From blockade to “complete siege” of the Gaza Strip by Israel, fears of a humanitarian catastrophe

2023-10-10 19:03:21
In a street in Gaza City, October 10, 2023. MOHAMMED ABED / AFP

“No electricity, no food, no gas (…) We fight animals and we act accordingly. » It is with these words that the Israeli Minister of Defense, Yoav Galant, announced, Monday October 9, the implementation of the “complete siege” of the Gaza Strip, two days after the massive attacks by Hamas whose toll now stands at at least 1,000 dead on the Israeli side.

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The Palestinian enclave, where nearly 2.3 million people live in 360 km², has been under a land, air and sea blockade for 14 years. The transition to a “full seat”accompanied by massive bombings since Sunday, will worsen an already humanitarian situation “disastrous” who go “deteriorate exponentially”alerted the Secretary General of the United Nations (UN), Antonio Guterres.

Over the past twenty-four hours, more than 187,000 people have been forced to leave their homes, the largest population displacement since 2014, according to the UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA).

In fact, the Palestinian enclave is cut off from the world, behind the concrete wall and the fences which surround it, behind the no man’s land, the buffer zone and, all around, the border region which the Israeli army claims to have retaken. inspection, Tuesday morning. Nothing has entered since the terrorist commandos stormed the crossing points in the early hours of the attack on October 7.

Risk of shortage of food and drinking water

Since Hamas came to power in 2017 and the start of the blockade, it is through these crossing points – Erez in the north and Kerem Shalom in the south – that the majority of imported goods entered (70% in 2022). The rest passed through the Rafah terminal on the Egyptian border. As political scientist Jean-Pierre Filliu explains, for sixteen years, “Israel very strictly regulates the entry of consumer goods into Gaza, thus avoiding the “humanitarian catastrophe” regularly announced, while prohibiting the development of an economy worthy of the name in this territory”. This fragile balance having disappeared, the first consequences are being felt and the risk of shortage increases.

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The United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees in the Near East (UNRWA) announcedTuesday, that “nearly half a million people have not been able to receive their food rations this week” and that drinking water, distributed by tanker trucks to refugee shelters, was beginning to run out. Only about 10% of the Gaza Strip’s food is produced locally. The rest is imported or distributed by humanitarian organizations.

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