![Fireworks are seen as a Palestinian waves a Fatah flag to celebrate the new year and the 49th anniversary of the founding of the Fatah movement, in Gaza City December 31, 2013. REUTERS/Mohammed Salem (GAZA - Tags: POLITICS SOCIETY ANNIVERSARY) - RTX16Y3H](/sites/default/files/styles/article_header/public/almpics/2014/01/RTX16Y3H.jpg/RTX16Y3H.jpg?h=f7822858&itok=y2EE37Vd)
Hazem Balousha is a Palestinian journalist based in Gaza City. He has worked as a news producer for BBC World Service, contributed to Deutsche Welle and has written for The Guardian, Al-Raya (Qatar) and other publications. He is the founder of the Palestinian Institute for Communication and Development (PICD). On Twitter: @iHaZeMi
![Fireworks are seen as a Palestinian waves a Fatah flag to celebrate the new year and the 49th anniversary of the founding of the Fatah movement, in Gaza City December 31, 2013. REUTERS/Mohammed Salem (GAZA - Tags: POLITICS SOCIETY ANNIVERSARY) - RTX16Y3H](/sites/default/files/styles/article_header/public/almpics/2014/01/RTX16Y3H.jpg/RTX16Y3H.jpg?h=f7822858&itok=y2EE37Vd)
![EDITORS' NOTE: Reuters and other foreign media are subject to Iranian restrictions on leaving the office to report, film or take pictures in Tehran.
Hamas Leader Ismail Haniyeh flashes the victory sign during a ceremony to mark the 33rd anniversary of the Islamic Revolution, in Tehran's Azadi square February 11, 2012. Iran's President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad said on the anniversary of the revolution that the Islamic Republic would soon announce "very important" REUTERS/Raheb Homavandi (IRAN - Tags: ANNIVERSAR](/sites/default/files/styles/article_header/public/almpics/2013/12/RTR2XN8Y.jpg/RTR2XN8Y.jpg?h=f7822858&itok=Q3qKkcRg)
![A Palestinian labourer holds up a box of freshly picked strawberries, intended for export, on a farm in Beit Lahiya in the northern Gaza Strip December 7, 2011. REUTERS/Ibraheem Abu Mustafa (GAZA - Tags: AGRICULTURE FOOD SOCIETY BUSINESS) - RTR2UY5X](/sites/default/files/styles/article_header/public/almpics/2013/12/RTR2UY5X.jpg/RTR2UY5X.jpg?h=f7822858&itok=AVoq-S2g)
![A Palestinian watches a rally marking the 46th anniversary of the founding of the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine (PFLP), in Gaza City December 7, 2013. REUTERS/Suhaib Salem (GAZA - Tags: POLITICS CIVIL UNREST ANNIVERSARY) - RTX1681X](/sites/default/files/styles/article_header/public/almpics/2013/12/1-0RTX1681X.jpg/1-0RTX1681X.jpg?h=717f26e4&itok=yb2k3TGR)
![Palestinian Hamas militants stand next to M-75 home made rocket as they take part in a military parade marking the first anniversary of the eight-day conflict with Israel, in Gaza City November 14, 2013. Eight days of Israeli air strikes on Gaza and cross-border Palestinian rocket attacks in November last year ended in an Egyptian-brokered truce agreement calling on Israel to ease restrictions on the territory. REUTERS/Suhaib Salem (GAZA - Tags: POLITICS ANNIVERSARY CONFLICT MILITARY) - RTX15DKU](/sites/default/files/styles/article_header/public/almpics/2013/11/RTX15DKU.jpg/RTX15DKU.jpg?h=2d235432&itok=Lk-3jYoE)
![RAMALLAH, -: An Israeli soldier talks to prominent Palestinian democracy and human rights activist Mustafa Barghuti, 51, at Kalandia checkpoint in the West Bank city of Ramallah 29 November 2004. Barghuti became the latest Palestinian who has decided to run in the January 09 presidential election to replace Yasser Arafat. Barghuti, secretary-general of the Palestinian national initiative, said that he wanted to make the fight against governmental corruption one of the main platforms of his campaign. AFP PH](/sites/default/files/styles/article_header/public/almpics/2013/11/51800906.jpg/51800906.jpg?h=2d235432&itok=6q2PX7On)
![A Palestinian relative of Hamas militant Rabee Baraka mourns as he takes a farewell look at Baraka's body, at a hospital in Khan Younis in the southern Gaza Strip November 1, 2013. On Thursday, Baraka was killed and five Israeli soldiers wounded in a clash that broke out after Israeli forces detonated part of a different Gaza tunnel. Hamas said it had dug the tunnel, which Israel said ran into its territory and was intended for carrying out attacks on its soldiers and civilians. Separately, an Israeli air s](/sites/default/files/styles/article_header/public/almpics/2013/11/RTX14W3G.jpg/RTX14W3G.jpg?h=6c6b25af&itok=9h2xTVIP)
![An Israeli air force drone is seen flying over Gaza as seen from the northern Gaza strip border April 9, 2011. Israel killed four Palestinian militants and wounded half a dozen others as it pursued air raids in Gaza for a third day on Saturday, responding to increased rocket fire out of the territory, local medics said.
REUTERS/Darren Whiteside (ISRAEL - Tags: MILITARY SOCIETY IMAGES OF THE DAY) - RTR2L11O](/sites/default/files/styles/article_header/public/almpics/2013/10/Drone.jpg/Drone.jpg?h=2d235432&itok=X4CFcrvf)
![A rescued migrant child looks out of the window of a police bus after arriving at the Armed Forces of Malta Maritime Squadron base at Haywharf in Valletta's Marsamxett Harbour October 12, 2013. Dozens of people died on Friday when a boat carrying around 250 migrants capsized between Sicily and Tunisia, in the second such shipwreck this month, the Italian coastguard said. 147 survivors, believed to all be Syrians, arrived in Malta on Saturday morning, according to local media.
REUTERS/Darrin Zammit Lupi (MA](/sites/default/files/styles/article_header/public/almpics/2013/10/Sink.jpg/Sink.jpg?h=2d235432&itok=oBaEKTUr)
![Palestinian Salafists shout slogans during a rally in protest of what they say are recent massacres committed against Syrian and Egyptian people and against Syria's President Bashar al-Assad and Egypt's army chief General Abdel Fattah al-Sisi, in Rafah in the southern Gaza Strip August 22, 2013. REUTERS/Ibraheem Abu Mustafa (GAZA - Tags: POLITICS CIVIL UNREST) - RTX12TCB](/sites/default/files/styles/article_header/public/almpics/2013/10/Gazasalafists.jpg/Gazasalafists.jpg?h=2d235432&itok=iDJi-SEv)
![Islamic Jihad militants ride on a pickup truck as they follow the convoy of freed Palestinian prisoner Ibrahim Baroud, upon his arrival in the northern Gaza Strip April 8, 2013. Baroud, who was convicted of his affiliation with the armed group of Islamic Jihad and for carrying out armed attacks against Israel, was released on Monday after serving 27 years in an Israeli jail, according to media reports. REUTERS/Mohammed Salem (GAZA - Tags: POLITICS) - RTXYD6V](/sites/default/files/styles/article_header/public/almpics/2013/10/Islamic%20Jihad.jpg/Islamic%20Jihad.jpg?h=2d235432&itok=1nmdMYic)
![Trucks transporting construction materials are seen through a crack in a police post after entering the Gaza Strip through the Kerem Shalom crossing September 22, 2013. Israel began allowing construction material for private projects into the Gaza Strip on Sunday for the first time in six years, in response to a request from Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas, an Israeli defence official said. REUTERS/Ibraheem Abu Mustafa (GAZA - Tags: POLITICS BUSINESS CONSTRUCTION REAL ESTATE TPX IMAGES OF THE DAY) - RTX](/sites/default/files/styles/article_header/public/almpics/2013/09/Gaza%20Construction.jpg/Gaza%20Construction.jpg?h=2d235432&itok=k4T3S3az)