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Israel/ Palestine

Israel’s Strangulation of Gaza by the Numbers

Juan Cole 11/05/2011

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The Israeli navy illegally interfered with Gaza aid ships on the high seas, Friday, kidnapping the people on the two vessels and sending the ships involuntarily to an Israeli port. The Geneva Convention of 1949 on people in occupied territories forbids their mistreatment.

Israel’s strangulation of Gaza by the numbers:

Truckloads of goods per year allowed by Israel into Gaza today: 1,000

Truckloads of goods per year allowed by Israel into Gaza in 2005: 2,500

Exports from Gaza to the rest of the world allowed by Israel: 0

Annual cost of the Israeli blockade to the Gaza economy: ~ $2 billion

Unemployment rate in Gaza, 2010: 37.4%

Percentage of households in Gaza living below the poverty line of $2 a day: 77%

Percentage of the 1.6 million Palestinians of Gaza who are minors: 50%

Percentage of households in Gaza that are food insecure: 61%

Percentage of Palestinian children in Gaza who are stunted from malnutrition: 15%

Percentage of Palestinian infants aged 3 months to one year who are anemic: 76%

Number of key medicines which have gone out of stock in Gaza because of the blockade and consequent money problems: 163

Percentage by which real per capita Gaza gross domestic product in 2011 is below per capita gdp of of 1993: 35%

Filed Under: Israel/ Palestine

About the Author

Juan Cole is the founder and chief editor of Informed Comment. He is Richard P. Mitchell Professor of History at the University of Michigan He is author of, among many other books, Muhammad: Prophet of Peace amid the Clash of Empires and The Rubaiyat of Omar Khayyam. Follow him on Twitter at @jricole or the Informed Comment Facebook Page

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Gaza Yet Stands


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Muhammad: Prophet of Peace amid the Clash of Empires



Click here to Buy Muhammad: Prophet of Peace amid the Clash of Empires.

The Rubaiyat of Omar Khayyam


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