The occupation continues to blockade the Gaza Strip, turning it into the largest prison in the world

Occupied Jerusalem (ST): The Israeli occupation continues its unjust siege that it imposed on the Gaza Strip in January 2006 and tightened it on this day in 2007 in a crime against humanity against about 2.3 million Palestinians. This blockade represents one of the worst forms of collective punishment practiced by the occupation against the Palestinians, as it left countless crises in various aspects of life in the Strip, and led to a significant increase in poverty and unemployment rates.

Palestinian human rights organizations documented in their reports that during the siege period, the occupation forces launched 8 attacks on the Gaza Strip, in addition to 917 incursions into the outskirts of the Strip, which caused the death of 5,483 Palestinians, 23 percent of whom were children, and arrested 1,917 Palestinians during its incursion into the eastern outskirts of the Strip and its assault on fishermen in the area. During the same period, the occupation forces destroyed 53,000 homes, including more than 12,000 completely, in addition to destroying 557 schools, 31 university buildings, 623 factories, 5,797 establishments, and 2,214 vehicles.

In a statement to news reporter, Nizar Ayyash, the head of the Palestinian Fishermen Syndicate, explained that the blockade and the prevention of the entry and exit of goods and basic materials to and from the Gaza Strip caused a decline in economic growth and an increase in unemployment rates to reach about 80 percent. Less than six nautical miles, fishermen were chased and shot at, about 5,000 fishermen were deprived of work, and hundreds of fishermen’s boats were destroyed. He pointed out that human rights centers documented during the years of the continuous blockade the death of seven fishermen, the injury of 198, and the arrest of 759 during 2,957 attacks carried out by the occupation forces against those working in fishing in the Gaza Strip.

Tawfiq Al-Bannish, a specialist in the field of environment and water, indicated that since the Israeli occupation imposed its blockade on the Strip, the entry of sewage pumps, their tools, and requirements for operating water wells was prevented, forcing the Palestinians at times to pump sewage off the shores of the Strip, which led to its pollution. The occupation also prevented the establishment of desalination plants, and as a result, water pollution and its salinity increased by about 97 percent, according to international reports, and the water became unfit for human consumption, which requires urgent international intervention to lift the siege, and find healthy water sources to prevent a catastrophe that threatens the people of the Strip in the short and long terms.

Member of the Political Bureau of the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine, Iktimal Hamad, said that the occupation is trying, through siege and starvation, to undermine the steadfastness of the Palestinians in the Strip, but that policy failed to subdue the Palestinian people, stressing that the international community’s inaction and silence on the worsening human suffering in Gaza encouraged this occupation to continue imposing an unjust siege.

K.Q.