The Washington Post - USA (2020-09-14

A10 EZ RE THE WASHINGTON POST.MONDAY, SEPTEMBER 14 , 2020

The World

BELARUS

Big protests in Minsk;

Russia to join drills

At least 100,000 Belarusian
protesters took to the streets of
Minsk on Sunday in one of the
biggest demonstrations yet
against President Alexander
Lukashenko after he claimed a
landslide victory in an Aug. 9
election that his opponents say
was rigged.
As public anger built against
Lukashenko, who has ruled the
former Soviet nation for
26 years, Moscow offered him
support by saying it would send
paratroopers to Belarus for
“Slavic Brotherhood” joint drills.
The unrest comes as
Lukashenko prepares to travel to
Russia on Monday for talks with
President Vladimir Putin.
Moscow has stepped up
support, offering to restructure
Belarusian debt and providing

banking liquidity. It has also said

Russian riot police could be

made available.

On Sunday, Russia’s Defense

Ministry said paratroopers from

its elite Pskov division would

travel to Belarus for the joint

drills running from Monday

until Sept. 25, the Tass state news

agency reported.

On the streets of Minsk, some

critics of Lukashenko expressed

hope that the sheer size of

Sunday’s protests would make it

difficult for Putin to back him

openly.

— Reuters

GREECE

Premier urges more

E.U. aid on migration

Greece’s prime minister

demanded Sunday that the

European Union take greater

responsibility for managing

migration into the bloc, as Greek

authorities promised that 12,

migrants and asylum seekers left

homeless after fire gutted an

overcrowded camp would be

moved shortly to a new tent city.

Greek Prime Minister

Kyriakos Mitsotakis accused

some residents at the Moria

camp on the Greek island of

Lesbos of trying to blackmail his

government by setting the fires

last week. But he said the

incident could prove an

opportunity for the E.U.

“It was a warning bell to all to

become sensitized,” he said.

“Europe cannot afford a second

failure on the migration issue.”

Since the fires, which followed

a coronavirus lockdown,

thousands of people have

camped out on the highway near

Moria under police guard. Many

have protested the Greek

government’s refusal to allow the

homeless migrants to leave

Lesbos for the Greek mainland.

Greek residents also complain

their island is being used as a

dumping ground for migrants.

— Associated Press

Former British leaders decry

Brexit plan: Former British

prime ministers John Major and

Tony Blair, who played key roles

in bringing peace to Northern

Ireland, joined forces to urge

lawmakers to reject government

plans to override the Brexit deal

with the European Union, saying

it imperils that peace and

damages the United Kingdom’s

reputation. The British

government has admitted its

proposed legislation would

break international law but

argues it’s an insurance policy in

the event a trade deal with the

E.U. is not secured by the end of

this year.

Austria in “second wave” of

pandemic, leader says: Austria

is seeing the start of a “second

wave” of coronavirus infections,

Chancellor Sebastian Kurz said,

urging citizens to comply with

reinforced rules, such as

mandatory mask-wearing in

shops. Austria had a relatively

successful first phase of the

pandemic but has joined other

European countries in

experiencing a rise in infections

in recent weeks. About half of

the new infections are in Vienna,

the capital, Kurz said.

Pakistan and India trade

accusations over cross-border

fire: An 11-year-old Pakistani girl

was killed and four other

villagers critically wounded by

Indian troops firing

“unprovoked” into the Pakistan-

administered part of the

disputed region of Kashmir,

Pakistan’s military said. An

Indian army spokesman said

Pakistani soldiers had initiated

the firing and shelling, to which

Indian soldiers “retaliated

befittingly.”

Iraq’s top cleric backs early

elections: Iraq’s top Shiite cleric

threw his support behind the

prime minister’s announcement

that parliamentary elections will

be held ahead of schedule next

year, saying the timing should

not serve the interests of

political groups. Grand Ayatollah

Ali al-Sistani’s comments came

after a meeting with the U.N.

envoy to Iraq, Jeanine Hennis-

Plasschaert.

Scores of dead sea lions wash

up in Mexico: Environmental

authorities found a total of

137 dead, beached sea lions along

a stretch of Pacific coast on

Mexico’s Baja California

Peninsula this weekend, saying

in a statement that the creatures

did not show signs of injury from

getting caught up in fishing nets

or lines or from collisions with

boats — both common causes of

sea lion deaths and injuries.

— From news services

DIGEST

BY HAZEM BALOUSHA

gaza city — I t was late at
night in Gaza. Adam and Karam,
my two little sons, were asleep.
But the sound of the bombing
was very loud as Israeli jets tar-
geted Hamas military sites. My
fear, as always, was that the
noise would wake and scare
them. But when I checked, they
were asleep.
There would be nowhere to
go if they did wake up. For the
first time since the coronavirus
pandemic began, all 2 million
Gazans are in home quarantine
to slow a growing outbreak. Our
movements are always restrict-
ed within Gaza’s 140 square
miles, bound by the Mediterra-
nean on one side, fenced in by
the Israeli army on another. But
now, as the jets strike outside
for the 20th straight night, we
cannot even leave our houses.
We are stuck in a lockdown
within a lockdown.
For months, we’d recorded
only about 100 coronavirus cas-
es in Gaza, all among residents
returning from the outside and
who were immediately quaran-
tined. But on Aug. 24, the first
cases of unknown origin were
reported, in the tightly packed
Maghazi refugee camp, and
Gaza was placed under a com-
plete lockdown that very same
night. Since then, we’ve record-
ed more than 1,400 local cases.
It is beautiful to be a parent.
But in Gaza it is also especially
difficult. This has been true
since Adam was born 10 years
ago: It was two months before I
even met him because Israel’s
blockade of Gaza meant I
couldn’t be with his mother,
Ruba, when she gave birth in
the West Bank, where her family
lives.
“Will I be able to shield him
and give him a good life in be-
sieged Gaza?” I wondered as I
marveled at my tiny boy. In the
decade since, the question has
never gone away. The constant
cycle of escalation between Isra-
el and Hamas, the militant
group that governs here, has
meant frequent explosive nights
and, twice, all-out war. Rockets.
More recently, Hamas and other
militant groups have launched
incendiary balloons that cause
fires in nearby Israeli communi-
ties and farms. Israel retaliates
each night by blowing up
Hamas facilities. It is the violent
background of our lives.
The boys slept, and I turned
on a light to read. We are lucky
that we can afford our own solar
power system that provides
about 70 percent of our house-
hold needs. Many of my neigh-
bors in Gaza City, and almost all
of the 600,000 people living in
Gaza’s eight refugee camps, are
spending the lockdown mostly
in the dark.
The Israeli army destroyed
Gaza’s main power station in the
2006 war. In the best of times,
we have only eight hours of elec-
tricity a day as blackouts rotate
through the neighborhoods. But
three weeks ago, as a reprisal
against the balloon launches, Is-
rael cut off fuel shipments to
Gaza’s last power plant. As the
outbreak began to spike in late
August, Gaza had only four
hours of electricity a day.

A world shrinking once again

Being locked in the house
while also locked in our small
coastal enclave is very annoying.
One of the ways to stay sane
while living under siege is to
move around where it’s possible,
to gather with your fellow Ga-

Coronavirus lockdown steals Gazans’ last vestiges of normal life

PHOTOS BY LOAY AYYOUB FOR THE WASHINGTON POST

Checkpoints are manned by the Palestinian police at Al-Saraya Junction in Gaza City on Aug. 27. The Gaza Strip has been locked down since Aug. 24.

places brought to us by the In-

ternet are forever out of reach. I

think of my friends who won

scholarships to study abroad but

could not get out of Gaza to at-

tend.

For many Gazans, their far-

thest travel is the edge of the

sea, where we cool ourselves in

the Mediterranean breezes and

look out to a world all but closed

to us.

But this being Gaza, even a

day on the beach is complicated

by conflict. There is not enough

electricity to run the waste

treatment plants and we cannot

swim because of the untreated

sewage that is pumped into the

sea.

One evening a few days be-

fore the lockdown, I took the

boys to the beach. It is always a

mix of pain and pleasure to sit

with them, watching them play

but knowing they will run to the

water’s edge and back, asking

every five minutes if they can

swim. I have to say no.

Soon after the pandemic

flared up, Israel and Hamas ne-

gotiated another cease-fire, bro-

kered by Qatar. The balloons

and bombs have stopped for

now; we have four more hours

of electricity to light our quaran-

tine.

We know from experience

that this quiet will soon cycle

back to violence. Of the two

lockdowns, the one caused by

the virus will be the first to be

resolved. We can only pray that

we can keep our children safe

until it is.

When this quarantine is over,

we will go back to the beach to

claim one of the pleasures avail-

able to us. That is the life of a

Gaza parent, a cycle of tension

and relief, despair and joy. They

will be happy in the sand, and I

will say no to swimming, wait-

ing as always for the day I can

say yes.

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zans at cafes, in mosques or on

the beach. In the camps, social

life centers on families and

friends, gathering on sidewalks

and apartment stoops. Now,

even that connection to a nor-

mal society is cut.

Like everywhere, Gaza has

been under coronavirus restric-

tions for months. Restaurants

have been closed or limited to

takeout. Mosques and churches

were shut. But everyone who en-

tered Gaza through the check-

points was quarantined for

three weeks, and the number of

infections remained low.

My boys had returned to

school in the second week in Au-

gust, after an absence of five

months. The term started early

in hopes that the kids could

catch up on what they had

missed. They were excited to get

back to school and see their

classmates. They had heroic

achievements to share: Karam

had won his karate yellow belt

and Adam had learned new soc-

cer moves. School is one of the

few places where Gazan life feels

normal.

Within weeks, classes stopped

again due to a sudden outbreak

of new cases. The airstrikes hit

every night, the pandemic was

closing in and our world was

shrinking once again.

The kids miss school as much

as their parents do. Now most of

their play is on PlayStation.

Their social life is when the

cousins and friends can join

them online for a couple of

hours of “Fortnite.”

Maybe it’s good they are still

too young to understand the lay-

ers of conflict and pandemic

pressing on them. We are able to

keep them busy. When we are

free to move around, we give

them a life that is rich by Gaza

standards, with extended family,

friends, school and public plac-

es. You want to shield them. But

the reality in Gaza makes that

feel increasingly like a mission

impossible.

Technology — a blessing

and a curse

Adam and Karam get lessons

every day in how their lives are

different from the young people

they see on their screens. They

ask me when we will travel to

see their grandmother in the

West Bank, something that can

require months to plan. Permits

are needed from Israel, and

sometimes from Hamas and the

Palestinian Authority — all three

maintain checkpoints at the one

crossing into Israel for individu-

als. Any of them can say no, and

Israel often does.

Now, even that possibility is

gone.

Technology is a blessing that

opens my kids’ minds and ex-

pands their knowledge. But it

can also be curse in besieged

places like Gaza. So much of

what we see, we cannot do. The

Children look out the window of their house in the Abu Skander area of Gaza City on

Sept. 9. Schools reopened in August but soon closed again because of the lockdown.

A young man rides a bicycle on Rashid Street, by the shore. For many Gazans, the

Mediterranean s eacoast marks a glimpse of a nearly inaccessible world beyond.