No Home to Return to in Gaza

[cali]

15,000 Still Living In Crowded Shelters

GAZA CITY, Jan. 22 -- When members of the Sultan family ran from their home as an Israeli tank shelled its northern wall, there was no time to shut the front door. There was also no need.

The house, which family patriarch Samir al-Sultan began building at the age of 15, was all but destroyed as Israeli forces advanced into the Gaza Strip in early January, turning the house's contents into a mangled mess of glass and mortar.

With no home to return to and no prospects for rebuilding, the Sultans on Thursday were among the thousands of Palestinians in Gaza searching for somewhere to go.

Israel's 22-day war on Hamas, the Islamist movement that controls Gaza, forced 50,000 people into shelters, according to U.N. officials. They say 15,000 remain in such facilities because of damage to their homes -- with countless more finding refuge in the care of relatives.

<snip>

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/story/2009/01/23/ST2009012300271.html