The 26-day Israeli military offensive that started in December 2008 was a heavier than ever answer to the aggressive Hamas politicians of Gaza not acknowledging Israel. The retributive actions of the Israeli Army caused more than 1400 deaths and more than 5000 Palestinians became wounded. More than half of those dead or wounded are civilians.
According to the Israeli government the military actions were necessary to destroy the smuggler tunnel network under the Egypt-Gaza border, to weaken the governmental positions of the extremist Hamas and to free Corporal Ghilad Salid kidnapped three years ago.
This military action was evaluated differently by the two parties involved. According to Hamas even if not in a military way, but ethically Israel lost the 26-day war. According to the Israelis the positions of the extremist Islamic organization weakened.
It is impossible to make justice. Hamas hasn’t stopped shooting rockets on Israel, the 1600 tunnels are still operational, the Israel-Gaza and Egypt-Gaza borders are still blocked – so you can easily say that this war did not change anything. But there is a change. The population of the Gaza Strip lives its life in an even more difficult situation. Most of its infrastructure perished or became damaged, supplies became shorter and the people of Gaza have less hope than ever before.
The shooting of the 52-minute documentary “Messages from Gaza” started right after the war. In three weeks time we shot approximately forty hours but not only about the war. We think that when making news it is necessary to show ruins, people in hospital and those dead but it cannot be the topic of a documentary.
„Messages from Gaza” is trying to show human fate going beyond pictures of the war that sometimes occur in the film even if not as bloodily as you are used to when watching the news – the makers of the film think that real damage was made to souls. It is that kind of damage that has an indelible trace in everybody who suffered from it. Still we think that the wish to live together can be stronger than any political wish that wants to make the two nations living together in peace for eons separete.
We do not show politicians in our film but average Gaza people. You can hear pro and contra opinions about peace, war, occupation and co-existence.
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