One year after the Zionist e
ntity’s savage assault on the besieged refugee population of the Gaza Strip, a group of 16 international human rights and aid groups released a report documenting the wretched conditions under which the people of Gaza are inexplicably left to suffer.
We hear much of this suffering, but all too often it’s just an afterthought in the heat of political discussion. And for those who have never gone through such conditions, it will be impossible to understand the comprehensive breadth of the restrictions placed upon every facet of daily life in Gaza.
I hardly ever read these reports in full, usually just perusing the conclusions, but reading the detailed facts and figures mentioned in this one (entitled ‘Failing Gaza: No rebuilding, no recovery, no more excuses‘) really drives home the extent of the oppression.
- Since the assault ended, leaving 15,000 buildings damages and 5,000 completely destroyed, only 41 trucks of contsruction materials have been allowed to enter Gaza
- Prior to 2007, and average of 70 truckloads of exports left Gaza everyday. For the past two years, that number has been zero.
- Only 35 categories of items are allowed into Gaza. That is, only 35 types of products are allowed in to the 1.5 million prisoners.
- The number of trucks carrying construction materials entering Gaza today is 0.05% of what it was before the blockade. That’s not half a percent-it’s one twentieth of one percent
- 84% of the damage inflicted during the assault was on housing, agriculture and the private sector, putting to bed any illusions that this war did not target the civilian population.
- The damage has left 600,000 tons of rubble strewn across Gaza
- 15,000 homes sustained enough damage displace 100,000 people
- 2,870 homes need major repair and 3,540 need complete rebuilding; in effect, Israel destroyed 291 homes per day during the war
- 52,900 homes sustained minor damages
- 20,000 people remain displaced-some of whom are living in tents in the shadow of the remains of their destroyed homes
- During the war Israel destroyed 700 private businesses
- Prior to the war, the siege had led to 98% of Gaza’s industrial operations becoming idle
- Joblessness in Gaza has now reached 40%
- 120,000 private sector jobs have been lost since the blockade was imposed
- Six months before the war, 70% of Gazan families were surviving on less than one dollar a day
- 17% of Gaza’s farmland was destroyed by Israeli tanks and military vehicles during the war. Four months later Israel announced that it would expand its buffer zone into Gaza even further. Together with the damaged land, the buffer zone has put 46% of Gaza’s agricultural land out of production
- Over 30 kilometers of water networks were damaged or destroyed during the war; 9 kilometers remain damaged
- During the war Israel damaged or destroyed 15 hospitals and 41 primary health clinics
- Israel destroyed 18 schools during the war, and damaged 280 more
- 230 schoolchildren were killed by Israel during the war
It’s not just the numbers that are disturbing-one year after the war, the siege is getting tighter. As we mourn the first anniversary of one of the most savage military assaults on a captive population in recent history, Egypt is building a underground barrier made of an iron wall and sea water to prevent the besieged, brutalized and traumatized prisoners of the Gaza Strip from smuggling in what little they can to help themselves.
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One can only imagine what the cost of such a wall will be, and solely to enable a renegade nation to brutalize a captive civilian population. Disgraceful.
Posted by Sean2009 | December 27, 2009, 1:09 amThank you for posting this Mohamad.
Posted by Arayus | December 27, 2009, 7:58 amFurthermore, it shouldn't be taken lightly that this is a man made disaster.
Many commentators, especially in the US media talk about what happened in Gaza as if it were some kind of natural disaster.
Abunimeh breaks it down:
http://english.aljazeera.net/focus/gazaoneyearon/…
Posted by Arayus | December 27, 2009, 8:04 amGood post, it's disheartening to learn that Egypt will go out of its way to support Israel. Not only is this plain wrong, it doesn't make logical sense seeing that there is little to no benefit for doing so.
Posted by Sauce | December 27, 2009, 9:43 pmEgypt is a disgrace to the Arab and Muslim world.
Every Egyptian is embarrassed to identify himself as one to a fellow Arab. Even tough foolish Egyptians secretly think their American Zionist masters will pat them on the head when they try to walk through US Immigration Counter.
Egypt's compliance to Israeli diktats just bolsters anthropologists' claims to the Egyptian national character of cowardice and lily-livered men who can't stand up to their women.
Such embarrassment; and to think that Egyptians were the only army in history to have stopped Genghis Khan's horde. Oh wait a minute… that accolade must go to the Mameluke Slaves. Who were Turks.
The only silver lining to Egyptian manhood, I guess, must go to its formation of the Muslim worlds first and still influential, dynamic Islamic political party, The Muslim Brotherhood. Muslim Brotherhood still calls the shots, in the Middle East. Alas it's own people, the Egyptians, have been its (Egyptian manhood) most brutal opponents.
Posted by OooKhalid | December 28, 2009, 11:24 amI have to disagree with you. Though the government of Egypt can fit those views which you have just described, one must not generalize to the Egyptian public. I know of many Egyptians who have gone out of their way to espouse the Palestinian cause, more so than most Palestinians themselves. However, Egyptians are powerless against their repressive regime who is certainly not making representative decisions. When fair elections are carried out and the winner of said elections makes decisions based on the wishes of its population, then we can begin to generalize about the people…
Posted by Sauce | December 28, 2009, 2:42 pmDid any of you see this crap? http://www.pressdemocrat.com/article/20091228/OPI…
Posted by Laura | December 29, 2009, 8:03 am