Gaza jobless, poverty rate staging high due to Israeli blockade: union official

The unemployment rate in the Gaza Strip climbed to 60 percent and the poverty rate grew to 70 percent due to the ongoing Israeli blockade, Gaza union officials said on Thursday.

Sami Ammassi, chairman of the Gaza-based workers union, warned of a severe deterioration in the economic situation in the Gaza Strip as the Israeli blockade has been going on indefinitely for nine years.

"The Palestinian labors situation is seriously tragic and unprecedented over the past two decades," Ammassi told Xinhua in a special interview just two days before the world marks May 1 Labor Day.

He unveiled that in the Gaza Strip, there are 360,000 workers, "60 percent of who are unemployed."

He added that the poverty rate in the Gaza Strip grew up to 70 percent, "therefore, we wary of a real crucial humanitarian catastrophe."

As Israel's blockade on the Gaza Strip and an internal Palestinian division has been going on indefinitely, life in the coastal enclave with an endless deterioration in economy and daily living condition "has become unbearable," he said.

Israel imposed the blockade on the Gaza Strip right after Islamic Hamas movement had violently seized control of the coastal enclave and routed the security forces of Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas.

Gaza-based rights groups said in recent reports that seven Palestinians died since January after they committed suicide and killed themselves due to the hard living condition in the Gaza Strip. Endit