The number of
displaced Palestinians in Gaza is rising again despite the fact that the 26
August ceasefire agreement between Israel and the Palestinian resistance is
holding.
Meanwhile,
the scale of the destruction to Gaza’s infrastructure and economy caused by 51
days of Israeli bombing is becoming starker.
The death
toll stands at 2,168 people, of whom 521 are children, according to Al Mezan
Center for Human Rights which carefully verifies deaths.
And despite
the ceasefire, Palestinians continue to die. Mariam Abu Amra, 23, was the
latest to succumb in a Jerusalem hospital today from wounds she sustained
during the Israeli attack in Deir al-Balah in Gaza, Ma’an News Agency reported.
People going
back to UN shelters
“Following
the ceasefire there was a steep decline in the number of internally displaced
persons,” the UN’s Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (UN
OCHA) reported today, “but figures have gradually risen again in UNRWA
shelters, and an estimated 110,000 are still displaced, including with host
families.”
UN OCHA said
that the number of displaced persons in UN shelters fell dramatically from
289,000 to 53,000 between 26 and 27 August.
But as of 2
September, UNRWA, the UN agency for Palestine refugees, said that 58,217
Palestinians were sheltering in its schools – a total that remains “higher than
the number of displaced sheltered during the peak of the hostilities from 27
December 2008 to 19 January 2009” – Israel’s previous major military assault on
Gaza.
UN OCHA said
that unexploded bombs and ammunition remain “a major protection concern and
pose a risk to those returning to their homes and involved in repair and
reconstruction activities.”
No power, no
water
Other severe
problems are the lack of water and power.
The only
power plant in Gaza “remains inoperable following an Israeli airstrike on 29
July and despite extensive repairs, electricity outages of 18 hours a day
continue in most areas across Gaza,” UN OCHA reported.
With
“extensive damage to the water and wastewater system, 20 to 30 per cent of
households, or 450,000 people, remain unable to access municipal water due to
damage and/or low pressure,” the agency added.
Last week,
The Electronic Intifada’s Joe Catron reported on the dire situation of families
still living in temporary shelter due to the massive destruction.
In total
15,670 housing units were damaged, including 2,276 completely destroyed, and up
to 500,000 Palestinians were displaced during the peak of Israel’s onslaught.
An estimated
108,000 Palestinians will need long-term solutions because their homes were too
severely damaged to inhabit or were destroyed altogether.
“Unprecedented”
destruction
“The scale of
damage” observed by UN OCHA “is unprecedented since the beginning of the
Israeli occupation in 1967. All governorates in Gaza witnessed extensive aerial
bombardment, naval shelling and artillery fire, resulting in the widespread
loss of life and livelihoods.”
A Palestinian barber works at his damaged shop in Absan,
near the boundary with Israel, east of the town of Khan Younis in the southern
Gaza Strip, 2 September. (Abed Rahim Khatib / APA images)
The cost of
the damage totals almost eight billion dollars, according to the Palestinian
Economic Council for Development and Reconstruction, a body belonging to the
Western-backed Palestinian Authority.
What is now
coming into to focus is the long-term damage to the economy, especially as
Israel has still not eased its siege. OCHA states:
The majority
of the Gaza population has lost its productive assets. According to the
Palestinian Federation of Industries, 419 businesses and workshops were
damaged, with 128 completely destroyed. With limited activity at the commercial
crossings and extensive damage to private infrastructure and other productive
assets, business activities were largely paralyzed during the operation.
Hostilities forced farmers and herders to abandon their lands, and resulted in
substantial direct damage to Gaza’s 17,000 hectares of croplands as well as
much of its agricultural infrastructure, including greenhouses, irrigation
systems, animal farms, fodder stocks and fishing boats.
These losses
come on top of an already fragile economy in which two-thirds of Gaza’s almost
1.8 million residents were receiving food assistance prior to the Israeli attack.
Unemployment
had increased dramatically since mid-2013, as the Israeli-allied Egyptian
military regime shut down lifeline tunnels that helped Palestinians evade the
worst economic effects of the Israeli siege.
UN OCHA
states that unemployment in Gaza hit 45 percent overall earlier this year and
70 percent among people aged 20-24.
The Israeli
assault has already made the situation worse: the number of unemployed laborers
shot up from 170,000 before the attack to over 200,000 now, according to Sami
al-Amsi, head of the Palestinian Labor Union.
Whether or
not the calamitous situation improves depends on whether Israel makes good on
its ceasefire commitments.
Palestinians fish at sunset at the seaport in Gaza City,
3 September. (Ashraf Amra / APA images)
A “sustained
opening of crossings” linking Gaza to the world, via Egypt and Israel, “is
vital, alongside the removal of restrictions on the entry of materials for
rehabilitation and reconstruction,” UN OCHA said.
Egypt said
today that an Israeli delegation was expected in Cairo within a week to
continue indirect negotiations with Hamas and other Palestinian resistance
factions over the terms of a long-term truce.
Submitted by Ali Abunimah on Thu, 09/04/2014 - 21:45
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