U.N. Declares Gaza Will Soon Be 'Uninhabitable' If Israeli Blockade and Wars Continue

Ruins of a residential area in Beit Hanoun in the northern Gaza Strip. (btselem / CC BY-SA 3.0)

Here’s why, according to a report released Tuesday by the United Nations Conference on Trade and Development, it’s entirely Israel’s fault that the Palestinian territory may become totally unlivable five years from now.

From Al-Jazeera:

The report released on Tuesday by the UN Conference on Trade and Development points to the eight-year economic blockade of Gaza as well as the three wars there over the past six years.

Last year’s Israeli war on Gaza displaced half a million people and left parts of the strip destroyed.

The war “has effectively eliminated what was left of the middle class, sending almost all of the population into destitution and dependence on international humanitarian aid,” the new report says.

Gaza’s GDP dropped 15 percent last year, and unemployment reached a record high of 44 percent. Seventy-two percent of households are food insecure.