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<h1 class="article-title">United Nations: Gaza Could Be
Uninhabitable Within 5 Years</h1>
<div class="article-subtitledetails">
<span class="article-details">
<span class="article-detail"><img class="icon"
src="cid:part1.00090308.01090300@freedomarchives.org"
alt="author"> Thursday September 03, 2015 19:14</span><span
class="article-detail"><img class="icon"
src="cid:part2.05070208.01060805@freedomarchives.org"
alt="author"> by Dianne Penn - United Nations</span></span>
<br>
<b><small><small><a class="moz-txt-link-freetext" href="http://www.imemc.org/article/72881">http://www.imemc.org/article/72881</a></small></small></b><br>
</div>
<blockquote class="article-intro">Living conditions in Gaza are so
bad that they've been described as "less than human" and
potentially uninhabitable by 2020, the United Nations said on
Tuesday.</blockquote>
<p class="article">The warning comes from the UN trade and
development agency, UNCTAD, in its report into the Palestinian
economy.<br>
<br>
In addition to severe crises linked to water and electricity
shortages, the UN agency says that Gaza's 1.8 million residents
have yet to recover from the destruction of last year's conflict
with Israel.<br>
<br>
Three wars in six years and eight years of economic blockade
have been blamed for terrible living conditions in the
Territories Occupied by Israel, the UN trade and development
agency (UNCTAD) said Tuesday.<br>
<br>
In its latest report into Gaza and the West Bank, UNCTAD experts
warn that development is not merely hindered, but reversed.<br>
<br>
In fact, the figures show that for the first time since 2006,
the Palestinian economy has gone into recession.<br>
<br>
The conflict in 2014 was particularly damaging, with whole areas
of Gaza still flattened by attacks. So says UNCTAD's Mahmoud
Elkhafif.<br>
<br>
"The fact that electricity is not enough, that a number of
hospitals have been destroyed, the fact that there is no
drinking water enough, it's just what any rational human would
(not) doubt what's going to happen. I mean, we had had a study
before the destruction of 2014 indicating that Gaza won't be
liveable in 2020, it's not that things stayed as they were in
2020 but they got much, much worse in 2014."<br>
<br>
Israel is criticised for withholding almost USD $700 million of
import tax revenue from the Palestinian authorities in the first
four months of the year.<br>
<br>
According to the UN agency it's the sixth time Israel has
withheld the monies since 1997, which are far and away the main
source of public revenue in the West Bank and Gaza.<br>
<br>
In another sign of the deteriorating conditions on the ground,
UNCTAD said that in the year 2000, 72,000 people depended on
food aid, but now that number has risen to almost a million.<br>
<br>
And in Gaza, unemployment is as high as 80 per cent, the UN
agency said.<br>
<br>
<i><b><a
href="http://www.unmultimedia.org/radio/english/2015/09/gaza-set-to-be-uninhabitable-within-five-years/#.VehvZxHBzGd"
target="_blank">Listen/Download Audio Report</a></b></i> </p>
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