by Fares Akram, Sami Ajrami
GAZA, Jan. 25 (Xinhua) -- Bathed in warm winter sunshine, 21- year-old Noor al-Harrazin chatted with her companions while smoking hookah in a Gaza City restaurant.
In the impoverished Gaza controlled by Hamas militants and battered by Israel's massive offensive a year ago, a group of girls and boys sitting together and smoking hookah in a public cafe makes people wonder: is this Gaza ?
"Yes, this is Gaza," said Noor.
"I smile to encourage others to smile and look from a more beautiful perspective at life despite the suffocating feelings inside the Gaza prison," the university student majoring in English literature said, moving her fingers on the mouse pad of her laptop.
Israel has been imposing a tight blockade on the Hamas-run Gaza Strip since Gaza militants captured Israeli soldier Gilad Shalit in a cross-border raid in June 2006.
Israel and Egypt sealed off their borders with Gaza in June 2007 when Islamic Hamas movement took over Gaza from security forces loyal to the Western-backed Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas.
Given the Israeli closure and the ensuing economic problems, 70 percent of Gaza families live on an income less than one dollar a day.
Meanwhile, Gaza is considered a territory of young people with 37 percent of the population between 15 to 26 years old, according to the Palestinian Central Bureau of Statistics.
Samah Kassab, 28, a youth activist, said Gaza lacks the entertainment parks and clubs for young people, adding the conditions here "can't provide the youths with the real encouragement for fun."
Samah sat with her husband and two female friends who did not wear scarves at a small coffee shop, enjoying traditional Arab salon.
"There is nothing exciting here, and we can only talk about the miserable situation," she said.
Due to the ever-rising poverty and unemployment rates, young people in Gaza can not always afford to pay for the handful elite restaurants where they can feel a different atmosphere.
The Unknown Soldiers Park in Gaza City is the destination of many moneyless young people and families who constitute the majority of Gaza people, for the park charges no entrance fee.
"Most of the families in Gaza can hardly find their daily food, so when they want to entertain, they can only go to free places or walk aimlessly in the streets," said Khaled Abu Salem, 20, who lives in Khan Younis city in southern Gaza Strip.
"Every Thursday, I come here to watch people, wander in the street and do window shopping to spend my leisure time," he added.
Other than the Israeli blockade, Gaza youths also face the pressure from inside Gaza.
Over the past three years, the Islamists, including some Salafi groups, who deemed females going to cafes and smoking hookah as against the Islamic doctrine, have attacked tens of cafes in Gaza.
However, Noor and her friends are at odds with all these "rules. " They usually enjoy their time at Gallery, an open-air restaurant with green grass in southern Gaza City.
The girls, all university students, challenge the society's stipulated way for women. Though they still maintain a traditional, Islamic style in their dressing, they do not mind playing with boys or going to bars to enjoy hookah.
Haneen Jum'a, 21, who studies Arabic language, said that she and her friends "have succeeded in creating an appropriate atmosphere for youth."
For Noor, she did not think she was doing anything against the norms.
"From under the debris of war, the youths must generate a new life, a new spirit and a new love," she said, gently holding the hookah's mouth tip between her lips and puffing away white smoke rings.
