In this Thursday, Sept. 12, 2013 photo, children of the Alwadiya extended family look through a cloth that serves as a door to their family house in Gaza City. The Patriarch of the family, Salih Alwadiya, has three wives, 14 sons and 6 daughters. Most of the boys, married with children, are among the 38 people living in bad conditions in small rooms in the makeshift house. (AP Photo/Adel Hana)
In this Thursday, Sept. 12, 2013 photo, children of the Alwadiya extended family look through a cloth that serves as a door to their family house in Gaza City. The Patriarch of the family, Salih Alwadiya, has three wives, 14 sons and 6 daughters. Most of the boys, married with children, are among the 38 people living in bad conditions in small rooms in the makeshift house. (AP Photo/Adel Hana)
In this Thursday, Sept. 12, 2013 photo, Alyaa Alwadiya, 27, left, stands with her son Loai, 4, in the makeshift kitchen of their family house in Gaza City. Alwadiya's extended family is among Gaza Strip’s poorest. They are not able to qualify for UNWRA assistance as they are not refugees. (AP Photo/Adel Hana)
In this Thursday, Sept. 12, 2013 photo, Manar Alwadiya, 12, left, poses while her sister Heba, 6, eats at their family house in Gaza City. The Alwadiya family is among the some 45 percent of Gazans who live in dire poverty, defined by the United Nations as living on less than $2 a day. (AP Photo/Adel Hana)
In this Thursday, Sept. 12, 2013 photo, Palestinian Salih Alwadiya, 61, stands at the door to his home as his wife, Handoma, 54, who suffers from high blood pressure, rests on a pile of mattresses in Gaza City. “When electricity cuts off, as happens every day, I go to the bed in front of the pigeon cage,” Alwadiya says. “In the day, we suffer from flies and at night, we suffer from mosquitoes.” (AP Photo/Adel Hana)
In this Thursday, Sept. 12, 2013 photo, Oday Alwadiya, 13, sits on motorcycle while his sister Seba, 3, rests on her brother Loai, 9, in the yard of their family house in Gaza City. The extended family consists of 38 people living in bad conditions in small rooms in their makeshift house near a sewage plant. (AP Photo/Adel Hana)
GAZA CITY, Gaza Strip (AP) — Salih Alwadiya is among Gaza Strip's poorest. The 61-year-old's home consists of a kitchen, several small rooms and a space devoted to cages full of pigeons and a goose. Many of his 20 children, from three wives, live with him near a sewage plant. In all, more than 50 people live in the small compound.
Their only form of transportation is a donkey cart, as his motorcycle is broken. With the house's roof made of scrap metal, his only escape from the stifling heat is to lie down in the dark room with the pigeons.
"When electricity cuts off, as happens every day, I go to the bed in front of the pigeon cage," Alwadiya says. "In the day, we suffer from flies and at night, we suffer from mosquitoes."
While Gaza has always been poor, conditions in the crowded seaside territory have worsened since Hamas militants seized power in 2007. Israel, which considers Hamas a terrorist group, along with Egypt imposed a blockade that greatly restricted imports and exports out of the area. Although the blockade has been eased, the economy remains stagnant.
Roughly 70 percent of Gaza's 1.7 million people rely on handouts, and per capital GDP, a measure of economic activity, is lower today than it was in 1994, according to the Palestinian Central Bureau of Statistics. Nearly half the population lives in dire poverty, defined by the U.N. as living on less than $2 a day.
Like many Gazans, Alwadiya, the family patriarch, used to work as a laborer in Israel. But Israel long ago stopped letting Gazans in for work. Alwadiya, who lost his right leg in a car accident as a child, was also wounded by shrapnel in an Israeli airstrike in 2008. He lost his job as a security guard seven months ago and remains unemployed.
The family earns a little by selling eggs. Most of their food and clothes come from donations. Alwadiya's wife Handoma, 54, suffers from high blood pressure, and Alwadiya fears the children will get sick from exposure to the sewage near the yard where they play.
"We are suffering from the smell of the garbage and the sewage daily," he says.
Alwadiya's daughter-in-law, Ibtisam, lives in a small bedroom with her husband and three young children. She says she pushes the children to study hard in hopes of a better life. "This is our priority," she says.
Here's a gallery of images by AP photographer Adel Hana of life for some of Gaza's poorest.
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Adel Hana can be reached at —https://twitter.com/ahana99
Associated PressSource: http://hosted2.ap.org/APDEFAULT/cae69a7523db45408eeb2b3a98c0c9c5/Article_2013-10-22-Gaza's%20Poorest-Photo%20Essay/id-e5312a5d606f40b8b0fbdc70fde1a06eCategory: bart Jacoby Jones Agents of SHIELD Anna Gunn 2 Guns
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