"The number of households in Gaza below the consumption poverty line continued to grow, reaching 51.8% in 2007, despite significant amounts of emergency and humanitarian assistance," UNRWA said in a statement late last week. Meanwhile, poverty rates in the West Bank fell to just over 19%.
The report, based on figures provided by the Palestinian Central Bureau of Statistics (PCBS), said that "the real average unemployment rate in the occupied Palestinian territory (as a whole) remained amongst the highest in the world at 29.5%," with Gaza reaching "an unprecedented high of 45.3%" during the second half of last year.
Gaza's high poverty rate can be directly attributed to Palestinian control since 2005. Things only got worse when Hamas overthrew Fatah for control there. The standard of living has declined tremendously since the Hamas took over. Israel has had no choice but institute restrictions on movement because of the ongoing terrorist threat.
Not so curiously, the UN ignores the incessant terrorist attacks -the thousands of rockets, mortars, gunfire attacks, and infiltration operations that have killed Israelis and caused economic hardship in Israeli cities and towns within range of Gazan terrorists.
Expect the Palestinians to use this as still more propaganda in their unending war with Israel as "proof" that Israel is to blame for their situation.
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