In their garden, strewn with the rubble of three destroyed houses, the young men of the Oudeih family flick through pictures of Hamada, their 26-year-old brother. He had joined the new wave of boat people escaping the Gaza Strip after a 50-day war with Israel. But there has been no news of Hamada since his rickety vessel, carrying hundreds of Palestinians, set off on September 6th and sank off the coast of Malta. His father, Abdel-Halim, borrowed $3,500 to pay smugglers to take him to Europe. All his five sons were jobless, bar one living in Hamburg, and he wanted Hamada to join him. Israeli forces had destroyed Hamada's chicken coops, he said. "I couldn't keep on giving him 20 shekels ($5.50) a day." With its land borders and airspace blocked off, the Mediterranean Sea lapping at Gaza's beaches has long looked enticing. Yet Palestinians have not produced boat people since the war that created Israel in 1948; they clung on through wars, occupation, siege and incursions. Now they are flocking to get passports renewed, and the talk is of some 1,000 having sailed off.
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