Occupied Palestinian Territory slides into recession, Gaza becoming uninhabitable

The UN estimates that in 2014, unemployment in Gaza reached 44 per cent, the highest level on record.

UNCTAD said that the economic embargo “ravaged the already debilitated infrastructure of Gaza, shattered its productive base, left no time for meaningful reconstruction or economic recovery and impoverished the Palestinian population in Gaza“.

The Gaza Strip may be uninhabitable in five years time’ if the Israeli blockade of the coastal enclave continues and vital infrastructure is further damaged in military conflicts, a United Nations report released Monday claims.

Half a million people have been displaced from Gaza after the war in 2014.

It added: “Reconstruction efforts are extremely slow relative to the magnitude of devastation, and Gaza’s local economy did not have a chance to recover”. The report also noted that the number of Israeli settlers has quadrupled since the Oslo Accords in 1993 and 1995; presently they outnumber Palestinians in Area C, which represents 61 per cent of West Bank area.

Serious damage was done to the economy by the blockade, even before the military operations, the report charges.

War and the economic blockade has wrecked the region’s capacity to produce goods for the foreign and domestic markets, according to the report.

“The social, health and security-related ramifications of the high-population density and overcrowding are among the factors that may render Gaza unlivable by 2020”, UN officials said in their report.

Egyptian military bulldozers are digging through the sand along Egypt’s border with the Gaza Strip in recent days, pressing ahead with what appears to be a renewed campaign to pressure Gaza’s Hamas rulers and stamp out militant activity along the border.

Israel and Egypt have maintained a blockade of Gaza since the armed group Hamas seized control of the territory in 2007. According to a July report by Save the Children, over 550 children were killed during Israel’s offensive, 3,436 were injured and an estimated 1,500 lost their parents. One smuggler, who spoke on condition of anonymity because he did not want trouble with the Egyptians, told AP he bought a shipment of motorbike parts for $6,000, but paid $10,000 to get it smuggled into Gaza because the operation has become very risky.