The blockade has to end to ensure that the population of Gaza has access to basic and inalienable human rights.
On Tuesday 24 January 2017 the Council of Europe adopted a report emphasising how the blockade of Gaza has caused the humanitarian situation in Gaza to drastically deteriorate. The report highlights that in Gaza 75, 000 people are still displaced, 43% of the population is unemployed and nearly 40% of the population falls below the poverty line. The report also references the lack of access to clean drinking water, with Palestinians in Gaza only able to access water between five and eight hours a day due to crippling power shortages.
In addition, the report discusses how the blockade and closure of Gaza has had a detrimental impact on the health of Palestinians. It states that within Gaza the health sector is unable to function normally, emphasising that patients have to wait for very long periods to receive necessary drugs and treatments. It highlights that, as a result, the number of chronic diseases, cases of cancer and people who urgently need operations has significantly increased. The report also emphasises that Gaza’s health sector is unable to provide patients with many specialist medical treatments due to restrictions on the movement of goods in and out of Gaza including specialist medical equipment. Instead, patients must travel to occupied East Jerusalem, elsewhere in the West Bank or to Israel to access specialist medical care. The report highlights, that it is not possible for thousands of patients to make this journey due to Israel’s restrictive permit regime.
To deny people vital medical treatment is a violation of human rights.
The report calls on the international community to provide a “rapid solution” to the deteriorating humanitarian situation in Gaza. Reiterating the Council of Europe’s support for the lifting of the blockade, the report emphasises that the ending of the blockade of Gaza is a vital precondition for the resolution of the humanitarian crisis. The report concludes by stating that ending the blockade is the only way to ensure Palestinians in Gaza have access to “basic and inalienable human rights.”
Read the full report here