town after the funeral that what happened to the infant "is clearly showing the real tragedy of the populations, mainly those who are still without houses."

The mayor accused the UN of not fulfilling its pledges towards the refugees and the displaced families, adding that "the safety of the families who took refuge to these schools is the responsibility of the UN, which should do all its best to protect and help the displaced families."

After the boy's death, the UN has officially conveyed its deep condolences and sorrow to the family. The UN said in a statement that the safety of the families who took refuge to its schools is one of the deep concerns for the humanitarian organization.

The UNRWA runs 15 shelters all over the Gaza Strip, which still hosts 10,000 displaced refugees. The UNRWA was obliged to stop financing the displaced families, with either paying them for temporary rents or paying for renovating their partially damaged houses, due to the shortage of international donations.

Although the donors pledged 5.4 billion U.S. dollars for Gaza reconstruction, senior Palestinian officials said that since the end of the Israeli offensive on the Gaza Strip, the donors had only paid two percent of their pledges.

The scenes inside the 15 UN shelters, which are basically schools, show that the war on the Gaza Strip had just ended several days ago, although it ended on Aug. 26. The wet laundry is hanged on the windows and doors of the classrooms, where women and children sit in the schools yards under the sun.

"Our life in this shelter is horrible and it lacks the basic needs for any human being to live in," said a woman who lives in the UN shelter in Beit Hanoun. Endit