Wafa Amr, a Jordanian, has been working for Reuters in Jerusalem since 1994 with a focus on the Palestinian Territories. She lived in Gaza intermittently between 1994 and 2000 and the last time she was there was in mid-2005. The following story recounts her first visit since before Hamas took over the enclave.
By Wafa Amr
GAZA STRIP (Reuters) - The air smelt of falafel cooking oil-- used by drivers to power their cars -- and a hint of sewage.
I was in Gaza for the first time since before the Israelispulled out in 2005. The place where I lived intermittently forsix years was -- utterly -- gone.
Beaches that once swarmed with people, gypsies dancing inEgyptian costumes barely covering their bodies to the cheers ofyoung men and women, alcohol in some restaurants, the silverteeming of fish in the crowded market -- gone.
Demand for fish has slumped because as sewage is pumpedinto the sea, people are afraid to eat it.
At Erez border crossing, I stood for 15 minutes shut in acompartment like an airlock facing a concrete wall with anotherthick steel door carved in it, iron bars on the sides, andsecurity cameras watching from above.
People said they had been trapped there for more than hour,watched by some soldier but unable to communicate with anyone.
"You have to stand in front of the door so they can see youand open the gate," shouted a worker through the iron bars, ashe repaired damage done by a suicide bomber in May.
It was never paradise. The way in was always much easierthan the way out, and the air used to ring out with the soundof bullets shot by gunmen for rival Palestinian factions.
But the atmosphere was alive, and people were hoping forfreedom as the Israelis were due to leave the Gaza Strip.
Now, without a multiple entry visa to Israel, you could getstuck in Gaza, patrolled by bearded men with guns and veiledwomen, reading placards with Islamic sayings or verses from theKoran that are placed on roundabouts and some street walls.
When I finally got through the border, the bearded menignored me and asked the taxi driver who I was and where I wasgoing. Told we were following a car with my bureau chief andGaza correspondent, they waved us in.
GREEN FLAGS AND GUNS
There was no question who was running Gaza. Hamas took overin mid-2007 after a power struggle with the rival Fatah factionfollowing Yasser Arafat's death, and the Islamist group's greenflags flew everywhere.
There were no more gunshots in the background: I only sawHamas' bearded security forces and policemen with guns.
Instead, there was silence and destruction. Everywhere,destruction and emptiness. Ruined buildings ready to topple.
A shortage of petrol has made cars scarce. People travel indonkey carts, or motorcycles brought in from Egypt in Januarywhen people stormed the border to break the blockade.
Beit Hanoun, the once busy industrial zone, was flattened-- including the Oslo restaurant opened shortly after Arafatsigned the 1993 interim peace deals with Israel negotiatedsecretly in Oslo, Norway.
Several shops and a few factories on the road to Gazacentre were shut. The few boutiques and restaurants that wereopen hardly had any customers. Garbage bags were on the streetsand pavements. The economic situation has been aggravated byinternational sanctions imposed after Hamas took over.
I went to a supermarket in the luxurious al-Rimalneighbourhood and asked the shop owner about how conditionshave changed.
My question sparked a heated debate among the customers.One woman passionately defended Hamas while others complainedof worsening conditions under the Islamist group.
"I never felt safe under Fatah's secular regime of thievesand corrupt people. Now under Hamas, who believe in God, I feelsafe," said the woman who only gave her name as Um Ahmad.
She was interrupted by another woman.
"Those who are not Hamas are treated badly. I was detainedand interrogated for criticising Hamas and then sacked from myjob," she said.
A man who had been employed by the Palestinian Authority inthe coastal enclave said that during his seven-day detention,he was interrogated about why he had drunk beer eight yearsago.
Many women have always gone about covered in Gaza, wherereligious traditions have been stronger than in some otherPalestinian areas. Some continue to walk around withoutscarves. But headcoverings seemed more common.
A woman who, like many others, refused to give her name,said she never wore the headscarf before in Gaza.
"Hamas doesn't impose the scarf on us but we are forced towear it to avoid the stinging comments we hear from their menand women on the streets," she said.
Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas is negotiating a dealwith Israel to establish a Palestinian state on the West Bankand Gaza Strip. But Gaza is not only separated from the rest ofthe Palestinian areas geographically.
It now has a different political reality.
(Editing by Sara Ledwith and Samia Nakhoul)
