Israeli deadly blockade imposed on Gaza 15 years ago turned the enclave into an open-air prison. Israeli occupation regime brought the entire Gaza Strip under the land, aerial, and naval blockade since June 2007 and it turned worse over the years. 

About 2.1 million Palestinians have been subjected to numerous closures during the past two decades, including restrictions on imports of fuel and other goods, essential medical equipment, and the movement of people and patients out of and into Gaza across ‘Eriz’ border, according to a UN report. 

The suffocation policy imposed by the Israeli occupation plunged Gaza into unemployment, poverty, food insecurity and the erosion of the productive base due to heavy economic losses as the weak contribution of the industrial sector did not exceed an average of 10.7% while the agricultural sector’s contribution did not exceed an average of 11.4% throughout the years of siege according to Al-Zaytouna Centre for Studies and Consultations. 

In the same vein, Israeli occupation authorities approved only 64 percent of patients’ requests to exit Gaza for treatment in the occupied West Bank, so far in 2022, according to OCHA

“In previous years, patients have died while awaiting a response to their application,” it added.

As a result of the Israeli deadly blockade, unemployment levels in Gaza are among the highest in the world as the jobless rate in 2022 was 46.6%, compared with an average of 34.8% in 2006, OCHA stated.

Gaza Power Plant can only meet about 50 percent of the electricity demand in Gaza as it produces up to 80 megawatts (MW), supplemented by 120 MW purchased from the Israeli regimes, according to a UN report

In this regard, Human Rights Watch HRW said in the report which marked the 15th anniversary of the Israeli blockade on the Gaza Strip described the Israeli siege on Gaza as part of its “crimes against humanity of apartheid and persecution”, concluding that Israel should end the generalized ban on travel to and from Gaza, and allow freedom of movement subject to Palestinians in Gaza. 

Despite its disengaged from Gaza in 2005, Israel is still an occupying power as it controls entry and exit from Gaza and places Palestinians under suffocating blockade, which constitutes a form of collective punishment in a flagrant violation of international law rather than undertaking its duty in protecting Palestinians in the Gaza Strip.