I noticed the constant power failures much more on this trip, because I didn't live in a hotel and didn't spend time late at night in restaurants with generators. The situation was probably worse than in earlier years, because just now or somewhat earlier there were great difficulties with the fuel supply, affecting the electric power plant and the traffic. I won't go into detail about that. It had at least partly an inner Palestinian background.

Bicycle trip
This year the bike was mainly a reserve in case the gasoline supply should become really critical.The situation had already become somewhat better by the time I arrived. I used the bike now and then for short stretches because I could park it easily in the house, and on a Friday, i.e. on a weekend, I took a ride. On the trip I took in 2010 I got off the intended route very soon, but I considered it already at that time a lucky coincidence, and now that was confirmed.

This time I wanted just to see how much  last year's planned route differed, and I planned a different end goal from the beginning. I was armed with a better map and besides I had two minarets as an optical starting reference.

The map shows my path, the red stretch the way to my goal Zeitoun and the dashed green stretch the way back along main streets, where on this day there was little traffic.

I started out shortly before 9:00. It was a cool sunny day. I rode a short stretch along the coastal road, which then was closed for a long stretch due to construction work. Therefore I turned off and rode to the next larger parallel street. On the way there the street climbed somewhat and in the background there was a large building visible, as one can see on the OpenStreetMap, the Mushtaha Tower. In Gaza this type of building may have its very own history. In the Mushtaha Tower there is a bank where in 2011 a group of policemen withdrew a large amount of money using a bad check and some insistent force.

In the parallel street, Al Quds, I noticed a construction sign for an Arab Orthodox Cultural Center, apparently a church facility. Judging by the size of the interior hall, there must be quite a few church members. According to my information, there are still 1500 Christians altogether in Gaza.

With a few twists and turns I reached Route 10, mostly only a sand road, on which I had to push my bike when it went uphill.
Along this street there was serious destruction from the Israeli attack three years ago apparently only in the area shortly before the intersection with the main street (Salah Al Deen). Along a stretch of the street a large garbage dump had developed, but it had been partially cleared away.

A round building became visible on a hill on the last third of this stretch, a water tank with some non- functional holes in the wall. In front of it were tents that probably were used for housing. Apparently in this area there were no permanent houses destroyed. The water tank was at some time no longer used because of too little height.

As I came closer to the built-up area near Salah Al Deen Street a big tent could not be missed, in which a large quantity of chairs were set up. It was for the preparation for a wedding celebration which would take place in a few hours. I was invited to stay, but I decided to take a few souvenir pictures and continue on my way.

The main street was not far away. At the intersection the traffic was closed to a large extent by a large collection of motorcycle riders. For me it was a familiar sight. In Berlin before the wall came down there was only one direct straight stretch of motorway on which one could ride somewhat faster. Large throngs of motorcylclists with much heavier bikes met there at the south end on the weekends, to thunder down the motorway.

I wanted to go to the area of the quarter called Zeitoun, where we went last year with the Italian group as the first thing, to visit the survivors of the Samouni family (all Vik2Gaza links have been removed). The Samouni family got sad fame through the circumstances under which many family members were killed by the Israelis during the "Cast Lead" operation (Report of the Investigatiive Commission of the United Nations on the Gaza Conflict, Paragraph 704) and the strange behavior of the main author of the UN Commission, Judge Goldstone, who, without any new findings, later tried to justify this massacre with military necessity (see report from last year).

I had only an approximate idea of where these houses were. They were, however, easy to find, because of the yellow ochre painted kindergarden house. At the entrance to the so-called Samouni Street, so named by the UN Report, there was a construction sign for three rebuilt houses. The street was rather empty. It was just the time of the noonday prayers. I threw a brief glance into the mosque which had already been restored last year, spoke briefly to the Imam, took a few pictures and started on the way home.