Human Rights Report: 54% of the poverty rate in the Gaza Strip

A recent report monitored the "catastrophic" repercussions of Israel's tightening blockade of the Gaza Strip, which is entering its 15th year, in light of severe restrictions on the movement of individuals and goods, indicating that the poverty rate in the sector reached about 54 percent.

A report prepared by the Euro-Mediterranean Observatory for Human Rights, due to be published later this month, said that Israel began practically imposing a blockade on the Gaza Strip after the Palestinian legislative elections in January 2006.

The report stressed that Israel's blockade of Gaza is "an unprecedented form of collective punishment" when Israel declared the Gaza Strip a "closed area" and imposed restrictions on the entry of fuel and goods and the movement of people to and from the Strip.

He pointed out that in mid-2007, Israel tightened its blockade of the Gaza Strip after the Hamas movement took control of the Strip, preventing the entry of fuels of all kinds and did not allow the entry of many commodities, such as meat, poultry, and biscuits, reducing fishing areas, and closing all border crossings.

The report continued: "Besides, the Israeli authorities have worked to consolidate the policy of isolating the Gaza Strip, by separating it from the West Bank in what has been called the separation policy, and as a result of this restricting the exit and entry of Palestinians to and from the Strip."

According to the report, the rate of approval of requests for exit permits for Gaza residents fell from 80 percent to 46 percent in the years between 2014 and 2018, according to data published by the coordinator of the Israeli government's actions in the Palestinian territories.

The number of crossings through the Beit Hanoun (Erez) checkpoint has decreased from about 30,000 cases per month to approximately 14,000 cases, while those numbers remain likely to decrease or increase according to the general political and security situation in the Gaza Strip and Israel.

With Israel adopting a single commercial crossing with the Gaza Strip, the entry and exit rates of goods have decreased significantly compared to 2005 and earlier.

In 2005, the average number of import trucks entering the sector was around 10,400, compared to only 1,400 in 2019, a decrease of about 86.6 percent.

Likewise, the average number of export trucks leaving through the Israeli crossings decreased from about 833 trucks per month to about 262 trucks per month through the Kerem Shalom crossing during 2019, with a decrease of about 68.6 percent.

The human rights report highlighted that the Gaza economy has entered a state of general stagnation since the beginning of the Israeli blockade, which has paralyzed the economic movement.

In addition, the losses of the private sector have deepened as a result of the restrictions imposed by the Israeli authorities on the movement of businessmen and traders, and the targeting of many companies and private establishments, which support a large segment of the population of the sector.

On the macroeconomic level, the contribution of the Gaza Strip to the gross domestic product decreased at the end of 2019 to less than 20 percent of the Palestinian GDP, while the average per capita income in Gaza decreased to 800 USD annually, compared to the average of 3600 dollars in the total Palestinian lands.

The level of investment declined to reach about 3 percent of GDP, so that the share of the productive sector in GDP fell from 28 percent in 1994 to less than 13 percent after the imposition of the Israeli blockade, while the share of agriculture fell to less than 5 percent of GDP .

Since the start of the blockade imposed on the sector, the number of operating establishments has decreased from 3,500 to only 250 and closed about 600 industrial facilities.

In addition, the three Israeli military attacks on the Gaza Strip contributed to the destruction of more industrial facilities, so that the productive capacity of the remaining operating facilities in the sector is operating at a rate not exceeding 16 percent, while it is estimated that the private sector has suffered losses of about $ 11 billion since its inception Israeli blockade.

As a result of the closure of dozens of companies, factories, and profit and non-profit institutions, the unemployment rate reached levels that are among the highest in the world, increasing from about 23 percent in 2005 to nearly 52 percent at the beginning of 2020, and the youth category was the most affected, as the proportion reached Youth unemployment is about 67.5 percent.

The percentage of food shortages or insecurity exceeded 71 percent for families in the Gaza Strip, so that four out of every five people receive financial aid, while the poverty rate is about 54 percent, so that the rate of people living below the poverty line in the sector remains two and a half times more than in West Bank.

The report reviewed the repercussions of the marine restrictions imposed by Israel on the Gaza Strip and the buffer zone east of the sector that impede the work of farmers, as well as the reality of the deteriorating health situation, education crises and the lack of electricity supplies.

The report of the Euro-Mediterranean Observatory for Human Rights called on the international community to assume its responsibilities in protecting Palestinian civilians, by working hard to end the long-term Israeli occupation of all Palestinian lands to stop war crimes and collective punishment against the population.

The report called on the international community to urge the Israeli authorities to abide by their responsibilities towards the occupied population as decided by international covenants, treaties and norms, and serious pressure to lift the siege of Gaza.