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Rafah Home Demolitions Leave Families Caught Between Displacement and Poverty
IN FRONT OF a simple tent he and his family had erected in the middle of a small plot, refugee Ahmed Al Lahwani was sitting with his eight kids, surrounded by walls on all sides. He was speaking to them in an optimistic tone, trying to console them after the demolition six months earlier of their house in the Al Shuaa't refugee camp, on the southern edge of Rafah Camp.
"Our displacement won't last so long," he reassured his children, "and we will build a new house and make it more beautiful than the house that was demolished by Israeli bulldozers. And every one of you will get a separate room," Al Lahwani promised. "We will get some peace and comfort, which we have missed in the past few months," he added.
Al Lahwani was interrupted by his 12- year-old daughter, Hanin. Her anger readily apparent on her face, she told her father in a loud voice: "Since the demolishing of our house, you keep saying that you will build a new house instead
