Hamas attack on Israel followed years of containment and dire poverty in Gaza

The attack on Israel mounted by Hamas was inevitable. Gaza has become a pressure cooker waiting to blow up. Five years ago UN human rights envoy Michael Lynk declared Gaza had become “unlivable”.

Statistics provide a bleak picture. The World Bank reports that 59 per cent of the 2.2 million Palestinians who dwell in the narrow coastal strip live below the poverty line and depend on international support for sustenance. Nearly 70 per cent of the population is under 30, with 22 per cent of jobless being in the 18-29 age group. Unemployment stands at 46.6 and youth unemployment is 63 per cent.

Since Gaza has been under Israeli siege and blockade for 15 years and has suffered four full-scale Israeli military operations between 2008 and 2021, thousands of Gazans suffer from post-traumatic distress disorder. Drinking water is polluted, electricity fitful, and essential medical supplies are in short supply. Israel controls the flow of food and goods entering Gaza and its meagre exports.

Palestinians of all ages are trapped in the strip and youngsters grow up without a future.

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Hamas and Islamic Jihad have no problem recruiting youths prepared to stage protests along Israel’s fence surrounding Gaza as they did during the 2018-2019 “Great March of Return” or to deploy in the kamikaze mission in southern Israel which begun on Saturday. Rather than end its lockdown and allow Gaza to breathe once again and grow its economy, Israel has adopted containment.

The 1993 Oslo Accord led Palestinians to believe Israel’s occupation would end and a Palestinian state would emerge in East Jerusalem, the West Bank and Gaza. The return of exiled Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat, the establishment of his headquarters in Gaza, and Palestinian presidential and parliamentary elections in 1996 raised Palestinian hopes for a normal life and the opportunity to forge a decent future.

Israel-Hamas war: 'a mega-event in the history of the Middle East'

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Gaza prospered, hotels and restaurants were built along the seafront in the expectation of tourists arriving, shopping centres mushroomed, high-tech firms set up operations in multistorey office blocks, and greenhouses growing flowers for Europe sprouted in the countryside. Gaza aspired to become a new Singapore or Hong Kong. However, its ambitions were crushed by Palestinian Authority mismanagement and corruption and Israel’s determination to hang on to its settlements in Gaza and exercise ultimate control.

Israel’s 2005 withdrawal of settlers and soldiers from the strip did not end the occupation as Israel maintained air, sea and land control from the periphery. The situation worsened after Hamas won the 2006 legislative election and seized control of Gaza in mid-2007. The Palestinian response was to build hundreds of tunnels connecting Rafah in the south with Egypt’s Sinai peninsula. While some tunnels smuggled weapons, the majority were for food, fuel, medicines, livestock, spare parts for machinery and vehicles, and people. The tunnels allowed Gaza to breathe until they were closed down by Egypt in 2013 when the military took power in Cairo.

Even if Israel eliminates Hamas during the current offensive this will not end Gaza’s demand for an end to Israel’s siege and blockade. A successor movement will undoubtedly rise to organise resistance to the occupation.