The Palestinians of Gaza are suffering from the most cruel blockade by Israel and Egypt; and the rest of the world indirectly. In a population of 1.5 million, 80% are dependent on United Nations rations for food, hundreds of thousands either have no water or get water only infrequently three to four times a day, children are malnourished and thousands remain homeless. Between December-January 2008-2009 nearly 1,000 Palestinians were killed by Israel - deliberate massacres according to a new UN Human Rights Council report - of whom over 400 were children.

The said UN report states that Israel’s bloody slaughter was intended not just to target Hamas, the Islamists running the stripe, but also the Palestinian people. Israel had been collectively punishing the Palestinians since Hamas won an election in 2006, but the Jewish state was failing in its efforts to demoralize the Palestinians. Thus it launched an extreme attack that killed hundreds, destroyed homes and infrastructure (such as the stripe’s sole flour-mill, destroying a population’s food supply is a war crime).

The Palestinians cannot be beaten, however. They have been punished worse before, but the always stand stronger and stronger. And now only do they remain steadfast in the face of Israeli (American-backed) aggression, but they always continue to live their lives.

Two white donkeys dyed with black stripes delighted Palestinian kids at a small Gaza zoo on Thursday who had never seen a zebra in the flesh.

With their long ears, drooping heads and sleepy eyes, the impostors probably would not have fooled the zoo’s only lioness. But the effect achieved by the zoo owners’ dye job looks not so bad — to the unpractised eye, and from a distance.

On closer inspection it resembles the classic striped convict suit of cartoon strips. Nidal Barghouthi, whose father owns the Marah Land zoo, said the two female donkeys were striped using masking tape and women’s hair dye, applied with a paint-brush.

“The first time we used paint but it didn’t look good,” he said. “The children don’t know so they call them zebras and they are happy to see something new.”

Palestinians love their children and work hard to give them a normal life despite Israel and America’s cruel effort to obstruct.

This is way I have so much faith, why I know that Palestinians will liberate their country.