BEIT HANOUN, Gaza Strip — Young engineer Abdullah al-Baltaji had only one choice: leave Syria and find shelter in the Gaza Strip after rockets hit his home and private office in the Mezze neighborhood in the Syrian capital, Damascus. He settled with his family in the Shajaiya neighborhood in the eastern Gaza Strip less than a year ago, accompanied by his wife, twin daughters and son. They lived in an apartment built by the Gaza government.
Baltaji fled Syria to protect his family from the bloody war that has been raging there for more than three years. However, this was just a prelude to a more dangerous phase that awaited him in the Gaza Strip.