Muhammad Nasser (28 years old) suffered enough hardships and lived in the Gaza Strip, so he traveled to the Rafah crossing, planning to leave through to Egypt and then to Turkey on a tourist visa. "I will not return to Gaza," says this electrical engineer, justifying that by saying, "Even if one of us here is experienced, he will not get any work." He hopes to one day join his wife and three children, and intends to migrate by sea to Greece and then to Sweden, and believes that immigration by sea is no more dangerous than living in Gaza, and concludes his speech, "My wife tried to prevent me from going, but she could not."

There is no doubt that Nasser, and this is not his real name, is consistent with the question posed by a United Nations report issued in 2012, which warned of the fragility of the situation in the sector, and alerted the international community to the need for fundamental change, and that report came under the title «By 2020? Will Gaza become a place to live? ”

Now, after seven years of continuous blockade and two destructive Israeli military attacks, what is the state of the "living situation" of the Strip's two million residents? Last Thursday, the fragility of the current unstable and informal ceasefire between Gaza and Israel was confirmed. Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu was transferred to a fortified anti-bomb shelter when a missile launched from Gaza during one of his meetings, and Israel immediately bombed Hamas targets, and with Most Palestinians in Gaza are more preoccupied with their daily living concerns, which have been worsened by the blockade, and a lack of development has added to fears of yet another military escalation.

When the United Nations released its report in 2012, the unemployment rate had already reached 29%, and the World Bank now estimates it at 53% (67% of young people in Gaza are unemployed). Almost 50% of the population lives on less than $ 5.50 a day, compared to only 9% in the West Bank.

Nasser is not the only one looking for a better life elsewhere. The UN report estimated that more than a thousand additional doctors are needed for the population of Gaza, whose number is increasing rapidly by 2020, however, according to the Ministry of Health, 160 qualified doctors have left the Strip. In the past three years.

Sarah El-Saqqa (27 years old), a general surgeon at the main Shifa Hospital, would have joined the convoy of immigrants had it not been for her old mother, and Hamas would hire her, and would receive a wage equivalent to $ 300 every 40 days, due to salary cuts. If I have a choice, I think every doctor shares the same idea with me. ” She admits that all doctors feel a conscience because they want to leave in view of medical emergencies, such as the serious injuries caused by the weekly border protests that have killed about 215 Palestinians, but she added: “One of us needs to think about himself and his future, and if the situation is A little better, not many people will leave. ”

In addition to emigration through Rafah, there is a daily emigration now that few Palestinians who have permits to travel abroad via Amman in Jordan resort to, and even in this case it is difficult for them to reach the West Bank, where Netanyahu seems determined to prevent the flow of more Palestinians to the West Bank, Although the Oslo agreements formally designated Gaza and the West Bank as a single entity.

This crisis situation in Gaza, of course, affects patients. Razan Al-Einin (21 years old), her thyroid cancer cancer was removed last year by surgeons in Gaza, but due to the lack of radioactive iodine treatment after the surgery, she was transferred to the city of Hebron in February, and is scheduled to return to Hebron since August , Which is only 50 miles away, for a full body examination, and additional treatment if necessary, but the permit necessary for her travel has been rejected four times. The Observer called the Civil Affairs Division of the Israeli army, which stated that it would be allowed to travel on January 7.

The head of the Palestinian Center for Human Rights, Raji Al-Sourani, says that "bleeding" - the word he prefers to describe as "emigration" - is "grooving in my heart", because well-qualified Palestinians migrate from Gaza. But he believes that the efforts of the Israelis to make life "intolerable by siege, social and economic strangulation, unemployment and lack of hope for tomorrow" have not and will not succeed because most of the people of Gaza have not tried to leave.

It is assumed that next year will witness the construction of three wastewater treatment plants, as the sector desperately needs it, to purify a large part of 100,000 cubic meters of raw and semi-treated wastewater that is pumped into the Mediterranean every day, but the depletion and pollution of a layer Coastal groundwater still means that 97% of the main water supply is unsuitable for drinking, which requires most Gazans to rely on trucking at a price five times the official price.

Thanks to Israel allowing the entry of fuel for the only electrical station in Gaza, the average electricity supply increased to an average of 12 hours per day from just less than four hours, and Israel finally allowed about 3,000 Gazans to work in Israel. In 2000, Israel issued 25,000 permits . Funded by a US charity, a new field hospital will start operating near the Beit Hanoun border crossing in the spring. Finally, long-taboo exports started flowing out of the sector, but about a fifth of what was exported almost before 2007.

Nevertheless, the spirit of Gaza remains always steadfast and characterized by resistance. On one end of it there is Mohamed Abu Baid, (23 years old), who started last year digging in waste in search of plastic boxes and aluminum to sell to a small recycling company, at a price of one shekel per 70 boxes, and five NIS per kilogram of recyclable plastic. At the other end, "Business Without Borders", a successful non-profit IT company, employs more than 100 Gaza graduates, who earn between $ 500 and $ 1,500 to design programs and applications. Among these two examples is Bilal Al-Omari, 23, who runs a beachfront cafeteria. He says, "I saw my friends go to university and then take home later because of the lack of jobs." "I thought," Why do I study and get nothing? "He earns a profit between 50 and 60 shekels a day in the summer, and less than that in the winter, but he dreams of opening the borders one day and the international community urges the concerned parties over and over again. "I can travel, or tourists can come here," he says. But he added, “Physical things are not everything. We look to dignity, just as we are all human beings everywhere.”

"The Big Prison"

There are many illustrative examples of this “big prison” - as Gaza residents describe the Strip - including the cancellation of the FA Cup Finals match, due to Israel's refusal to allow players from the Rafah Services Club to travel through its territory, for alleged security reasons, in order to fight a confrontation against a team In the occupied West Bank, and after that Israel allowed the team to play in its second station in Nablus. "It was very important for us to have an opportunity to represent the Palestinians abroad, and we have trained hard," said Captain Ahmed Daher (36 years), and that seems to have worked, as Rafah's services still lead the Premier League in Gaza.

Most Palestinians in Gaza are more preoccupied with their daily living concerns worsened by the blockade, and a lack of development has added to fears of yet another military escalation.

In 2012, the unemployment rate in Gaza reached 29%, and the World Bank now estimates it at 53%.