Music
Hutcheon: Sara Newman, who lives in Jerusalem, is a woman with a mission.
In her typically efficient way, shes, planning her sons wedding well ahead of schedule.
Sara, who grew up in Melbourne, intends to give her son Gidon a day to remember; because plaguing her is a day she cant forget.
A month ago, on May the eleventh, her youngest boy Eitan was killed.
Sara Newman: Some time during the seven day mourning period, after the funeral, I think I realised hes just not going to be coming home for weekends any more. And I miss him more than I can say. You know, its like -- I lost my father, but this is different. This is not natural.
Music
Hutcheon: Eitan was 21, a soldier in an elite Israeli army unit. He was travelling in an armoured personnel carrier when it struck a bomb placed by Palestinian fighters. Eitan and five others died instantly. The Palestinians displayed the soldiers remains as trophies.
Sara Newman: I would cry except that I have no tears left. There are no tears left.
Hutcheon: Sara Newman is convinced her son died defending Israel. But he was only one of thirteen soldiers killed in Gaza in the bloody month of May. Prime Minister Ariel Sharon, under pressure from the United States, judges the military sacrifice and the political pain of staying on too high.
He plans to force Israelis from twenty-one Gaza settlements by the end of next year. But the withdrawal wont be total. Israeli soldiers will stay on all of Gazas borders. Seventy percent of Israelis support the withdrawal, but Israels coalition government is splintering. Its a big political risk.
Gazas impoverished neighbourhoods have become the current focus in the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. The Israelis say its about security. The Palestinians say its about land; occupied land. Gaza is home to more than one million Palestinians but 40% of that land is occupied by 7,500 Israeli settlers.
Bryna Hilburg is one of them.
Were travelling on a road built especially for Israelis in a secure enclave known as Gush Katif. Bryna: It seems to have attracting power. People want to come here. People want to live here.
Hutcheon: This is Gazas largest Israeli settlement bloc home to several thousand settlers. Once they were key supporters of the Prime Minister.
Bryna Hilburg: Ariel Sharon was the guy I voted for and I absolutely never in my wildest dreams thought that this would happen.
Hutcheon: Do you have a right to be in Gaza?
Bryna Hilburg: Of course I have the right to be in Gaza. If I lived in America and I wanted to live in any neighbourhood I could live there and since the Six Day War when the Gaza strip was taken over by the Israelis, why not? Why not Gaza?
Hutcheon: Israels leaders approved the establishment of settlements to bolster the states security. Families were given funds to move here.
She works as a speech therapist while her husband Sammy grows tomatoes.
After 25 years here, their ties to Gaza run deep.
Strengthening that bond, her son Johanan, is buried here -- a soldier killed in Lebanon seven years ago
Hutcheon: Do you feel betrayed?
BRYNA HILBURG: Absolutely. I try to do every single thing that a citizen of this country is supposed to do, and then somebody tells me not good enough, not in the right spot, not what we want?
Hutcheon: But the events of last month drove home the price of occupying Gaza. In a society where the army is on a pedestal, the deaths of thirteen young soldiers came as a national blow. Yet some Israelis are as adamant as ever.
Sara Newman: I think the army will always need to maintain the ability to go into Gaza. I think Gaza is a hotbed for terrorists. I think the army will always be there.
Music
Hutcheon: Israels focus was to stop weapons being manufactured or smuggled in from Egypt. But in the course of destroying hiding places, more than 300 homes, without any military purpose, were also destroyed.
According to the U.N. in a single month 3,500 people were made homeless.
Clinical Psychologist Dr Eyad Sarraj has assessed the impact of constant violence on Gazans.
EYAD AL SARRAJ: All the children of Gaza have been exposed to the f-16 bombing and the Apache bombing. You dont know where theyre going to hit, whom theyre going to kill, and so the whole place has become in a state of panic.
And panic is given to the children through the behaviour of the parents, who themselves are at a loss what to do, how to help their children, how to protect them.
Hutcheon: Gaza has been occupied by Israel since the 1967 war. But a decade ago the Oslo accords enabled Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat to return in triumph. There was to be limited self-rule leading, ultimately, to a Palestinian state.
More than 200,000 people crammed the streets heeding Arafats call for unity.
Hutcheon: Nafez Shaladan also answered the call. He returned to Gaza eight years ago, after finishing aviation management studies in Qatar.
NAFEZ SHALADAN: I came back to this town after the signing of the peace negotiations with Israel which were to lead to two states -- one Palestinian, one Israeli -- and for the two to live in peace.
Hutcheon: Nafez Shaladan works at Gaza International Airport. In fact he helped to plan and build the 90 million dollar facility, a symbol of hope for a future Palestinian state. But no flights have taken off or landed in more than two years. The runway was destroyed by the Israeli army after it lost four soldiers in a militants attack.
NAFEZ SHALADAN: Israeli bulldozers came and started digging up the runway. Then F-16s armed with missiles hit the main communications tower.
Hutcheon: Instead of an independent state, Nafez Shaladan found hope turning to misery and suffering.EYAD EL SARRAJ: I know so many children who have shown
serious signs of disturbances, including post-traumatic stress disorder. And I know that today, 36% of the boys of Gaza think that the best thing in life is to die as a martyr.
Hutcheon: These youngsters sell stickers commemorating Gazas dead heroes. They are known as martyrs and last month more than 100 were added to Gazas ranks. Theres also a living hero. Not Yasser Arafat, in the eyes of thirteen year old Hamid, but Osama Bin Laden. In the refugee neighbourhood of Tel El Sultan, near the border with Egypt, children have a choice of hobbies.
They can sort scrap metal to earn extra shekels for their parents. Or if that doesnt take their fancy, there are barriers to build against rivers of sewage.
This is where Israels latest military offensive took place. Known as operation rainbow, it was aimed at rounding up militants and gathering intelligence on the weapons-smuggling tunnels that stretch from Rafah into Egypt, about two kilometres away. By the time the Israeli tanks had withdrawn, more than 20 people from this neighbourhood had been killed, including two children.
At the start of the Israeli armys siege last month, Asma and Ahmad Al Mughair, aged 16 and 13 were shot dead. Seriya Al Mughair is a now mother in mourning.
SERIYA AL MUGHAIR: (PRAISE BE TO GOD.) I feel theres a big gap in this house. When I see now where Asma and Ahed used to sit, I feel the house has become empty.
Hutcheon: During a lull in the gunfire, the children went up to the roof -- Asma to collect laundry, Ahmad to feed the pigeons.
SERIYA AL MUGHAIR: Asma was sixteen years old, and Ahmad was also a child, 13 years old. When he saw his sister was shot, he was trying to come down and tell us -- but he didnt make it.
Hutcheon: Elder brother Ali explains how, after the shooting, he dragged his sisters body from the roof, after wrapping her shattered skull in a towel.
ALI: I just covered the head because I didnt want the brain hanging out. It took me more than 20 minutes to pull her just six or seven metres.
The family accuses Israeli snipers of killing the children. The army says its investigation could take months.
Seriya couldnt even bury her children. The army curfew prevented the family from leaving home.
SERIYA AL MUGHAIR: Sharon wants to prove hes intelligent and strong by killing innocent children. Asma dreamed of going to university when she finished school and to become a doctor one day.
Hutcheon: Gazans fear before any withdrawal, Israel will try to bring them to the knees. The international community continues to voice concern about house demolitions and the killing of civilians. Prime Minister Sharon is resolute in his desire to leave Gaza. But a long battle of emotions has just begun.
SARA NEWMAN: But I dont think ultimately that disengagement is the answer. I dont want barbaric neighbours.
If anything, it makes me more certain that there is a need for an Israeli presence in Gaza in one form or another and the more of it the better. Oh, I sound like an extremist!
SERIYA AL MUGHAIR: Why should I feel pity for them? They are taking our children and they are occupying us. The Jews are taking our land and our homes. Why do have I have to feel pity for them? No, I dont feel pity for them.
Hutcheon: The settlers of Gaza may have just one more summer before their government forces them to pull up their roots and leave.
For Gazans, Israels evacuation may bring some relief from hardship. But after years of blood, hatred and broken promises, its hard to see imagine a brighter future.
Reporter: Jane Hutcheon
Camera: Khalil Mari
Editor: Amir Tal
Research: Safwat Al Kahlut
Producer: Ayelet Cohen
Hutcheon: Sara Newman, who lives in Jerusalem, is a woman with a mission.
In her typically efficient way, shes, planning her sons wedding well ahead of schedule.
Sara, who grew up in Melbourne, intends to give her son Gidon a day to remember; because plaguing her is a day she cant forget.
A month ago, on May the eleventh, her youngest boy Eitan was killed.
Sara Newman: Some time during the seven day mourning period, after the funeral, I think I realised hes just not going to be coming home for weekends any more. And I miss him more than I can say. You know, its like -- I lost my father, but this is different. This is not natural.
Music
Hutcheon: Eitan was 21, a soldier in an elite Israeli army unit. He was travelling in an armoured personnel carrier when it struck a bomb placed by Palestinian fighters. Eitan and five others died instantly. The Palestinians displayed the soldiers remains as trophies.
Sara Newman: I would cry except that I have no tears left. There are no tears left.
Hutcheon: Sara Newman is convinced her son died defending Israel. But he was only one of thirteen soldiers killed in Gaza in the bloody month of May. Prime Minister Ariel Sharon, under pressure from the United States, judges the military sacrifice and the political pain of staying on too high.
He plans to force Israelis from twenty-one Gaza settlements by the end of next year. But the withdrawal wont be total. Israeli soldiers will stay on all of Gazas borders. Seventy percent of Israelis support the withdrawal, but Israels coalition government is splintering. Its a big political risk.
Gazas impoverished neighbourhoods have become the current focus in the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. The Israelis say its about security. The Palestinians say its about land; occupied land. Gaza is home to more than one million Palestinians but 40% of that land is occupied by 7,500 Israeli settlers.
Bryna Hilburg is one of them.
Were travelling on a road built especially for Israelis in a secure enclave known as Gush Katif. Bryna: It seems to have attracting power. People want to come here. People want to live here.
Hutcheon: This is Gazas largest Israeli settlement bloc home to several thousand settlers. Once they were key supporters of the Prime Minister.
Bryna Hilburg: Ariel Sharon was the guy I voted for and I absolutely never in my wildest dreams thought that this would happen.
Hutcheon: Do you have a right to be in Gaza?
Bryna Hilburg: Of course I have the right to be in Gaza. If I lived in America and I wanted to live in any neighbourhood I could live there and since the Six Day War when the Gaza strip was taken over by the Israelis, why not? Why not Gaza?
Hutcheon: Israels leaders approved the establishment of settlements to bolster the states security. Families were given funds to move here.
She works as a speech therapist while her husband Sammy grows tomatoes.
After 25 years here, their ties to Gaza run deep.
Strengthening that bond, her son Johanan, is buried here -- a soldier killed in Lebanon seven years ago
Hutcheon: Do you feel betrayed?
BRYNA HILBURG: Absolutely. I try to do every single thing that a citizen of this country is supposed to do, and then somebody tells me not good enough, not in the right spot, not what we want?
Hutcheon: But the events of last month drove home the price of occupying Gaza. In a society where the army is on a pedestal, the deaths of thirteen young soldiers came as a national blow. Yet some Israelis are as adamant as ever.
Sara Newman: I think the army will always need to maintain the ability to go into Gaza. I think Gaza is a hotbed for terrorists. I think the army will always be there.
Music
Hutcheon: Israels focus was to stop weapons being manufactured or smuggled in from Egypt. But in the course of destroying hiding places, more than 300 homes, without any military purpose, were also destroyed.
According to the U.N. in a single month 3,500 people were made homeless.
Clinical Psychologist Dr Eyad Sarraj has assessed the impact of constant violence on Gazans.
EYAD AL SARRAJ: All the children of Gaza have been exposed to the f-16 bombing and the Apache bombing. You dont know where theyre going to hit, whom theyre going to kill, and so the whole place has become in a state of panic.
And panic is given to the children through the behaviour of the parents, who themselves are at a loss what to do, how to help their children, how to protect them.
Hutcheon: Gaza has been occupied by Israel since the 1967 war. But a decade ago the Oslo accords enabled Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat to return in triumph. There was to be limited self-rule leading, ultimately, to a Palestinian state.
More than 200,000 people crammed the streets heeding Arafats call for unity.
Hutcheon: Nafez Shaladan also answered the call. He returned to Gaza eight years ago, after finishing aviation management studies in Qatar.
NAFEZ SHALADAN: I came back to this town after the signing of the peace negotiations with Israel which were to lead to two states -- one Palestinian, one Israeli -- and for the two to live in peace.
Hutcheon: Nafez Shaladan works at Gaza International Airport. In fact he helped to plan and build the 90 million dollar facility, a symbol of hope for a future Palestinian state. But no flights have taken off or landed in more than two years. The runway was destroyed by the Israeli army after it lost four soldiers in a militants attack.
NAFEZ SHALADAN: Israeli bulldozers came and started digging up the runway. Then F-16s armed with missiles hit the main communications tower.
Hutcheon: Instead of an independent state, Nafez Shaladan found hope turning to misery and suffering.EYAD EL SARRAJ: I know so many children who have shown
serious signs of disturbances, including post-traumatic stress disorder. And I know that today, 36% of the boys of Gaza think that the best thing in life is to die as a martyr.
Hutcheon: These youngsters sell stickers commemorating Gazas dead heroes. They are known as martyrs and last month more than 100 were added to Gazas ranks. Theres also a living hero. Not Yasser Arafat, in the eyes of thirteen year old Hamid, but Osama Bin Laden. In the refugee neighbourhood of Tel El Sultan, near the border with Egypt, children have a choice of hobbies.
They can sort scrap metal to earn extra shekels for their parents. Or if that doesnt take their fancy, there are barriers to build against rivers of sewage.
This is where Israels latest military offensive took place. Known as operation rainbow, it was aimed at rounding up militants and gathering intelligence on the weapons-smuggling tunnels that stretch from Rafah into Egypt, about two kilometres away. By the time the Israeli tanks had withdrawn, more than 20 people from this neighbourhood had been killed, including two children.
At the start of the Israeli armys siege last month, Asma and Ahmad Al Mughair, aged 16 and 13 were shot dead. Seriya Al Mughair is a now mother in mourning.
SERIYA AL MUGHAIR: (PRAISE BE TO GOD.) I feel theres a big gap in this house. When I see now where Asma and Ahed used to sit, I feel the house has become empty.
Hutcheon: During a lull in the gunfire, the children went up to the roof -- Asma to collect laundry, Ahmad to feed the pigeons.
SERIYA AL MUGHAIR: Asma was sixteen years old, and Ahmad was also a child, 13 years old. When he saw his sister was shot, he was trying to come down and tell us -- but he didnt make it.
Hutcheon: Elder brother Ali explains how, after the shooting, he dragged his sisters body from the roof, after wrapping her shattered skull in a towel.
ALI: I just covered the head because I didnt want the brain hanging out. It took me more than 20 minutes to pull her just six or seven metres.
The family accuses Israeli snipers of killing the children. The army says its investigation could take months.
Seriya couldnt even bury her children. The army curfew prevented the family from leaving home.
SERIYA AL MUGHAIR: Sharon wants to prove hes intelligent and strong by killing innocent children. Asma dreamed of going to university when she finished school and to become a doctor one day.
Hutcheon: Gazans fear before any withdrawal, Israel will try to bring them to the knees. The international community continues to voice concern about house demolitions and the killing of civilians. Prime Minister Sharon is resolute in his desire to leave Gaza. But a long battle of emotions has just begun.
SARA NEWMAN: But I dont think ultimately that disengagement is the answer. I dont want barbaric neighbours.
If anything, it makes me more certain that there is a need for an Israeli presence in Gaza in one form or another and the more of it the better. Oh, I sound like an extremist!
SERIYA AL MUGHAIR: Why should I feel pity for them? They are taking our children and they are occupying us. The Jews are taking our land and our homes. Why do have I have to feel pity for them? No, I dont feel pity for them.
Hutcheon: The settlers of Gaza may have just one more summer before their government forces them to pull up their roots and leave.
For Gazans, Israels evacuation may bring some relief from hardship. But after years of blood, hatred and broken promises, its hard to see imagine a brighter future.
Reporter: Jane Hutcheon
Camera: Khalil Mari
Editor: Amir Tal
Research: Safwat Al Kahlut
Producer: Ayelet Cohen