Situation in Gaza approaches critical point
PA and Hamas fail to achieve reconciliation, meanwhile, unemployment in the strip approaches 50%, exports down sharply, electricity available only few hours a day, clean water hard to come by, raw sewage polluting streets, sea, Israeli beaches; Security officials warn 'situation can blow up in our face.'
Over the past year, more and more voices within the Israeli defense establishment have been warning that the worsening humanitarian crisis in the Gaza Strip could lead to a military conflict, or alternatively to a situation in which Israel would have to take on responsibility for civilian infrastructure in the strip to prevent a total collapse.
The reconciliation process between Fatah and Hamas has reached a stalemate, with neither side willing to compromise, freezing the implementation of the agreements the two warring factions signed in Cairo last year. Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas, the leader of Fatah and the Palestinian Authority, is maintaining his sanctions on the Gaza Strip, where Hamas rules, with the only exception being the lifting of his sanctions on electricity supply to the Gaza Strip.
Egypt, which mediated the latest reconciliation agreement, keeps the Rafah border crossing closed despite the fact Hamas has relinquished responsibility and control over the border crossings in Gaza to the Palestinian Authority. Very few Gazans are allowed to cross through the Erez border, linking Gaza with Israel, the West Bank and the world beyond, and the Kerem Shalom border crossing has seen a drop in activity as the economic crisis in the strip affects the amount of goods coming in.
Qatar, once the de facto cash machine of the strip, and international aid organizations have reduced their projects and operations in Gaza, with UNRWA facing a severe cut in US aid money. The Gaza Strip is facing several infrastructure issues that only exacerbate the declining humanitarian situation.
Three years ago, the UN released a report which determined that by 2020, there will be no clean drinking water left in Gaza due to the terrible infrastructure, over-pumping of the coastal aquifers and the high amounts of chlorine in the water. Consequently, the water is too salty to drink and residents use it for hygiene and cleaning purposes only.
Residents are forced to use public faucets with aquifer water that has been treated in public desalination facilities. Those who can afford to, purchase water from companies that operate private desalination plants, at a high price, four times the price that Israelis pay for their drinking water.
Security officials have long been warning decision makers that the water crisis in Gaza can blow up in Israel's face. Already in 2013, a senior security establishment official told Ynet that the most serious threat to the stability between Israel and Gaza in the coming decade is the water crisis and there is an urgent need to erect a huge desalination plant on the Gaza coast.
Currently, there is one operational plant and an additional one under construction near Khan Yunis. Desalination plants require large amounts of electricity which is also in short supply. Today, only 10% of Gaza's water is from desalination plants or from sources in Israel.
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Two weeks ago, a senior IDF officer described that the situation in the Gaza Strip as the worst it has ever been and approaching the level of the crisis in Somalia. Palestinian government statistics corroborate the data. Unemployment is skyrocketing, more than half of the educated population is not working and some 100,000 Gazans have been imprisoned over the last year over unpaid debts.
In any case, officials agree that the situation will only deteriorate in the coming months and the dependency on Israel will continue to grow.
Hamas will again use this device of their own making as an excuse to blame and attack Israel...the very last thing needed in the region at the moment.
Well Hamas might do that.. but then again, considering conditions there, wouldn't that be more like a death throes? They can't fight a war, without water or electricity.
Fatah will come out the big winner.
In any event, the last thing that is needed in the M/E right now.
I hear ya, but since when has Hamas done the smart thing?
I feel sorry for the ordinary people of Gaza, the ones who suffer because their government, Hamas, would prefer to fire rockets and misssiles at Israel and build tunnels rather than improve their infrastructure such as desaliniztion plants, or using Israeli technology for reclycling of waste water. I feel sorry for all those people who had good paying jobs in Israel who can no longer cross into Israel for those jobs because their govenment, Hamas, would rather fire rockets and missiles into Israel and continue to threaten Israel to destroy and annihilate. Generally, I don't see that the life of the common people of Israel is much different than it is for you and me.
https://unitedwithisrael.org/watch-arab-media-reveals-booming-economy-in-besieged-gaza/?utm_source=MadMimi&utm_medium=email&utm_content=Palestinian+Stabs+Israeli+to+Death%2C+Flees+Attack%3B+Israel+Slammed+for+%E2%80%98Touristic+Settlement%E2%80%99+of+Jerusalem%3B+%27Booming+Gaza%27+Shown+on+Arab+TV&utm_campaign=20180205_m143949740_Palestinian+Stabs+Israeli+to+Death%2C+Flees+Attack%3B+Israel+Slammed+for+%E2%80%98Touristic+Settlement%E2%80%99+of+Jerusalem%3B+%27Booming+Gaza%27+Shown+on+Arab+TV&utm_term=Gaza-Hotel-249x169_png
Of course we have a few ignorant members on NT who are bigoted anti-Semites who say that Gaza is just a big concentration camp, comparing Israelis to Nazis, and Gazan people live like this:
I just reread what I wrote and realized that I said "Israel" instead of "Gaza". It's too late for me to amend my comment so please read it as if I said: