Gaza, from prosperity to below the poverty line

For millennia Gaza served as a commercial hub and bridge between Egypt and the Eastern Arab World. Palestinian writer and activist Edward Said wrote about travelling from Cairo, where his family resided, through Gaza and Jerusalem en route to the Lebanese mountains to escape Egypt’s sweltering summers. Palestinian friends said their relatives living in Jerusalem would travel to Cairo via Gaza in winter to escape the cold.

Israel’s war in 1948 put an end to Gaza’s strategic geography and commanding role in commerce and travel. For most in the Arab world, the 72 per cent of Palestine Israel occupied as a “black hole” and the Palestinians who remained were snubbed. The large Gaza district was reduced to the narrow coastal strip.

The population of the strip swelled to 80,000 due to the expulsion of Palestinians from the conquered areas of the district and of 200,000 refugees from elsewhere. Although Israel first occupied the strip for six months between October 1956 and March 1957 due to the Anglo-French-Israeli war on Egypt, the territory was administered by Egypt the rest of the time until mid-1967.

Gazan farmers grew vegetables and fruit and tended livestock. Foreign visitors lodged at Mrs. Nassar's Marna House. A train linked Gaza to Cairo and the wider world. Flour, rice, fertilizers, clothes, cement, equipment, cars, trucks and belly dancers were imported from Egypt. Gazan educators, engineers, and medics travelled via Cairo to the Gulf for work. Gazan businessmen carried on a lucrative trade with Egypt and students flocked to universities in Cairo and Alexandria. The Palestinian refugee agency UNRWA sheltered, fed, educated, and trained refugees and employed thousands in its administration.

After conquering the West Bank, East Jerusalem, and Gaza in June 1967, Israel rendered the strip dependent, de-developed its economy and employed Gazans to work in mainly menial jobs in Israel at low rates of pay and without social insurance. Gaza's dependence increased after Israel withdrew its soldiers and settlers in 2005 but retained air, land and see control of the territory.

Hamas seized control in mid-2007 from Fatah, dividing Gaza from Fatah-dominated Palestinian Authority (PA) enclaves in the West Bank. While the PA boycotted Hamas, Israel waged war on Gaza in 2008-2009, 2014, and 2021, and severely restricted the flow of food, building materials, medical supplies, and commercial goods into Gaza which never recovered from each bout of warfare.

Gazans opened a brief window of independence and economic normalcy by digging more than 1,000 tunnels at Rafah beneath the border with Egypt. Through the tunnels Gazans freely imported everything, including cars, livestock, clothing, food, and fuel while Gazans could enter and leave Gaza. A tunnel economy emerged, creating tunnel millionaires. Hamas collected taxes on imports, businesses, and the wealthy. However, tunnel independence ended in 2013 when the Egyptian military closed the tunnels after the 2011 fall of Egypt’s 30-year president Hosni Mubarak.

Since then, Israel has exerted full control over supplies entering Gaza. Gazan consumption has been kept at a minimal level. Today Gaza has 2.3 million people of whom 1.6 million are of refugee stock. An estimated 81 per cent of the population lives below the poverty line, according to the UN. Since the ongoing war began in October 2023, the International Labour organisation reported the economy has shrunk by 85 per cent and unemployment has risen to 80 per cent.

In consequence, the ongoing 19-month war and repeated periods of blockade have taken a heavy toll on the population, depriving Gazans of nutritious food and essential medicines and lowering their resistance to starvation and disease.

Israel's recent authorisation for 90 trucks to enter Gaza last week is castigated by UN and aid agencies as being totally incapable of meeting Gazans' needs which are enormous and enduring.

While aid agencies boost supplies during ceasefires and blockades are not in force, they cannot store enough to meet needs when supplies cease. This year, supplies began to run out at the end of April but there was no relaxation of the blockade. The situation at present is dire, forcing bakeries and communal kitchens to close and hospitals and medical facilities to ration medicines and dressings for wounds.

Disrupted aid deliveries of water, food, medicine, and fuel and the lack of imports of fresh fruit and vegetables have left most Gazans in want and malnourished. Like all the other peoples of the coastal region, Gazans are used to the "Mediterranean diet" which includes fresh salads, vegetable stews, vegetables stuffed with meat and rice, yoghurt, milk and cheese. Gazans are not used to relying on uncertain meals of rice and tinned vegetables when they can access these ingredients. They are not only being starved of the food they are used to consume but meals which provide what is needed for balanced diets and nutrition. The UN children’s agency UNICEF has reported that 9,000 children have been treated for malnutrition this year while hundreds more could not reach medical centres due to insecurity and displacement.

The US-Israeli creation of the so-called Gaza Humanitarian Foundation, set to become operational at the end of this month, has been rejected by the UN and aid agencies as a solution for Gaza’s starving Palestinians. This mechanism will provide supplies for only a portion of the population at the outset before expanding. Not all Gazans will be covered. This mechanism will vet recipients, the six hubs for distribution are to be in the south, forcing Gazans living in the north to be displaced to the south or starve. US mercenaries and Israeli troops – who are seen as enemies by Palestinians – will impose security.

The situation is desperate and getting worse. The UN Integrated Food Security Phase Classification (IPC) said last week that at least 244,000 Gazans face Phase 5 classification for “extreme deprivation of food. Starvation, death, destitution, and critical levels of acute malnutrition are or will likely be evident." All Gaza is in Phase 4, characterised by "large food consumption gaps and excess mortality," IPC said.