The Gaza strip has been an issue of burning importance as far as world politics is concerned. It has been a strife-torn territory which has had a long history of conflict-ridden events, leading to unrest and loss of lives of innocent civilians, which has been condemned by NGO’s , human rights organizations and the UN.
Everything in Gaza seems to be in shambles, right from the economy to the living conditions and the socio-politico situation. Just to give a little bit of background about Gaza to those who don't know-It's one of the Palestinian territories [a coastal strip of land along the Mediterranean Sea] which shares it's borders with Egypt and Israel.It is under control of Hamas, a Palestinian Islamic organization which is labelled as a terrorist organization by U.S, E.U. and Israel amongst many other countries. Gaza largely comprises of refugees from the 1948 Arab Israeli War [in which Israel had to fight to separate itself from Palestine and rest of the Arab world]
Gaza has witnessed severe attacks due to the bitter enmity between Israel and Palestine with Hamas supporting the latter. According to Hamas, Israel is an occupier of the historic Islamic land which formed the Palestine. Since 2001, Palestine has fired 8600 rockets to Southern Israel, nearly 6000 of them since Israel had withdrawn from Gaza strip. In response to the attacks, Israel had launched a series of air strikes against targets in Gaza. This lead to widespread damage in Gaza, amongst the targets struck were UN warehouses, refugee camps, schools, police stations, hospitals etc. Hamas was accused by Egypt for using the border to secure long distance missiles to attack Israel.
Now, due to strained relations with both its neighbours, especially Israel and strict internal- external security checks, restrictions of trade etc the economy is not able to grow, GDP is low. During the time when the relations with Israel were not so bitter, Gazans used to go to Israel to earn a livelihood. Severity of ties with Israel has lead to large scale unemployment. Israel is now accused by the UN for strangling the Gazan economy. The only help or support from Israel now is humanitarian aid which is provided to Gazans. This was the reason why Gaza was so much in the news recently. A ship carrying humanitarian aid was shot at by the Israe
li troops, Israel cited security reasons saying that it cannot let a ship go unverified, Israel wants to know what is being imported to Gaza so as to be sure that no weapons are being transported to Gaza for war purposes. This incident drew severe criticism from human rights activists, and the Arab world against Israel. Several Islamic nations like Turkey and Pakistan saw ordinary citizens staging demonstrations to show their anger and agitation against this incident.
For the people of Gaza, the shadow of death keeps lurking over their head, with rockets crashing here, there, and virtually everywhere...they are surely living on the edge. When they wake up every morning, i know they must be thanking God that they lived to see the light of another day.
-Tejas Singh
1 comment:
Just want to add the fact that 80% of the people in Gaza strip live just on humanitarian aid by UN and other countries(especially the Arab ones) and when Israel stops this aid, it is a genocide because that 80% will not get a meal for many following days and can starve to death.
Hamas has failed to understand that the Palestine people don't need Israel's land or revenge, they just need a safe place to live and prosper. This fight is doing no one any good except the weapons manufacturers.
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