Little progress along Gaza’s 45-km desolation road

Last summer, during a lull in Israel’s 50-day military campaign against Gaza, the award-winning photographer Heidi Levine travelled along the territory’s main highway to document the devastation for The National. Ahead of the one-year anniversary of the start of the war, she repeated the journey to see what had changed.

Palestinian Imam Amir Hamrah stands inside the Salahadin Mosque that still shows the damage from last summer's 50 day war between Israel and the Hamas-controlled Gaza Strip. Photo by Heidi Levine for Show more

Gaza // Marked by concrete blocks and a kilometre-long tunnel, the start of Saladin Road greets you as you cross the Erez checkpoint into no man’s land, where only the brave venture to graze sheep or collect rubble. Workers, farmers and militants in the area are routinely shot by Israeli forces stationed at the border.

Named after the legendary sultan who led Muslims against the Crusaders to capture the Kingdom of Jerusalem in the 12th century, the major north-south highway that once served as a vital trade route between empires continues for 45 kilometres along to the border with Egypt.

Last week I travelled again for The National along Saladin Road, looking for any signs of change or progress since the conflict that brought vast levels of destruction to Gaza.

Sadly, many of my images of destroyed homes look nearly identical to the ones I photographed a year ago. The changes are few and subtle.

In one image, the difference in the scene is provided by the small purple wildflowers that have managed to root themselves and grow from the rubble and scattered household goods belonging to the Abadla family in the Karara area of Khan Younis. The home itself survived the winter’s heavy rains but still appears as it if it is about to topple.

From the start of my journey at the rebuilt Hamas-controlled checkpoint, to its conclusion at the closed Rafah border terminal with Egypt, every person I met expressed fear of another war.

They were still haunted by the previous one that killed more than 2,200 Palestinians in Gaza and took the lives of 67 soldiers and six civilians from Israel.

Many are still struggling to heal both physically and emotionally from the war’s impact. All voiced frustration over Israel’s blockade and their inability to travel in and out of Gaza freely.

Yet despite the despair and the thousands who remain displaced, the rising rate of unemployment and the long hours left in the dark without electricity, the Abadla home refuses to tumble and life continues. After all, Gaza has known peace neither in its antiquity nor its present.