A warning last year by the United Nations that the Gaza Strip would become uninhabitable by 2020 is sadly proving to be more than just an ominous paper tiger. According to news reports from the embattled Palestinian enclave, living conditions for the 1.8 million people there are deteriorating at an alarming rate. One latest symptom is the 50 or so families who now live in a rubbish dump on the outskirts of Khan Younis city.
The reality is that more than 800,000 who live in Gaza have to rely on food aid to survive — and 50 per cent of the population that lives there manages to do so without having any employment. In effect, the narrow strip survives on handouts from the international community — and will continue to do so until a crippling economic and physical blockade imposed by Israel is lifted.
The reality is that there is little danger now of Gaza and its residents being treated any differently by the government of Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu. Under his orders, Israeli troops have launched full-scale invasions, using all of the military might in its United States-supplied arsenal to unleash death and destruction on a largely unarmed civilian population. Since 2007, the Zionist war machine has bombed and shelled, shot and bombarded homes, hospitals, schools and businesses in three separate full-scale invasions.
Since the summer of 2014, the people of Palestine have been unable to rebuild their cities, communities, hospitals and businesses. The basic infrastructure is largely pulverised and Israel has been unwilling to allow all but the barest essentials into the Strip. That the people of Palestine still endure such atrocities speaks of their spirit. That they are economically crippled speaks of Israel’s mindset, cruelty and state-sponsored barbarity.
