Home to 1.7 million people, Gaza is 40km (25 miles) long
and 10km wide, an enclave bounded by the Mediterranean Sea, Israel and
Egypt.
Originally occupied by Egypt, which retains control of
Gaza's southern border, the coastal territory was captured by Israel during the
1967 Middle East war.
In 2005, Israel withdrew its troops and some 7,000 settlers.
A year later, the militant Islamist group Hamas won Palestinian legislative
elections. It ruled Gaza from 2007 to 2014 following a violent rift with the
rival Fatah faction of Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas.
When Hamas took over in Gaza, Israel swiftly imposed a blockade on the
territory, restricting the movement of goods and people in and out. Egypt
meanwhile blockaded Gaza's southern border.
FREEDOM OF MOVEMENT
Since Hamas came to power in Gaza in 2007, Egypt has
largely kept its border with Gaza closed
Already limited, freedom of movement and access to Gaza were reduced
significantly after mid-2013, when Egypt put new restrictions in place at the
Rafah border crossing and launched a crackdown on the network of smuggling
tunnels under the Egypt-Gaza border.
In the first half of 2013, 40,000 people were crossing each month at Rafah.
From July to December 2013, the traffic was reduced to about 9,550 per month.
In recent years, Rafah had become the primary entry and exit point to Gaza
for Palestinians as a result of Israeli restrictions at the Erez crossing in the
north.
The smuggling tunnels had meanwhile proliferated after the tightening of the
blockade of Gaza. They were used to import
construction materials, livestock, fuel, food, cash and
weapons.
The easing of the blockade in June 2010 saw the number of operating tunnels
decrease from about 1,000 to approximately 200 to 300. Smugglers focused on
transferring construction materials for the private sector and fuel that was
cheaper to purchase in Egypt than Israel.
The crackdown on the tunnels that started in June 2013 resulted in an almost
total halt in smuggling, triggering shortages of
building materials and fuel, and a surge in the price of
food.
ECONOMY
Tunnels were dug under the Egyptian border to bring
in all kinds of goods, and weapons
Gazans are, on average, worse off than in the 1990s. Twenty-one percent are
in deep poverty, living on less than 1,832 shekels ($534; £313) a month,
compared with 7.8% in the West Bank.
The unemployment rate in the Strip is 40.8%, significantly higher than in the
West Bank. Of particular concern is the high youth unemployment rate, which
stands at more than 50% in Gaza.
The Hamas-run economy ministry estimated that the crackdown on smuggling had
cost Gaza's economy $460m in 2013. The reduction of revenue from tax collection
on smuggling also led the government to delay the payment of salaries to Gaza's
50,000 civil servants.
The severe shortage of building materials led to a surge in prices and a
sharp slowdown in the construction sector, which employs about 10% of the
workforce. The fuel shortage saw meanwhile thousands of workers employed in the
transport, fishing and agricultural sectors lose income.
EDUCATION
Many children attend schools run by the UN
Gaza's school system is under pressure. The UN, which runs many of the
territory's schools, says an additional 440 schools are needed by 2020 to cope
with the expected growth in the population.
Some 463,600 children attend 694 primary and secondary schools. To make up
for the shortage of educational facilities, 67% of government and 71% of UN
schools run on double shifts, limiting instruction time. Classes are also large,
with anywhere between 40 to 50 pupils in each.
This has led to shorter school days and lower enrolment in the secondary
system. Training and vocational opportunities are also few and far between. That
said, official figures for literacy are high; 93% for women, 98% for men.
Thirteen schools are located in areas near the Gaza-Israel fence which often
see clashes between Israeli troops and Palestinian militants.
POPULATION
Some of Gaza's refugee camps lack basic
amenities
Gaza's population is expected to grow to 2.13 million by the end of the
decade.
This will also result in an increase in the population density which is
already one of the highest in the world. On average, some 4,505 people live on
every square kilometre in Gaza. That's expected to rise to 5,835 people per
square kilometre by 2020.
The UN says there is a shortage of 70,000 housing units due to natural
population growth, as well as the damage caused by Israel's ground offensive in
December 2008-January 2009. Some 12,000 people remain displaced after the
destruction of their homes.
The ratio of young people between the ages of 15 and 29 to the total over-15
population is exceptionally high, at 53%. This leads to a high dependency rate.
Should the economy pick up there will be plenty of young people of working
age. But if not, there is the potential for social tension, violence and
extremism, according to the UN.
HEALTH
Electricity and fuel shortages have disrupted the
functioning of medical facilities
The UN says that while health indicators in Gaza are comparable to middle and
high-income countries, quality needs to be improved. It says most health
facilities are unable to provide adequate care and need to be upgraded.
Access to public health services has worsened as a result of the measures
adopted by the Egyptian authorities in mid-2013, according to the UN.
The closure of the Rafah crossing reduced the number of patients travelling
to Egypt for treatment from a monthly average of 4,146 to 305, with only very
sick people or special cases allowed to enter, and disrupted the supply of
critical medicines. Gaza's ministry of health had previously depended on Egypt
to treat 20% of its outside referrals and for 25% of its drug supplies.
Since 2008 Israel has increased the number of medical cases it allows in from
Gaza for treatment.
Egypt's closure of smuggling tunnels led to severe fuel and electricity
shortages that disrupted the functioning of medical facilities. Frequent and
prolonged power cuts strained hospitals' back-up power sources, affecting
medical equipment and leading to interrupted or postponed treatment.
FOOD
Not so long ago, Gaza had a thriving fishing
industry
The level of food insecurity in Gaza increased from 44% to 57% between 2012
and 2013. Eighty per cent of Gaza's population receive some form of food aid as
few have sufficient money to pay for their basic needs.
Israeli restrictions on access to agricultural land and fishing add to the
challenges.
Gazans are also not allowed to farm in the Israeli-declared buffer zone -
1.5km (0.9 miles) wide on the Gaza side of the border - and this has led to a
loss in production of an estimated 75,000 tonnes of produce a year. The
restricted area coincides with what is considered Gaza's best arable land.
Following the November 2012 ceasefire agreement between Israel and Hamas, the
fishing limit was extended from three nautical miles to six. However, it has
been periodically reduced to three nautical miles in response to rocket fire
from Gaza. Israeli naval forces frequently open fire towards Palestinian fishing
boats approaching or exceeding the limit. The UN says if the limit was lifted,
fishing could provide employment and a cheap source of protein for the people of
Gaza.
POWER
Power cuts in Gaza disrupt almost all aspects of
daily life
Power cuts are an every-day occurrence in Gaza. It gets most of its power
from Israel together with further contributions from Gaza's only power plant and
a small amount from Egypt. However, this is less than its current needs.
Many homes have their own generators, but fuel is extremely expensive to buy.
The shortage of fuel caused by the Egyptian crackdown on smuggling affected
the production of electricity at the Gaza Power Plant (GPP), which had become
dependent on cheap Egyptian diesel.
After depleting its reserves, the plant was forced to shut down for 43 days
in late 2013, triggering lengthy power outages and severely disrupting the
provision of basic services, including health, main water and sanitation
facilities. The plant resumed operations after the Palestinian Authority bought
fuel from Israel with funds donated from Qatar. There was a shorter outage in
March 2014.
Offshore there is a gas field which the UN says could provide all the
territory's power needs if it was developed. Any surplus could be ploughed into
development.
WATER AND SANITATION
Heavy rainfall in December 2013 overwhelmed Gaza's
storm water and sewage systems
Gaza has little rain and no major fresh water source to replenish it
underground water supplies which are not large enough to keep up with demand.
Salt from the sea has seeped into underground supplies raising salination
levels above acceptable levels for drinking water. Only 5.5% of the piped water
meets World Health Organisation (WHO) quality standards and some 340,000 people
in the Strip were forced to consume drinking water of unacceptable quality in
2013, according to the UN.
Treatment of waste water and sewage is another headache. Gaza relies on waste
water treatment plants that are either working beyond their capacity or were
constructed as temporary installations for partial treatment. As a result, about
90 million litres of untreated or partially treated sewage is pumped into the
Mediterranean Sea every day, creating pollution, public health hazard and
problems for the fishing industry.
The shutdown of Gaza's power plant in November 2013 due to a fuel shortage
and the inability of waste water treatment plant operators to keep their
generators running led to the release of sewage into the storm water system and
the flooding of sewage stations.
When winter storm Alexa struck the next month, inundating the storm water
system with rainfall, entire areas across Gaza were flooded with a mixture of
sewage and storm water, creating public health concerns.
