CBNNews.com - JERUSALEM, Israel - On Monday, some 200 former residents of the Gush Katif Settlement Bloc in the Gaza Strip demonstrated in front of the Knesset.

Marking 1,000 days without homes or employment, the diverse crowd of farmers, teachers and businessmen, evacuated from their communities in August 2005, said the government has dragged its feet since the expulsion.

"We want the government to give us what we had [in Gush Katif]," 40-year-old Yael Schwartz told The Jerusalem Post.

"We had houses. Give us houses. We had jobs. Give us jobs," she said.

Schwartz' husband, Yossi, said the former residents of Gush Katif communities aren't looking for a handout.

"It's not the money. What they took from me, I want back," he said.

Of all the families expelled from their homes, only 70 are in the process of building new homes and only a few of them are ready for occupancy.

Source: The Jerusalem Post