Ramallah: According to the Israeli defence minister there is no humanitarian crisis in Gaza, an assessment a 2015 World Bank report rejected.
Moshe Ya’alon made his comments on Monday after the Israeli Navy stopped a boat attempting to break the naval blockade of the Gaza Strip.
Dismissing the ship’s attempt to dock at a port in Gaza, the minister termed the event a “provocation” and claimed, “there is no humanitarian crisis in Gaza.”
In comments to reporters reprinted in Israeli news source Haaretz Ya’alon stated, “Seven hundred trucks enter the strip every day.”
In an attempt to modify perceptions about his stance, the minister went on to say, “I didn’t say life is easy in Gaza.”
Nonetheless, he essentially blamed Gazans and their leaders for the situation in the Gaza Strip, stating that “if [Palestinians] decided to export strawberries instead of rockets, the situation would be different.”
According to a report published by the World Bank in May, the economic situation in the Gaza Strip is poor. The report claimed that the strip has the highest unemployment in the world (43 per cent).
According to the report, the isolation of the Gaza Strip (which began in 2007) has caused gross domestic product (GDP) to decline by around 50 per cent.
The unemployment rate for young people in the strip is especially high; with the World Bank estimating that at the end of 2014 youth unemployment was at 60 per cent.
The World Bank report was particularly critical of Israel’s 2014 Operation Protective Edge, claiming it reduced Gaza’s GDP by about $530 million (Dh1,946 million) from the projected estimates for 2014.
The Israeli government maintains that the purpose of the blockade against the Gaza Strip is to prevent the smuggling of weapons into the zone.
