Int’l community keeps silent on Gaza blockade

Nearly 80 months after the Israeli regime imposed an all-out land, aerial, and naval blockade on Gaza, the international community continues to remain silent on the illegal siege of the Palestinian enclave.

Gaza has been blockaded since June 2007, a situation that has caused a decline in the standards of living, unprecedented levels of unemployment, and unrelenting poverty.

Tel Aviv denies about 1.7 million people in Gaza their basic rights, such as freedom of movement, jobs that pay proper wages, and adequate healthcare and education.

The siege has turned the impoverished enclave into the world’s largest open-air prison, threatening the lives of patients and those who are in dire need of medicine and hospital equipment.

Israel has also launched several wars against the besieged Palestinian strip.

Over 160 Palestinians, including women and children, were killed and about 1,200 others were injured in an eight-day Israeli war on the Palestinian territory in November 2012.

Moreover, the Gazan predicament has been worsened by frequent attacks launched by the Egyptian army on underground tunnels that serve as a lifeline for Gazans.

The military has stepped up the destruction of the tunnels on the Egyptian side of the border since July’s ouster of the former Egyptian president, Mohamed Morsi.

Several Palestinians have lost their lives as they were caught up in the tunnels during destruction operations.

More than 80 percent of the tunnels are no longer functional following their destruction by the Egyptian army.