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<h1 class="title" id="page-title">As noose tightens, Palestinians in
Gaza face darkest days</h1>
<div class="submitted"> <span property="dc:date dc:created"
content="2013-09-05T14:59:56+00:00" datatype="xsd:dateTime"
rel="sioc:has_creator">Submitted by <span class="username" xml:lang=""
about="/users/ali-abunimah" typeof="sioc:UserAccount"
property="foaf:name" datatype="">Ali Abunimah</span> on Thu,
09/05/2013 - 14:59<br>
<small><small><a class="moz-txt-link-freetext" href="http://electronicintifada.net/blogs/ali-abunimah/noose-tightens-palestinians-gaza-face-darkest-days">http://electronicintifada.net/blogs/ali-abunimah/noose-tightens-palestinians-gaza-face-darkest-days</a></small></small><br>
</span> </div>
<div class="field-body"><br>
<p>Tweets by <a href="http://gazatimes.blogspot.com">blogger</a> Omar
Ghraieb capture the despair many of Gaza’s almost 1.7 million
Palestinian residents feel as Israel’s blockade, compounded by Egypt’s
intensifying crackdown, has brought the territory once more to the
brink of catastrophe.</p>
<p>Since the 3 July military coup against Egypt’s elected president
Muhammad Morsi, the military regime has destroyed almost all the <a
href="http://electronicintifada.net/tags/tunnels">vital underground
supply tunnels</a> under the Gaza-Egypt border.</p>
<p>This week, <a
href="http://www.reuters.com/article/2013/09/03/us-palestinians-egypt-gaza-idUSBRE9820FE20130903">Egypt
began demolishing houses along its side of its border with Gaza</a>, a <a
href="http://www.hrw.org/reports/2004/10/17/razing-rafah">futile and
criminal Israeli-style tactic</a>, that is seen as a prelude to
establishing a “buffer zone” to further isolate Gaza.</p>
<p>As a result of these and other Egyptian measures, <a
href="http://electronicintifada.net/blogs/ali-abunimah/stocks-vital-medicines-hit-zero-egypt-israel-tighten-gaza-siege">supplies
of some critical medicines have hit zero, the construction industry has
collapsed</a>, and the <a
href="http://electronicintifada.net/tags/rafah-crossing">Rafah crossing</a>,
the only entry and exit for most Gazans, is frequently closed.</p>
<p>The population of Gaza still faces 12-hour daily blackouts due to
Israel’s destruction of the electricity infrastructure, but even the
relief provided by <a
href="http://electronicintifada.net/content/after-narrow-escape-gaza-woman-educates-peers-about-lethal-danger-generators/11263">noisy
and often dangerous portable generators</a> is fading into darkness as
fuel supplies run out.</p>
<h2>Slow death</h2>
<p>A new report, “<a href="http://www.euromid.org/report/SlowDeath.pdf">Slow
Death; The Collective Punishment of Gaza has reached a Critical Stage</a>,”
from the human rights monitoring group <a href="http://www.euromid.org">Euro-Mid
Observer</a>, highlights the acute crisis that compounds the effects of
the prolonged Israeli blockade.</p>
<h2>Ten facts about the Gaza blockade</h2>
<p>The report is worth reading in full, but these ten facts about the
impact of the blockade capture the scale of the mounting catastrophe
and underscore the urgent need for pressure on Israel to end it and for
Egypt to end its complicity.</p>
<ul>
<li>According to <a href="http://electronicintifada.net/tags/un-ocha">the
UN’s Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs</a> (OCHA), <strong>57
percent of Gaza households are food insecure as of July 2013</strong>,
however, if the current Israeli and Egyptians measures remain as they
are, <strong>65 percent of Gaza households will be food insecure</strong>
(World Food Program estimate June 2010).</li>
<li>As of August 2013, <strong>over a third (35.5 percent) of those
able and willing to work are unemployed</strong> (Palestinian Central
Bureau of Statistics) – one of the highest unemployment rates in the
world. Economists expect that the continuous closure of the tunnels
will lead to <strong>a sharp increase in the unemployment level</strong>
(43 percent by the end of 2013 compare with 32 percent in June 2013).</li>
<li>The continuous closure of the tunnels will lead to a 3 percent
decline in the growth by the end of 2013 compared with 15 percent as of
June 2013.</li>
<li><strong>The construction sector is working at less than 15
percent of its previous capacity</strong> leading to more than 30,000
losses in job opportunities since July 2013.</li>
<li>A longstanding electricity deficit, compounded by shortages in
fuel needed to run Gaza’s power plant, results in power outages of up
to 12 hours a day (UN OCHA, July 2013).</li>
<li><strong>Only a quarter of households receive running water every
day</strong>, during several hours only.</li>
<li>Over 90 percent of the water extracted from the Gaza aquifer is
unsafe for human consumption.</li>
<li>Some 90 million liters of <strong>untreated and partially
treated sewage</strong> are dumped in the sea off the Gaza coast each
day, creating public health hazards.</li>
<li>Over 12,000 people are currently displaced due to their inability
to reconstruct their homes, destroyed during hostilities (UNOCHA, July
2013).</li>
<li>The economy has endured severe losses worth $460 million in all
economic sectors within the past two months. (Ministry of Economy- Gaza)</li>
</ul>
<h2>Collective punishment, collective crime</h2>
<p>Although it remains the occupying power, Israel declared Gaza a
“hostile entity” in 2007 and its then prime minister <a
href="http://electronicintifada.net/tags/ehud-olmert">Ehud Olmert</a>
declared, “We will not allow the opening of the crossings to Gaza and
outside of Gaza to the extent that it will help them bring back life
into a completely normal pace.”</p>
<p>These and other Israeli official statements quoted in the Euro-Mid
report highlight that the catastrophe in Gaza is a calculated and
intended effect of the siege, making it a war crime and collective
punishment under international law.</p>
<h2>Complicity</h2>
<p>Euro-Mid calls on the “international community,” to pressure Israel
to end the blockade.</p>
<p>That call is right, but it is an unavoidable fact that the siege
would not have lasted seven long years already without the complicity
and support of the “international community” in the form of the United
States and its allies, particularly the European Union and compliant
Arab regimes.</p>
<p>The siege is collective punishment of Palestinians in Gaza, but it
is also a collective crime.</p>
</div>
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