Jun
19
Clay houses in Gaza
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Palestinians living in the Gaza Strip have come up with an ingenious way of circumventing the Israeli boycott. Since the Israeli offensive at the beginning of this year, Israel has refused to allow any building material into the territory in order to thwart Hamas. However, Gaza does possess two building materials in abundance: clay and rubble. While Gazans wait for reconstruction to begin, houses made from clay and rubble are being built.
The Palestinian organisation Mercy Association for Children has already started construction work on two of the most ambitious projects in the Gaza Strip. In Gaza City, 14 construction workers are busy building a centre for disabled children and a mosque. They are being built out of clay, recycled plastic and rubble from the buildings destroyed by the Israeli army during the offensive. Read more
Jun
16
Tarin Kowt, Uruzgan – Dutch soldiers in Afghanistan have accidentally fired red phosphorus grenades at their comrades. A night patrol had asked for flares to illuminate their surroundings but instead received phosphorus grenades which create a smokescreen.
Correspondent David Poort witnessed the incident:
We left the Combat Outpost (COP), a small advanced base in the Dorafshan Valley north of Karin Towt, at dusk. With night-vision binoculars at the ready, I joined a platoon of Dutch soldiers for a night patrol to one of the nearby villages. The patrol is intended to make clear to the locals that ISAF now also maintains a nighttime presence in the area.
Night patrol in Dorafshan, Uruzgan
During a short tour of the village, the soldiers explained to the local residents that flares would be fired from the base that night. “Many Afghans have seen them before”, one of the soldiers said. “They used to identify them with the bombs which came after. That is not our intention in this case.” Read more