The Israeli government authorized the renewed building of 750 housing units in the Jerusalem area Givat Ze'ev settlement.

The Israeli Ministry of Defense has cut a deal with the Yesha Council, the representative body of the settlers, in which 18 of the 24 unauthorized settlement outposts built after 2001 will be evacuated in the coming months, in exchange for the construction of new housing units in the illegal settlement blocs of Gush Etzion, Ma’aleh Adumim, Givat Ze’ev, Ariel, Elkana and Efrat.

According to the Israeli online news source Ynet, officials from Defense Minister Ehud Barak's office revealed that an “agreement on the details of the plan was reached in a meeting held two weeks ago with representatives of the Yesha Council.”

"The Gaza Strip: A Humanitarian Implosion" report was issued by the Catholic Agency for Overseas Development, Amnesty International, CARE International UK, Christian Aid, Medecins du Monde UK, Oxfam, Save the Children UK and Trocaire.

Executive Summary

The situation for 1.5 million Palestinians in the Gaza Strip is worse now than it has ever been since the start of the Israeli military occupation in 1967. The current situation in Gaza is man­made, completely avoidable and, with the necessary political will, can also be reversed.

Gaza has suffered from a long­term pattern of economic stagnation and plummeting development indicators. The severity of the situation has increased exponentially since Israel imposed extreme restrictions on the movement of goods and people in response to the Hamas take over of Gaza and to indiscriminate rocket attacks against Israel. This report illustrates the gravity of the current situation across key sectors.

Humanitarian Access

Movement in and out of Gaza is all but impossible and supplies of food and water, sewage treatment, and basic healthcare can no longer be taken for granted. As a result of the blockade and collapse of the economy, there is little money to buy food and limited food to buy. Food prices are rising and wheat flour, baby milk, and rice, among other essential goods, are increasingly scarce. During the period of May-June 2007 alone, these commodity prices rose 34%, 30% and 20.5% respectively 1.

As the humanitarian crisis intensified, the number of trucks carrying commercial and humanitarian supplies into Gaza plummeted. In the months prior to the tightening of the blockade around 250 trucks a day entered Gaza with supplies 2, now the Sufa crossing is only able to deal with a maximum of 45 trucks a day 3. In most cases, this number is barely reached.

Poverty and Dependency on Food Aid

The number of people living in absolute poverty in Gaza has increased sharply. Today, 80% of families in Gaza currently rely on humanitarian aid compared to 63% in 2006 4. This decline exposes unprecedented levels of poverty and the inability of a large majority of the population to afford basic food. In 2007, this meant that on average, households were spending approximately 62% of their total income on food

compared with 37% in 20045. As a result, food aid increased dramatically to meet the needs of this increasingly impoverished population. In 2008, there are over 1.1 million people—some three-quarters of Gaza’s population—who are dependent on food aid. In less than ten years, the number of families depending on UNRWA food aid has increased ten-fold6.

A view of the interior of the upscale Tel Aviv Azrieli Center shopping mall.

Last month, an Israeli government report was issued regarding the level of poverty and income gaps in Israel for the years 2006-2007.  I will not analyze here the statistics of the report, for they speak for themselves: As time goes on, an increasing number of people fall below the poverty line. There are more poor children (one out of every three children at present) and more workers who are unable to survive on their income. It is clear that this trend will continue to worsen, and that the government’s neoliberal and racist economic policies will drag additional sectors of the population, especially the young, senior citizens and children, into the sea of poverty. 

This article will also not attempt to convince the pseudo-liberal yuppies—the Israeli upper-middle class—who choose to ignore the statistics of income gaps from which they benefit. Or to convince the “Ministry of Finance officials,” who in essence represent the academic-organizational segment of the oppressors. There is no point in attempting to show them the error of their ways when they suggest “alternative” ways to calculate poverty. For example, the idea to calculate the expenditure index of the poor, in a manner suggesting that the poor don’t know how to maintain themselves in a rational manner. In simple words, the poor smoke, have cable television, spend more than they have and so on. These contentions are not a slip of the tongue; they are part of their ideology.

Instead, this article was written with the goal of deepening thought about the possibilities for social and political action, with an understanding that the phenomenon of poverty will deepen and be an integral part of the sociopolitical scene for many years to come.

Israeli attacks on populated neighborhoods in Gaza caused many civilian casualties and left many homeless.

The Israeli military announced its redeployment and withdrew from the places in Gaza that it invaded over the last few days. The military noted that the first stage of its big military operation, dubbed “Hot Winter” was finished and that the next stages will be conducted within the framework of the same operation.

In the last five days, at least 117 Palestinians were killed and 300 injured, dozens of them seriously. Sixty percent of the dead and injured were civilians, most of them children, old men and women. Many of the civilians were killed inside their own homes as Israeli warplanes and tanks shelled neighborhoods, particularly in Jabalya and other populated areas of Gaza. Many families lost more than one member, while some lost almost everyone.

Human rights organizations found new demands for human rights about which to speak. In a press conference, human rights activist Jaber Wishah from Gaza Center for Human Rights loudly proclaimed that “we are calling for the right to bury the dead and remove the bodies from under the destroyed houses.” For five days, everything that moves has been a target of the Israeli shells: ambulances, aid officers, animals in the streets and fields and even the birds, especially the peace doves which were killed in the air and over the rooftops. Through our contacts with people in Gaza and our friends there, we know that for five days, 100,000 residents of the Jabalya Camp were unable to sleep or even rest. If such an event occurred in other places, in Europe, for example, how many organizations, experts and specialists in sociology, psychology and education would be deployed, and how much money would be devoted to examining the effects on children?