Head of the Popular Committee Against the Siege on Gaza MP Jamal al-Khudari on Sunday said that 2018 was the worst since the Israeli occupation of the enclave in 1967.
Al-Khudari said in a press statement that the economic and humanitarian situation in the Gaza Strip is unprecedentedly deteriorating with direct and indirect economic losses exceeding $300 million in 2018.
Al-Khudari explained that 2018 was the most disastrous in Gaza in view of the 13-year-long Israeli blockade and the never-ending suffering resulting from three devastating military aggressions on the besieged territory.
Hundreds of Palestinian families are still suffering as their homes which were destroyed during the 2014 aggression have not been reconstructed yet he noted.
Israel has imposed a ban on the entry of hundreds of kinds of goods and raw materials needed for industry into the Gaza Strip. About 90% of Gaza factories have been gravely affected leaving nearly 300000 workers unemployed.
According to the Palestinian MP with thousands of jobless graduates the unemployment rate among young people in Gaza rose to %65.
He pointed out that Gaza’s per capita daily income if there is any is less than $2 which is the lowest in the world while 85% of the Palestinians in Gaza live below the poverty line.
Al-Khudari appealed to all concerned Arab Muslim and international organizations to pressure Israel in 2019 to abide by the UN charters the four Geneva Conventions and the Universal Declaration of Human Rights which criminalize the siege and collective punishment.
He called for increasing the financial support for humanitarian and job-creating projects in the Gaza Strip which would also improve the services offered to the families in the health education and infrastructure sectors.
