The Gaza Strip, Palestine
October, 2008
Introduction
As the Gaza Strip enters its fifth month of “calm” with the Israelis, 80 percent of the population lives below the line of poverty. Palestinian Legislative Council member and Chairman of the Popular Committee Against the Siege(PCAS), Jamal N. El Khoudary says, “Now more than ever international institutions must take responsibility to hold the Israeli government accountable for its crimes against the Palestinian population.” The Committee’s Statistics Department has issued a report on the effects of the 16 month Israeli siege on the Gaza Strip. As of October, the strangling siege over the Gaza Strip reached its sixteenth month and the siege’s drastic results on all economic sectors of life in the Gaza Strip make it a catastrophic zone of the first degree, as 1.5 million citizens are living under the effect of the siege.
Related:
European campaign to organize multinational parliamentary visit to Gaza