Gazans on Brink of Further Humanitarian Disaster as Blockade's Battering Goes On

October 4, 2020

As the blockade of Gaza—widely denounced as “collective punishment”—marks its ninth anniversary this month, Oxfam is urging the global community to apply pressure on Israel to allow the territory’s residents to exercise their most fundamental human rights.

Israel imposed the blockade in 2007 when Hamas gained control of the territory, and is, according to a panel of experts reporting to the UN Human Rights Council, in “flagrant contravention of international human rights and humanitarian law.”

And, according to the international aid group’s Country Director Chris Eijkemans, it “is making a dire situation worse.”

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That’s because of the widespread devastation following Israel’s bombing campaign on Gaza two years ago. As the United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees in the Near East (UNRWA) states,

“Gaza has not recovered from the 2014 war,” Eijkemans adds. “75,000 people still can’t return home. Less than 10 percent of destroyed homes have been completely rebuilt and 80 percent of the population rely on international humanitarian aid to survive. The blockade must end before Gaza plunges further into humanitarian disaster,” he stated.

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