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Gaza Strip workers protest deteriorating conditions

Xinhua, March 10, 2016 Adjust font size:

Hundreds of Palestinian workers demonstrated in Gaza city Thursday, protesting their worsening conditions amid rising poverty and jobless rates and dwindling government subsidies.

Protestors gathered before the Palestinian Legislative Council, calling for temporary employment programs and disbursement of urgent payment to alleviate their suffering.

Head of the Gaza Strip's Workers Union, Sami Al-'Asmi, told Xinhua that over 213,000 workers are currently unemployed in the Gaza Strip.

Al-'Asmi, who organized the protest, said that around 70 percent of Gazan workers suffer from poverty and depend on urgent yet sporadic food aid provided by international organizations in order to feed their children.

He criticized the Ramallah-based national consensus government for "ignoring" Gaza's laborers and cancelling all workers' aid programs, including temporary employment.

Israel imposed a tight blockade on the Gaza Strip, deeming it a hostile entity following the Islamic Hamas movement's 2007 forceful seizure and control of the enclave.

The blockade helped push the densely populated Gaza Strip's unemployment rate to one of the world's highest.

The Palestinian Central Bureau of Statistics at the jobless rate at 41 percent.

Rights groups have warned that thousands of Palestinian families face abject poverty, totally dependent on relief and humanitarian aid. Endit