How long can Israel get away with it? This is the question, two weeks into an offensive on Gaza that Israeli military personnel say may last for months, writes Erica Silverman

Catalogue of horror

Israeli violence in Gaza touches all aspects of infrastructure and the public psyche

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As Israeli brutality intensifies, the public outcry against Israel around the world increases. Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad attended an anti-Israel rally after Friday prayer in Tehran and masked activists burn Israeli and US flags in Buenos Aires during a demonstration in front of the Israeli Embassy

Israel continues to strike densely populated civilian areas and destroy infrastructure within the Gaza Strip as part of their effort to halt Qassam rocket fire into Israel and to retrieve a captured soldier, despite EU and UN warnings of a grave humanitarian crisis. Life inside Gaza was already in crisis. Palestinian households across the Strip are now without electricity and water in sweltering heat. Coupled with fuel shortages and a defunct sanitation system that leaves a stomach- wrenching odour hovering thick in the humidity, the situation is dire. Healthcare facilities, already lacking supplies are operating on generators, while heavy artillery fire from Israeli tanks has forced many Gazans from their homes or into hiding. There will be no reprieve vows Israel, until the 19-year-old Israeli soldier captured by Palestinian resistance fighters has been released.

Seven Palestinians were killed, including three teenagers playing soccer, and another 18 wounded by Israeli forces Monday alone in Gaza, raising the Palestinian death toll to over 50. On Saturday, Israel increased its presence along Gaza's eastern border. That night an Israeli artillery shell killed a mother and two of her children in their home on the outskirts of Gaza City, according to Palestinian witnesses. Four other children from the same family were wounded, one son now left deaf from the explosion.

The major Israeli incursion plowing ahead for over two weeks has destroyed Gaza's only power station and three major bridges inside the Strip. Power supplies are intermittent, leaving many residents with electricity for only a few hours a day. One of the most densely populated areas on earth, most Gazans live in high-rise buildings that require power to pump water into homes. Some buildings are operating on generators, although fuel supplies are dwindling according to the United Nations Relief and Works Agency (UNRWA) that supplies around two- thirds of the Gaza population with emergency food aid and cash assistance.

Israel has closed the Nahal Oz pipelines for days at a time, forcing UNRWA to bring in 30,000 litres of diesel via Karni crossing Thursday.

While an American company that insured Gaza's power station might pay for damage repair, according to UNRWA director for Gaza, John Ging, it will take about one year for the station to be fully operational. To restore partial operations will take six months, as the transformers have to be redeveloped. Meanwhile, circuit breaks cannot even be repaired due to close proximity to Israeli forces. "Sewage has not been pumped through treatment plants for several weeks. Instead it is being pumped in the sea," according to UNRWA Commissioner General Karen Abu Zayad, ironically contaminating Israeli shores and possibly Egyptian ones. Virtually no fish are available in local markets due to the presence of Israeli naval vessels along the coast and the loss of refrigeration facilities. Some 35,000 Palestinians working in the fishing industry have been affected, according to the World Food Programme.

Meanwhile, Israeli tanks and bulldozers withdrew from northern Gaza early Saturday after a two-day incursion, leaving behind a catalogue of destruction. The northern quarter of the Strip's infrastructure has been severely damaged while Israeli forces riddled homes and rooftop water tanks with bullet holes. Israeli tanks tour up the roads and cracked underground water pipes, reports Ging. "Farmers are trying to salvage destroyed crops after [Israeli] tanks ran across them. People are trying to come to grips with the consequences," he said.

"The general mood is one of fear and anger, but at the same time grief for all the innocent people who were murdered in cold blood," said 30-year-old Mohamed Abu Haloub from the northern town of Beit Lahya. "The [Israeli] tanks were only 300 metres from my home. We felt like we were in prison again and the random gunfire and the deployment frightened adults, let alone children." All to the backdrop of heavy artillery fire from Israeli tanks into open fields to prevent the launching of Qassams -- crudely home-made rockets that rarely cause injuries.

In the southern city of Rafah, over 1,000 residents have sought refuge in UNRWA schools after Israeli forces declared the area near the non-operational airport a closed military zone. Said Al-Astal, spokesperson for the Khan Yunis municipality, where fishing is the primary industry, estimates Khan Yunis has lost nearly $6 million to infrastructure damage and lost revenue following the Israeli incursions.

The psychological impact of the Israeli offensive is enormous. Eyad Al-Sarraj, chairman of the Gaza Community Mental Health Programme, which operates six clinics that have treated 15 per cent of the total Gazan population, reports his facilities have witnessed a dramatic increase in patients, particularly children traumatised by violence and bone rattling sonic booms created by low flying Israeli jets breaking the sound barrier. "Children are afraid to be alone. Bed wetting, depression and signs of regression in development are the most common problems," said Al-Sarraj. "People feel they are under siege, although there is a growing sense of defiance as people seek some form of moral victory over Israel," continued Al-Sarraj. As a result, Hamas is more popular than ever.

Meanwhile, has someone kidnapped President Mahmoud Abbas? This is a question many Palestinians are asking as Prime Minster Ismail Haniyeh toured the sites of Israeli strikes and consoled hospitalised victims while Abbas fled to Ramallah. "How can a president escape when a nation is in such a situation? He should have stayed with the population in Gaza," asserted Al-Sarraj.

In the eyes of many, the president has failed to bring the issue of the nearly 10,000 Palestinian prisoners incarcerated in Israel detention centres before the international community, and has been unsuccessful in halting the firing of Qassams into Israel, central to the possibility of a renewed ceasefire and an obstacle to foreign investment in the Strip. Until recently, Hamas had largely observed a 16-month ceasefire.

The escalation of violence comes on top of an already critical situation. Unemployment has jumped to 40 per cent, and for four months' worth of Palestinian Authority salaries have gone unpaid, relied upon by 43 per cent of Gaza's population. Meanwhile, the closure of Karni Crossing -- Gaza's only commercial outlet -- has prohibited job creation and increased operating costs for businesses.

Beaches are empty, summer weddings have been cancelled, and Rafah Crossing, the only passenger exit, has been sealed shut as Gazans brace themselves for another round of violence and destruction.

When asked if the soldier's captors should release him to end the suffering, Abu Haloub replied, "the captors should hold this soldier to remind the world that there are more than 10,000 Palestinian prisoners inside Israeli prisons, including women and children. There has to be something given in return if they want their soldier back alive."