But what the invaders left in the psyche of the people of Gaza was a hatred of occupation […] and the spirit of resistance […] From Gaza, too, sprang hope and the rivers of dreams. And Gaza has remained, as it is today, a city on the sea, dreaming of the sea. Ibrahim Darwish46 the fridge January 2009 The row of white cottages where the Swailams lived has been reduced to rubble, the land around it laid waste. No-man’s-land has expanded across this whole stretch of northern Gaza. There is nobody living here now. As I walk through the Erez crossing into Gaza, I have violently conflicting emotions. I have been obsessed with returning to Gaza, but now part of me wonders what the hell I’m doing back here. And I never heard another word from Sakhar. It is the last week of January. The Israeli military pulled out of Gaza just a few days ago and the aid workers and journalists swept in. So much has already been written about this assault, Israel’s most devastating offensive inside Gaza since it occupied the Strip in 1967.
