Gazans mark Valetine's Day, look for solace amid hardships

Israel's military campaign last year has made life in Gaza quite hard, but not hard enough to stamp out love and romance, and the Valetine's Day provided a chance to get over grief and indeed, celebrate life.

As the world marked this year's Valetine's Day Saturday, Lama, a young lady in the coastal enclave, prepared for her fiance, a gift of surprise -- a bunch of red roses, according to a Xinhua report Saturday.

She bought those flowers in one of the war-torn city's souvenir shops selling flowers, teddy bears and coffee mugs.

Lama is among the few young people in the impoverished Gaza Strip to celebrate the Valetine's Day by exchanging presents.

"I wanted to please my fiance and express to him how much I love him in spite of the hard situation we are living in..." Lama told Xinhua as she waited for the flower dresser at one of the souvenir shops in Gaza city's Remal neighbourhood.

Lama, who got engaged several months ago, said her marriage was postponed because her fiance's brother was killed in Israel's 50-day offensive last year, which left 2,200 Palestinians killed and more than 11,000 wounded.

Lama said, with the red roses and her love, she wanted to comfort her fiance, and to rid him of his sadness. "I hope, we will be able to forget our sadness and live a happy life," she said.

Mohamed, a young Gazan, also bought a bouquet of red and white flowers. He said that people in Gaza were eager for happiness and they really wanted to grab any opportunity to express love, peace and happiness instead of sadness.

An Israeli blockade imposed on the Gaza Strip for almost eight years has almost crippled Gaza's economy, while poverty and unemployment rates are sky high.

Faddel Abu Heen, professor of psychology at the al-Aqsa University, said: "The more entertainment and the more happiness in a society that suffers from tragedies and crisis, psychological health would certainly improve or even get better."

"Regardless of what the ceremony or the event is, the most important thing is to grab the opportunity and cheer up. Therefore, if there is no opportunity, people should look for any event or ceremony to get themselves out of depression and stress," said Heen.

Abdullah Hashim, a Gaza resident in his mid 40s, told Xinhua that the economic situation in Gaza was not only difficult, but also ruined.

"The people here are trying to get out of depression and they found Valentine's Day as a way to express joy and happiness," he said.

In response to the Palestinian move to join international treaties, mainly the Rome Statute of the International Criminal Court (ICC), Israel had decided to withhold the tax revenue it collects from Palestinian imports.

The tax revenue helps to pay the salaries of tens of thousands of employees in the Gaza Strip and the West Bank. The Palestinian National Authority (PNA)has been paying only 60 percent of those employees' monthly wages.