Fady Hussein feels helpless as he watches televised reports of bombs blanketing the region where he spent his childhood. For more than two weeks, Hussein has somberly followed the unfolding hostility. Day after day, he anxiously refreshes his Internet browser hoping to read about a cease-fire, but he more realistically anticipates far worse.Billowing smoke from war-torn structures fills the Gaza skies where Hussein’s family and home are deep in the middle of a dangerous conflict. Hussein’s  cousin was killed, and his brother was injured during Israel’s daily attacks on Gaza.”Sometimes you feel like Israel doesn’t have to care about anybody,” said Hussein, University graduate student and Gaza native. “Sometimes you feel like they just want to ruin your life. Gaza is very crowded. If you’re bombarded by tanks, it’s nothing but killing innocent people,”The escalation of violence began Dec. 27 when Israeli forces launched an air assault on the Gaza Strip to end rocket attacks the Gaza leadership group Hamas made against Israel. The current conflict has taken the lives of 13 Israelis, three of whom were civilians. The death toll on the Palestinian side has reached an estimated 970, half of which are women and children. There have also been an estimated 4,300 injured as Israeli forces continue airstrikes and press further into the Israeli occupied Gaza strip. A week ago, Hussein’s cousin, Ahmed Hussein, attempted to rescue survivors inside of a building recently hit by Israeli rockets. Soon after, Israeli F-16s pummeled the building, this time destroying the entire structure and killing Ahmed. Stories like Hussein’s are common throughout Gaza as the current conflict enters its 19th day. “I am very worried,” Hussein said. “Thirty percent of Gaza has been destroyed so far.”Hussein’s brother, Nedal Hussein, was the victim of an Israeli attack. “On Al Jazeera I saw pictures of an injured guy, and I was like, ‘Who is this guy? Who is this guy?'” Hussein said. “I didn’t know my own brother. His face had been swollen from the strike.”  Fady Hussein then called his mother, who told him of their family’s loss. Nedal Hussein was injured by a rocket and was transferred to Egypt for surgery. A controversial topic among University students and professors is who is to blame for this eruption of violence. Krista Allen, history junior and representative of the Tigers for Israel group, blames the Hamas rockets for terrorizing and provoking defensive measures from Israel. “When you are being fired on at your population centers, you have the right to defend yourself from what is happening,” Allen said. Mark Gasiorowski, political science and international studies professor, said Israel has created a humanitarian situation in Gaza, leading to rockets being fired from Gaza. During the last few months, Israel has restricted humanitarian support and supplies from entering Gaza, letting only about 20 percent of supplies into the region. About half of Gaza’s population is eating only one meal daily because of these restrictions. This refusal to lift the blockade on goods and trade in and out of Gaza seems to be the reason for Hamas rocket attacks, Gasiorowski said.Edward Shihadeh, sociology professor, blames Israel for “one of the most deplorable stories of colonialism remaining today” and provoking the attacks. “I’ve been to Gaza once,” Shihadeh said. “It’s a hell hole. It is one of the most crowded places on earth, and it is one of the poorest places on earth. For the people there, it is a prison.” Israel controls everything and everyone going in and out of Gaza because Israel has blockaded every border with Gaza, Shihadeh said.”Imagine if someone hemmed the United States in and started starving us,” Shihadeh said. “We would be launching missiles, too. If you were living there, you would be doing the same damn thing.” Barry Weinstein, B’nai Israel Synagogue Rabbi emeritus and former University professor, said any blockade on Gaza is not the reason for the conflict, claiming Israel has sent humanitarian aid into the region. The reason rockets are falling is because Hamas denies Israel the right to exist, Weinstein said. The cease-fire will happen when rockets stop falling on Israel, and there is no way Israel can allow its population to be subject to these attacks, he said.Hussein feels this escalation in violence is a harsh reaction and the wrong solution to the conflict.”If you curse me, can I kill you?” Hussein asked. “No, because it has to be proportionate. They [Israel] cannot stop the rockets. Hamas stopping the rockets and Israel stopping the blockade  — that is the solution.”Gaza’s dense population creates a lethal situation for Hussein’s family and Gaza civilians during this Israeli offensive, Hussein said. There are more than 1.5 million people living in Gaza’s 140 square miles, according to the CIA. An average household has 15 to 20 people, so any rocket fired or bomb dropped by Israel will kill people, Hussein said. About 15 people live in two rooms at Hussein’s home in Gaza with no other place to take refuge from the violence.”The whole neighborhood got threatened that the airforce will hit the area,” Hussein said. “At the same time, you have no place to go. Any target that moves, they throw rockets at it. You can’t drive a car. You can’t go to your neighbors. You can’t do anything … Now my family starts to run out of many things.” University students are continents removed from the conflict but are still affected by this continuing turmoil in the Middle East. America spends billions of dollars in the Middle East, and oil prices are higher now than when the Middle East is calm, Gasiorowski said. Shihadeh said the average American should care more about the conflict because they are financing it. “We pour billions of dollars into Israel, arming it to the teeth to keep this imperfect system going,” Shihadeh said. “We should create a system where we don’t have to prop it up with billions of dollars in weapons every year for the last six decades.”Hussein is set to graduate in May, but he has no place to go thereafter. He can’t return home because he will not be let in.”Everything in Gaza is destroyed,” Hussein said. “My passport expired. And to make a new one you have to go the Interior Ministry, and it is not anymore.”- – – -Contact Xerxes A. Wilson at [email protected]