Two Years of Gaza Closure by the Numbers
June 2007- June 2009 à Crossings Closed; Supplies Restricted
Þ Percentage of goods permitted to enter Gaza, relative to demand: 25% (approximately 2,500 truckloads/month instead of 10,400/month prior to June 2007).
Þ Supplies of industrial diesel permitted to enter Gaza, relative to need: 63% (2.2 million liters/week rather than the 3.5 million liters/week needed to generate electricity).
Þ Average length of power outages in Gaza: five hours per day.
Þ Current number of people without access to running water in Gaza: 28,000.
Compare and Contrast:
Þ Number of food items Israel's Cabinet Resolution promised to permit to enter Gaza: Unlimited.
Þ Number of food items actually permitted into Gaza: 18.
Þ Amount of money pledged for reconstruction aid at the March 2009 Donors Conference: $4.5 billion.
Þ Quantity of building materials permitted to enter Gaza: Zero.
Þ Unemployment rate in Gaza in 2007, the year the closure was imposed: 30%.
Þ Unemployment ratein Gaza in 2008: 40%.
No development, no prosperity, only "minimum humanitarian" items allowed.
Þ The Israeli military permits margarine in individual packets to enter Gaza, but margarine in buckets is banned, because it could be used for industry (i.e. by factories producing food and providing jobs).
Þ The Israeli government clarified that its March 22, 2009 Cabinet decision authorizing the "unrestricted" supply of food into Gaza "has been given a restrictive interpretation" and that the government "did not intend to remove the restrictions, which were imposed in the past, on the entrance of food and supplies into Gaza". Translation: Food supply continues to be restricted.
Þ Among the food items banned from entering Gaza: Halva, tea, juice powder.
Þ Among the nonfood items banned from entering Gaza: soccer balls (footballs), guitars, paper, ink.
People trapped:
Þ Number of days Rafah Crossing has been open for regular traffic: Zero.
Þ Number of people unable to travel through Rafah each month: 39,000.
Þ Criteria for passage through Erez Crossing: exceptional humanitarian cases.
