BRUSSELS (Dispatches) –
Euro-Mediterranean Human Rights Monitor has documented the dire consequences of the Zionist regime’s ongoing blockade on the Gaza Strip, calling on the international community to pressure the Tel Aviv regime to end its illegal siege of the impoverished coastal enclave.
The human rights group said in its annual report that about 1.5 million of the Gaza Strip’s total population of 2.3 million have become impoverished due to the occupying regime’s blockade and restrictions imposed on the besieged enclave for over 14 years, Palestine’s official Wafa news agency reported on Monday.
In its report, titled Bitter 16: A Generation Bred in Captivity, Euro-Med documented the dire effects of the blockade on the social, economic, and humanitarian levels, which were exacerbated by the repeated military attacks on Gaza— the most recent of which was in May 2021.
The nonprofit organization for the protection of rights also noted that despite the deterioration of the humanitarian situation in Gaza, the Zionist regime’s collective punishment policy against the population of the coastal silver remains in place, in a way that clearly exposes the regime’s intention to inflict great material and moral damage on its residents.
The report further documented the multiplication of indicators of the humanitarian crisis in Gaza due to the blockade.
For instance, the unemployment rate has risen from 23.6% before the imposition of the siege in 2005 to 50.2% at the end of 2021—one of the highest in the world.
Likewise, poverty has risen sharply due to the regime’s closures and bans, from 40% in 2005 to 69% in 2021.
It also reviewed the state of economic collapse Gaza suffers due to the blockade, highlighting that thousands of production facilities and services have been destroyed or damaged during the regime’s military attacks over the past years.
The last military attack in May 2021 alone resulted in the destruction of hundreds of economic facilities, with total losses of about $400 million, the report added.
The health sector is one of the most affected by the blockade since the occupying regime prevents or limits the entry of medicines and medical supplies into Gaza, causing health care services to decline by 66%, according to the report.
Euro-Med further called on the Zionist regime to end its blockade on Gaza, allow Palestinians to exercise all their rights and stop collectively punishing civilians.