Gaza – looking back

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A confrontation between an Israeli soldier and Palestinian women after the soldier knocked an elderly woman to the ground. (Picture: Kai Wiedenhöfer) Kai Wiedenhöfer

A man returns home to Gaza after 20 years in exile. He is welcomed back by his family in Beit Hanun. (Picture: Kai Wiedenhöfer) Kai Wiedenhöfer

A bride-to-be sits on the grass of a Gaza City park. A family member belonging to one of 11 Palestinian security services immortalises the occasion. (Picture: Kai Wiedenhöfer) Kai Wiedenhöfer

Frequent visitors: an Israeli patrol leaves a family home in the Shabura refugee camp in Rafah after a search. (Picture: Kai Wiedenhöfer) Kai Wiedenhöfer

Palestinian youngsters throw rocks at an Israeli bunker on the Israeli-Egyptian border in Rafah. (Picture: Kai Wiedenhöfer) Kai Wiedenhöfer

A Palestinian family enjoys a quiet evening at the Nauras Club. At the end of the 1990s, the first swimming pool in the Gaza Strip was opened. (Picture: Kai Wiedenhöfer) Kai Wiedenhöfer

Ruins in the Khan Yunis refugee camp. The buildings were bombed and the remains bulldozed by the Israelis. The camp is separated by a wall from the nearby Israeli settlement of Neve Dekalim. (Picture: Kai Wiedenhöfer) Kai Wiedenhöfer

A widow mourns her dead husband with her children. An activist and member of an armed Palestinian group, he lived in Sheikh Radwan. (Picture: Kai Wiedenhöfer) Kai Wiedenhöfer

Israeli soldiers face rock-throwing Palestinian youngsters in the Jabaliya refugee camp. (Picture: Kai Wiedenhöfer) Kai Wiedenhöfer

Palestinians sort and dry their lentil harvest outside Gaza City. Work is carried out by hand because machines are too expensive. (Picture: Kai Wiedenhöfer) Kai Wiedenhöfer

Abu Khalid, one of the few fishermen in the Gaza Strip, at home with his family in the Shati refugee camp. (Picture: Kai Wiedenhöfer) Kai Wiedenhöfer

Boys play with a toy gun in the Shati refugee camp. (Picture: Kai Wiedenhöfer) Kai Wiedenhöfer

Young men visit a friend manning a Palestinian checkpoint on the outskirts of Gaza City (Picture: Kai Wiedenhöfer) Kai Wiedenhöfer

Along the wall surrounding the Al-Azhar University in Gaza City. (Picture: Thomas Kern) Thomas Kern

A scene repeated daily during the al Aqsa (Intifada) uprising in the morgue of the Shifa hospital. (Picture: Kai Wiedenhöfer) Kai Wiedenhöfer

Palestinian children play on the beach near the Shati refugee camp. (Picture: Kai Wiedenhöfer) Kai Wiedenhöfer

A group of young women during their evening walk along Gaza Beach. (Picture: Thomas Kern) Thomas Kern

Palestinian day labourers wait for their employers near the former Gaza City railway station. Jobs are few and far between. (Picture: Thomas Kern) Thomas Kern

A Palestinian girl helps pick cucumbers outside Gaza City. (Picture: Kai Wiedenhöfer) Kai Wiedenhöfer

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Seventeen years of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict.

Photographer Kai Wiedenhöfer documented life in the Occupied Territories. In the 1990s, he lived in the Gaza Strip and was known “Habib al-Shaab” – Friend of the People. He travelled with his cameras thousands of kilometres throughout the small enclave on his motorbike, observing changes over more than a decade. Wiedenhöfer speaks Arabic and relied on it for his work. He admits though that listening to frustrated Palestinians totally eroded the emotional distance usually expected of photographers. (Additional pictures by Thomas Kern)