Reap what you sow
Obscenity deleted.. Someone must have forgot to tell you the Great Satan (America) pays your
Obscenity deleted. bills.
Hope your happy with Hamas and terrorizing The West.
ClickGAZA CITY, Gaza Strip Sep 23, 2006 (AP)— Gaza's children used to light colorful lanterns to mark Ramadan, the Islamic holy month of fasting. But this year, many parents can't afford those small $1 toys as the coastal strip sinks deeper into poverty amid an aid cutoff to punish the Hamas-led government. "These days, I just want to cry," said Umm Emad, a mother of six. The only lantern in her house is a paraffin lamp she keeps for Gaza's frequent power cuts.
Ramadan, which began Saturday in the West Bank and Gaza and other parts of the Muslim world, is a time of fasting from dawn to dusk, piety and giving to the poor. It's also a festive month, with large family meals after sundown, social get-togethers and new clothes for everyone.
But Gaza is poorer than ever, and many will not be able to observe all Ramadan traditions. The U.N. feeds some 1 million of Gaza's 1.4 million people. One of the U.N. agencies, the World Food Program, added some 60,000 needy people for a total of 220,000 to its roster in September alone.
Foreign aid, which helped prop up the Palestinian Authority for more than a decade, dried up in March after the Islamic militant group Hamas came to power. For long periods, Gaza also was cut off from the world, particularly after Hamas-allied militants kidnapped an Israeli soldier in June.
In the past three months, Israeli incursions to stop rocket fire and find smuggling tunnels have killed more than 200 Palestinians, most of them militants. Electricity is rationed, in six-hour blocks, after Israel's military bombed Gaza's main power plant following the kidnapping of the soldier.