The rubble of Gaza
One year after Israel and Hamas clashed, people are still picking up the pieces


(Violeta Santos-Moura)

A man makes a phone call outside of a meeting in what remains of Gaza's reconstruction ministry offices.
(Violeta Santos-Moura)Within this grey and broken city, photographer Violeta Santos-Moura, 31, still found plenty of life."Children playing, going to school and back with colorful bags, girls

Children play on a tire in the ruins of a mosque's dome, in the town of Khuzaa.
(Violeta Santos-Moura)

A shepherd tends to his sheep in a pasture that used to be the Gaza International Airport. The airport was destroyed in 2001.
(Violeta Santos-Moura)

A fisherman organizes his goods at Gaza's port.
(Violeta Santos-Moura)

(Violeta Santos-Moura)

(Violeta Santos-Moura) Santos-Moura says she was especially moved by the plight of animals stranded at Gaza's zoo. The animals that survived remain in squalid conditions, fed occasionally by locals, but otherwise are left to fend for themselves in dirty, damp cages.

(Violeta Santos-Moura) The rebuilding goes slowly. Many areas of the city still don't have electricity to power street or traffic lights in the evenings. In the meantime, the photographer says she wants to remind people that while the cameras are gone, the people are not."The least you can do is get close to them for a while and tell their story,” Santos-Moura says. “At the end of the day, one leaves, but they stay.”

(Violeta Santos-Moura)

(Violeta Santos-Moura) **See more of Santos-Moura's work via her website, and follow her on Twitter and on Instagram**