Seeing first-hand the small Palestinian territory, scarred by the 50-day war between Israel and Hamas, Cardinal Nichols found himself shocked by a number of observations.<\/p>\n
“I was told that more or less 50% of the people of Gaza have had their houses damaged or destroyed in this conflict. [Another] thing I found shocking was how endemic the poverty is of the ordinary people.<\/p>\n
“There was very little constructive economic activity I could see. Many factories seemed to have been destroyed. What you saw on the streets were workshops where old spare parts of cars were adapted to keep the current cars going – a second-hand market.<\/p>\n
“[There was a lot of] second-hand wrought iron work taken from the rubble and bricks recirculated, and the normal markets selling foodstuffs, fruit and vegetables, but that isn’t enough to sustain a population of 1.5m people.<\/p>\n
“The poverty is a deep problem – especially when the birth rate is so high in Gaza – a whole generation of people are growing up in these circumstances.”<\/p>\n