UN: Gaza could be 'uninhabitable' by 2020

GENEVA (AFP) -- The Gaza Strip, ravaged by wars and nearly a decade of a grueling Israeli blockade, could become uninhabitable for residents within just five years, the United Nations development agency said Tuesday.

"The social, health and security-related ramifications of the high population density and overcrowding are among the factors that may render Gaza unlivable by 2020," the UN Conference on Trade and Development (UNCTAD) wrote in its annual report.Gaza, a tiny enclave of just 362 square kilometers (about 225 square miles) squeezed between Israel, Egypt and the Mediterranean Sea that is home to some 1.8 million Palestinians, counts one of the highest population densities in the world."Gaza could become uninhabitable by 2020 if current economic trends persist," the report said.While the high density is not new, the situation has been exacerbated by three Israeli military operations in the past six years and nearly a decade-long economic blockade. The blockade had "ravaged the already debilitated infrastructure of Gaza, shattered its productive base, left no time for meaningful reconstruction or economic recovery and impoverished the Palestinian population in Gaza," the report said.

"Short of ending the blockade, donor aid... will not reverse the ongoing de-development and impoverishment in Gaza," it said.Socio-economic conditions in Gaza today are currently "at their lowest point since 1967," when Israel seized the territory from Egypt in its Six-Day War, according to the report.The report estimated that the three military operations, including last year's devastating war that killed some 2,200 Palestinians and displaced half a million more, had caused economic losses close to three times the size of Gaza's local gross domestic product.The 2014 war, which also left 73 Israelis dead, destroyed or severely damaged more than 20,000 Palestinian homes, 148 schools, 15 hospitals and 45 primary healthcare centers, UNCTAD said.As many as 247 factories and 300 commercial centers were fully or partially destroyed, and Gaza's only power station sustained severe damage, it said.

Water crisis, record unemployment
Even before last year's conflict, Gaza's electricity supply was not even enough to cover 40 percent of demand, UNCTAD said, adding that 95 percent of water from coastal aquifers -- Gazans main source of freshwater -- was considered unsafe to drink. Unemployment in Gaza meanwhile soared last year to 44 percent -- the highest level on record -- hitting young women especially hard, leaving more than eight out of 10 women out of work.
A full 72 percent of all households in Gaza are meanwhile struggling with food insecurity, and the number of Palestinian refugees who rely entirely on food distribution from UN agency has ballooned from 72,000 in 2000 to 868,000 by last May.The report also detailed the devastating effect of the blockade imposed by Israel after Hamas captured an Israeli soldier in the summer of 2006 and tightened a year later after the group won elections and then ousted Fatah following fighting.

"It inflicted large-scale destruction on Gaza's local economy, productive assets and infrastructure, and affected numerous industrial, agricultural, commercial and residential facilities either directly or indirectly through debilitated infrastructure and acute shortages of inputs, water, electricity and fuel," it said.Exports had basically been completely banned, as imports of anything besides the most basic humanitarian goods had been blocked.The dire situation has left Gaza relying heavily on aid, but the report warned that while donor support would remain vital, it could not turn around the situation in the Strip alone.

http://www.maannews.com/Content.aspx?id=767377


With a bit of luck Israel won't have to spend money on more bombs, it will have killed them off with the blockade.

Best the people of Gaza get rid of Hamas then as they have brought upon all this misery and claim to a projected unihabitable place.
Would there be a need of a blackade if not for suicide bomb attacks?
No, which Hamas created.
Hamas started wars with Israel, so Hamas again to blame showing.
Does Hamas use materials meant for rebuilding to build tunnels to attack Israel?
yes
Hamas to blame again.
Seems the report forgot to point the finger of blame where it rightly should be

There have been no suicide bomb attacks since 2008, that's SEVEN YEARS AGO.   Since then Israel have bombed Gaza to pieces 3 times.  Twat.

Well done and why have there been no succesful attacks?
Because of the security measures.
Which means they are working.
Hamas crfeated this siatution and yet you still excuse them
No surpise their from the scum terrorist supporter
There has been though however 27 attempts this year from the West bank

I just burst out laughing at that, you are such a little Zionista mouthpiece

Is that why you have no answer to the fact my points are correct?

Move along you cretin ha ha ha

You have no points, just propaganda, it's laughable and certainly not worth anyone's time.

More copout, seriously crawl back to that cesspit you reside in if you have no answers lol

Oh dear, off you go again.  Melt down imminent.  Go and polish your head.

Ha ha ha no meltdown just so much fun showing what an ignorant pathetic extremist supporter you are who would rather the wall came down so suicide attacks could commence.
I mean look at how successful it has been which would have never been needed without such attacks. That though is too difficult for a brainless dummy like you to compute lol

There you go - meltdown.  Go and polish your bonce.   BTW the wall has nothing to do with Gaza, it's in the West Bank.

PMSL so now proving you are an idiot is a meltdown?
lol, yeah keep taking the pills love ha ha

Cuchulain wrote:Is that why you have no answer to the fact my points are correct?

Move along you cretin ha ha ha

I don't agree with most of what you say but on your views on Israel i fully agree and not because i stand with Israel but because what you say is correct .

sassy is just too full of hatred to see the truth in this she is probably so blinded by hate for Israel she has no room for reason she is just a horrible human being always has been .

And you might be a pain the backside and i want to slap you with a wet lettuce at times but you at least had the decency to report her childish thread aimed at me and HF ,

Vicar Of Dibley wrote:

Cuchulain wrote:Is that why you have no answer to the fact my points are correct?

Move along you cretin ha ha ha

I don't agree with most of what you say but on your views on Israel i fully agree and not because i stand with Israel but because what you say is correct .

sassy is just too full of hatred to see the truth in this she is probably so blinded by hate for Israel she has no room for reason she is just a horrible human being always has been .

And you might be a pain the backside and i want to slap you with a wet lettuce at times but you at least had the decency to report her childish thread aimed at me and HF ,

Just keep the personal views out of the debate and then it will remain a debate Dibs.
That is then fair to all and if your husband can keep civil then nobody is going to complain

Cuchulain wrote:

Vicar Of Dibley wrote:

I don't agree with most of what you say but on your views on Israel i fully agree and not because i stand with Israel but because what you say is correct .

sassy is just too full of hatred to see the truth in this she is probably so blinded by hate for Israel she has no room for reason she is just a horrible human being always has been .

And you might be a pain the backside and i want to slap you with a wet lettuce at times but you at least had the decency to report her childish thread aimed at me and HF ,

Just keep the personal views out of the debate and then it will remain a debate Dibs.
That is then fair to all and if your husband can keep civil then nobody is going to complain

In fairness to HF he was okay and you did call him , but lets just move on again and again and again

Days of Palestine, Reports –An Israeli college has sacked one of its academic teachers over calling Israeli war on Gaza “massacre.”

Israeli TV Cahnnel 7 said that Tel Hai Israeli College in the Occupied Galilee sacked Gaby Weinrot, one of its Academic Teachers, after calling the latest Israeli war on the Gaza Strip a “massacre.”

Weinrot wrote on his Facebook page: “You bastards are killing children in my name as an Israeli, and this is the right time to critique the Israeli Army for the massacres it committed.”

He also expressed his respect to the Israeli troops, who refused the orders of their commanders during the war. “My regards to all the Israeli soldiers that refused to follow Military Orders during the war,” he wrote, “let us oppose the regime that governs us.”

Immediately, after the post was published, the college described it as anti-Israeli army and a number of the Israeli students called for sacking their teacher.

The administration of the college called up the teacher and accused him of offending the state’s army.

A leader of the Zionist Movement said that the dean of the college sacked the teacher permanently from his work.

The 51-day Israeli war on Gaza killed more than 2,160 Palestinians, including 501 children and wounded around 11,000 others, including more than 3,000 children.

More than 75 percent of the total casualties, the UN said, were civilians.

- See more at: http://www.daysofpalestine.com/news/israeli-teacher-sacked-calling-israeli-war-massacre/#sthash.s93QGFe3.3oMIVC4v.dpuf

well lets not get downhearted about it folks

im sure it will be no time at all before the savages will launch another attack on israel and im sure noble Israel will defend her people.

2020 is just the outside date, with luck it could happy much earlier, and we can all finally put an end to this nonsense

smelly-bandit wrote:well lets not get downhearted about it folks

im sure it will be no time at all before the savages will launch another attack on israel and im sure noble Israel will defend her people.

2020 is just the outside date, with luck it could happy much earlier, and we can all finally put an end to this nonsense  

yep very ungrateful people the Palestinians