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Poverty rate in Gaza exceeds 40 pct: report

Xinhua, January 17, 2016 Adjust font size:

The Poverty rate in Gaza has exceeded 40 percent due to Israel's 10 year blockade imposed upon the coastal enclave, said a Palestinian corporation in a report Sunday.

Representatives from the National Corporation to Defeat the Siege Gaza stated during a news briefing that 80 percent out of the 2 million Palestinians living in the Gaza Strip subsist on aid from international organizations and local charities.

They added that the aid Gaza used to receive from both international and Arab sources has decreased in the past two years due to the closure of the Rafah border crossing point with Egypt.

"The current situation contributed to the decrease in the poverty rate in the Gaza Strip to over 40 percent, with unemployment rates rising to over 45 percent," said one of the corporation's representative.

Israel imposed the blockade on the Gaza Strip following the Islamic Hamas movement's majority win in the 2006 parliamentary elections.

Israel further constricted its blockade on Gaza in 2007, declaring the Islamic Hamas movement a terrorist group, after forcibly seizing control of the territory, following weeks of internal fighting with Palestinian security forces.

"Israel's blockade in addition to the closed crossing points not only negatively affected poverty rates and unemployment, but also daily living conditions, medical, social and educational services," they said.

In conjunction with the blockade, Israel also waged three major military offensives against the Gaza Strip, the longest of which lasting 50 days in the summer of 2014, causing substantial housing and infrastructure damage. Enditem