UN report predicts dire living conditions in Gaza

Within the next eight years, residents of the Gaza Strip will face a significant deterioration in living conditions unless corrective measures are taken immediately, according to the UN’s humanitarian coordinator for the Palestinian territory.

Maxwell Gaylard on Monday said in a report quoted by AFP that by 2020 the rate of economic growth would not be able to keep pace with the increase in Gaza’s population, which the UN has estimated will grow from its current 1.6 million to 2.1 million. Furthermore, the infrastructure for water, electricity, education, sanitation and social services are all developing very slowly, and Gaylard said that by 2020, the demand for water in Gaza would increase by approximately 60 percent, and the potential damage to the national aquifer would be irreversible.

Gaylard further added that by 2020, Gaza would require an additional 440 schools, 800 hospital beds and thousands of doctors.

The report noted that the challenges facing Gaza were difficult to completely identify due to the conflict with Israel and the Israeli blockade on the territory, and the strife between Hamas in Gaza and the Palestinian Authority in the West Bank. Egypt recently closed off hundreds of smuggling tunnels to Gaza through which Palestinians have for years been smuggling construction goods, fuel and cars to bypass import restrictions. The tunnels have also been used to smuggle weapons and munitions for fighting Israel.

Egypt closed the tunnels following an August 5 terror attack in the northern Sinai, near the Rafah border crossing, in which Islamist terrorists killed 16 Egyptian soldiers.