Israel-Egypt siege worsening Gaza economic woes

The Gaza Strip is reportedly grappling with a deteriorating economic situation and a rising jobless rate because of the Israeli blockade and Egypt’s crackdown on the supply tunnels leading into the Palestinian land.

According to recent figures released by the Palestinian Central Bureau of Statistics, the unemployment rate in the coastal enclave jumped to 38 percent at the end of 2013, up from 32 percent in the third quarter of the same year.

The Palestinian territory has been under Israeli illegal siege since 2007, a situation that has made its residents desperately dependent on goods coming through the tunnels.

The tunnels are the only lifeline for Gazans living under the Israeli siege. Palestinians use the tunnels to bring essential supplies, such as foodstuff, cooking gas, medicines, petrol, and livestock, into the Gaza Strip.

However, the Egyptian army has destroyed hundreds of Gaza’s supply tunnels since it ousted the country’s first democratically elected president, Mohamed Morsi, in a coup in July last year.

The Israeli-Egyptian blockade has had a disastrous impact on the humanitarian and economic situation in the impoverished enclave, which has also been grappling with severe fuel and electricity shortages over the past months.

The rising unemployment and the deepening suffering for the impoverished Palestinians in Gaza has made Palestinian resistance movement Hamas think of new mechanisms for wider flows of goods and materials into the Israeli-besieged sliver.

Zeyad al-Zaza, Hamas deputy prime minister and finance minister, said the resistance movement had proposed that the control of key border crossings be transferred to Gaza’s private enterprises.

The proposal should be approved by acting Palestinian Authority Chief Mahmoud Abbas. However, he is not expected to allow such a move.