A Gaza Holiday: Looting & Chaos

The headline is from the NYT. It also describes what is happening to the money-generating greenhouses foreign philanthropists tried to save for the Palestine population. First, please read my previous post Donate Millions to Gaza Greenhouses?

On Tuesday there was chaos aplenty, with thousands of Palestinians rushing across the border to Egypt to shop, while thousands of others continued their active salvaging of saleable or usable materials from the 21 former Israeli settlements.

In some places, Palestinians looted the greenhouses that were bought for their use by American philanthropists, taking nylon tarpaulins, irrigation hoses and electrical equipment. Palestinian security forces deployed around the greenhouses said they were hopelessly outnumbered by the looters.

"We need at least another 70 soldiers. This is just a joke," Taysir Haddad, one of 22 security guards assigned to Neve Dekalim, told The Associated Press. "We've tried to stop as many people as we can, but they're like locusts."

He said about 80 percent of the greenhouses were still intact, but looters walked off with lighting fixtures, cables and wires despite the police presence. Ahmed Qurei, the Palestinian prime minister, toured Neve Dekalim and implored Palestinians to leave the greenhouses alone. "These greenhouses are for the Palestinian people," he said. "We don't want anyone to touch or harm anything that can be useful for our people."