A man surveys destroyed homes in Jabaliya, in the north of Gaza. (Photo: Moises Saman for The New York Times)
There are several ways to look at the legacy of the Israeli assault on Gaza last winter. One way is simply to look at the numbers. Two recent reports put the devastating effect of the attacks in perspective.
Mohammad Alsaafin has a useful post over on Kabobfest breaking down the statistics from the recent report from international humanitarian and human rights organizations – "Failing Gaza: No rebuilding, no recovery, no more excuses." After that, the Israeli NGO Gisha looks at the damage wrought by the war and how Israel has, or hasn’t, facilitated reconstruction.
From Mohammad’s summary of "Failing Gaza":
- Since the assault ended, leaving 15,000 buildings damages and 5,000 completely destroyed, only 41 trucks of construction materials have been allowed to enter Gaza
- Prior to 2007, and average of 70 truckloads of exports left Gaza everyday. For the past two years, that number has been zero.
- Only 35 categories of items are allowed into Gaza. That is, only 35 types of products are allowed in to the 1.5 million prisoners.
- The number of trucks carrying construction materials entering Gaza today is 0.05% of what it was before the blockade. That’s not half a percent-it’s one twentieth of one percent
- 84% of the damage inflicted during the assault was on housing, agriculture and the private sector, putting to bed any illusions that this war did not target the civilian population.
- The damage has left 600,000 tons of rubble strewn across Gaza
- 15,000 homes sustained enough damage displace 100,000 people
- 2,870 homes need major repair and 3,540 need complete rebuilding; in effect, Israel destroyed 291 homes per day during the war
- 52,900 homes sustained minor damages
- 20,000 people remain displaced-some of whom are living in tents in the shadow of the remains of their destroyed homes
- During the war Israel destroyed 700 private businesses
- Prior to the war, the siege had led to 98% of Gaza’s industrial operations becoming idle
- Joblessness in Gaza has now reached 40%
- 120,000 private sector jobs have been lost since the blockade was imposed
- Six months before the war, 70% of Gazan families were surviving on less than one dollar a day
- 17% of Gaza’s farmland was destroyed by Israeli tanks and military vehicles during the war. Four months later Israel announced that it would expand its buffer zone into Gaza even further. Together with the damaged land, the buffer zone has put 46% of Gaza’s agricultural land out of production
- Over 30 kilometers of water networks were damaged or destroyed during the war; 9 kilometers remain damaged
- During the war Israel damaged or destroyed 15 hospitals and 41 primary health clinics
- Israel destroyed 18 schools during the war, and damaged 280 more
- 230 schoolchildren were killed by Israel during the war
From Gisha:
Funds for Reconstruction:
- Reconstruction funds pledged at the Sharm el-Sheikh Summit Some $4.5 billion.
- Number of months international community negotiated with Israeli government over mechanism for transferring reconstruction funds and materials: 9 months.
- Implementation of mechanism for transferring reconstruction funds and materials: None.
Housing:
- During the war: Some 3,500 homes were completely destroyed, some 2,800 sustained heavy damage, and some 54,000 were lightly damaged.These homes housed about 325,000 people.
- Policy on import of construction materials (cement, glass, iron) prior to the war: Banned, few humanitarian exceptions.
- Policy on import of construction materials today:Construction materials (cement, glass, iron, etc.) banned; 19 trucks of mostly cement and gravel permitted to enter for exceptional humanitarian projects.
- Needed to rebuild homes: At least 40,000 tons of cement, 25,000 tons of iron.
Humanitarian Infrastructure (Electricity, Water and Sewage):
- During the war: Seven out of 12 electric lines were shut down; the power station operated only 50% of the time. One million people were without electricity, and half a million people were without running water.
- Needed prior to the war to repair and maintain infrastructure: 172 types of spare parts that were either completely out of stock or were below minimum supply; 3.5 million liters/week industrial diesel for power station.
- Needed today to repair and maintain infrastructure: 240 types of spare parts that are either completely out of stock or are below minimum supply; 3.5 million liters/week industrial diesel for power station.
- Policy on import of materials prior to the war: Industrial diesel supply for power station limited to no more than 63% of need; parts stood idly for months in warehouses in Israel and the West Bank? due to the restrictions and delays on their import into the Gaza Strip.
- Policy on import of materials for infrastructure today: Permission granted exceptionally for the entrance of fewer than 100 trucks carrying spare parts and building materials; industrial diesel still limited to no more than 63% of need.
- Repercussions: 40,000 people have no electricity; 10,000 have no running water; power outages eight hours a day, four days a week for most areas; 87 million liters of untreated or partially treated sewage dumped into the sea daily for lack of electricity and spare parts.
Economy:
- During the war: More than 1,000 factories, businesses and private sector institutions were damaged, at an estimated cost of $45 million.
- Policy on import of goods prior to the war: Just 25% of the demand for goods was met (2,500 trucks per month versus 10,400); fewer than 40 kinds of items permitted (versus some 4,000 prior to the closure); ban on import of raw materials for industry and on export.
- Policy on import of goods today: Just 25% of the demand for goods is met, permitting entrance of about 60 kinds of goods; ban on import of raw materials for industry and on export.
- Repercussions: Some 97% of factories have remained closed; 42.3% unemployment in the third quarter of 2009 (compared to 32.3% unemployment in June 2007); 80% of the population dependent on food aid.
Education:
- Policy on import of school supplies prior to the war: Banned, except for UNRWA schools.
- Policy on import of school supplies today: Banned, except for UNRWA schools.
I think its REALLY important to emphasize that this is a MAN made disaster.
To much of the American media is making it this out to be a natural disaster of some sort.
Actually these same excuses of natural disaster are used all over the world, when it is the wholesale exploitation and theft of the natural and human resources. Gaza as “natural disaster” is another log on the lying fire of victimized humanity.
Pingback: www.benwhite.org.uk: the blog » Blog Archive » Gaza massacre
The world isn’t going to soon forget atrocities which are rapidly approaching the level of brutality to match anything that Germany or Russia have inflicted in their pasts. Perhaps the Palestinian people don’t number enough to match the scale, but ultimately its the ferocity of Israeli depredation that people will remember.
Pingback: HOROWITZ: Gaza, a year later
And yet the Goldstone report, which actually didn’t include most of these statistics (or maybe my memory is wrong), has been sunk and forgotten by the US, and most of the rest of the world.
I am at a loss to know how to change the situation. (Well, it’s obvious; America should put its foot down, and instruct the ending of the inhuman blockade).
The deliberate targeting of civilian homes, factories, hospitals, schools, government buildings, etc, reveals the utter depravity of Israel’s campaign (planned 6 months before)
Perhaps Obama should have broken his silence during the Hanukkah Massacre, and made it part of his I/P strategy immediately. But he didn’t, so we know now that the most powerful man on earth (second, probably, only to Wen Jiabao) is a broken reed.
Though thanks to powerful Jewish lobby groups in the US, Britain and several other European countries – Israel has succeeded in throwing Goldstone Report in the dustbin – more and more independent world leaders have begun criticizing the Zionazi regime.
During October 28-31, Kaula Lumpur (Malaysia) played host to the conference on War Crimes – sponsored by KLFCW. The conference was attended by lawyers, peace activists and some of the victims of the war including British MP George Galloway, former Congresswoman Cynthia McKinney, former UN assistant secretary general Denis Haliday and Canadian professor Michael Chossudovsky. The keynote speaker was former prime minister of Malaysia, Dr. Mahathir Mohamad 84 – who on January 10, 2009 said in an interview: “The United Nations must be told to set up a war crime tribunal against the Israeli government for its ‘primitive killing’ of Palestinians”.
War Crimes Conference
link to rehmat1.wordpress.com
Gaza freedom marchers detained in Egypt:
link to australiansforpalestine.com
Medical and food supplies for Gaza delayed by Egypt:
link to australiansforpalestine.com
How Obama and the principal European nations, as well as the Arab despot states, are
helping Israel to strangle the Palestinian people–arming Goliath:
link to sabbah.biz
About now some fathead usually chimes in claiming that the fate of Gaza is all Hamas’s fault. It should be noted that for the last year Hamas has almost entirely prevented rockets from being fired at Israel – so much that the population of Sderot is complaining that the debt collectors are back. And for this restraint, Israel has returned what concessions? Nothing. They continue to make war on Gaza.
Three Gazans were killed over the weekend, three routine murders of people whose lives mean nothing to Israelis.
It is no wonder that Palestinians conclude that renouncing violence wins nothing, and the only path is armed resistance.
Fault is a hot word.
Options, strategy is a more accurate one. Hamas does control its actions (or maybe not, as indicated by the December 17 decisions), and must choose what is best in a difficult situation for its constituents.
I don’t see that continued shelling of Israeli civilians is in that interest, or that militant civil disobedience is either.
The only strategy that I can see results in improvement in Gazans’ lives is moderation.
Crime in response to crime doesn’t result in good.
Yes, moderation–Hamas prevention of rocket attacks as described is rewarded
by the triangular (US_ISRAEL_EGYPT) arresting of the Free Gaza peace march as I type this comment.
Meanwhile, Obama goes golfing:
link to starbulletin.com
Speaking of fatheads …
They’re now accepting nominations for the Moskowitz Zionist Awards. Let’s nominate our favorite Zionist humanist, Witty. link to moskowitzprize.com
Witty:
While I really don’t condone some of the ad hom you suffer here, you do really seem to come from the risible perspective that the Israelis and Palestinians are equal partners who should simply resolve their differences non-violently.
But both sides aren’t even remotely equal, this isn’t a case of ‘two people that can’t live together’: one side has a modern, rich state, with an army ranked 5th (or so) in the world (and equipped with every modern gizmo imaginable), the other side is a stateless, now often homeless people, with a ragtag militia armed with light weapons, some bottle rockets and homemade explosives, no air defence, no Navy, no nuttin’.
Israel is backed by just about every racist Western state, Hamas is shunned and isolated by same said racists.
Unless someone steps up to the plate and replenishes the Palestinians’ power deficiency, negotiating with Israel would be a bit like playing heads up Texas Hold’em with a high roller: Israel comes to the table with a stack of chips it can hardly look over (and behind it stands a tall guy with some more bags of chips, just in case). The Palestinians come to the table with a minimal stack. Now Palestine calls the Big Blind, say at $10,000, and Israel raises with $10,000,000. Palestine predictably folds, being unable to call.
Why do you think that Israel has been able to continue unabatedly to colonise the WB?
Witty’s posts invariable boil down to:
1) Israel is blameless for every crime, and anything they can be accused of doing wrong has “vague” circumstances that cannot be “understood.”
2) Meanwhile, anything the Palestinians do is a crime, and anything they can be accused of is undeniably true and accurate.
Witty’s a racist, plain and simple. He might as well be wearing white robes and a pointed hat for all the integrity and honesty he demonstrates.
Mr Witty “I don’t see that continued shelling of Palestinian civilians is in anyone’s best interest, or that Israel’s daily military action is either.” The continued teargassing, firing on, murdering and injuring Palestinians, internationals and Israelis during non-violent demonstrations…..is that in the best interest of the of Israeli constituents…How about house demolitions, removal of Palestinians from their homes, kidnapping Palestinians in the night, killing Palestinians, diverting their water supplies, ruining their farm land, enforcing a siege, blockade and collective punishment… the list goes on…
“The only strategy that I can see results in improvement in Gazans’ lives is moderation.” You have to be kidding!
In comparison Israel’s crimes meet with little response….the Palestinians have little to respond with. May I reminded you, they have no Army, no Air force, no Navy (they can’t even fish without Israel shooting at them), no 3.5 billion in US aid.
Consider the humanitarian crisis Palestinians are suffering…..they have not created that…it’s been crafted by Israel, the US and Egypt.
“Crime doesn’t result in good.” May you, Mr Witty, your Israel, the US, Egypt realize that sooner rather than later.
Well, you have to remember that Dick Witty adores his “blend” of top priority state and community loyalties;
sorta like Rahm Emmanuel; he consequently would have no issue with RE’s staunch support of both Iraq wars, and his current stance in favor of more troops and
US universal military or alternate service–during the USA’s Gulf War 1 RE put his money where his patriotic mouth was–by serving in Israel in a “civilian” capacity rust-proofing IDF tank brake shoes. More on this issue:
link to jewcy.com
I’m beginning to think all of these Zionist Jews — people like Rahm Emmanuel or Witty — are actually actively interested in destroying the United States because the very idea of multiple races living together with equal rights disgusts them.
Seriously, look at the pattern of Witty’s posts. The one big feature besides justifying everything Israel does and condemning everything Palestinians do in a fashion that is unequivocally racist, is he rejects the very notion that Jews and non-Jews can live together on equal terms. He rejects it, multiple times.
I think people like Witty are out to kill the United States. I know it sounds crazy to me but its the only thing that makes the past thirty years make sense. They want the United States to die because we are the best example of how Jews (or any race) can get along with others. Yeah, we still need to work on the details ourselves but we have a potential that other places in the world haven’t, and they need to poison that seed I think.
I don’t think that’s true. It’s fairly simple–political ideologues generally have double standards and they engage in doublethink, as Orwell said in numerous essays. They are basically sincere in their inconsistency–that doesn’t excuse them, but you don’t have to make more of it than is there. We can point to Witty’s hypocrisy on human rights all day every day and he won’t see it, not because he’s trying to undermine the US, but because his version of Zionism is sacred to him and to him, we’re spitting on something good and holy. (I don’t know if he’d use words like holy or sacred in this context, but that’s what it amounts to.) If we could honestly blame every single Zionist atrocity on the Zionist right, Witty would probably acknowledge most or all of them. Since mainstream Zionism is also implicated, he goes into denial.
I think I’ve mentioned the creationist analogy before. I have a good friend who is a creationist and discussing the subject of evolution with him was intensely frustrating, because I found over the years that I had to explain relatively elementary points over and over and over again. In moments of anger I’d think he was being deliberately obtuse, but in calmer moments, no, he wasn’t. Creationists like him are not necessarily anti-science in general–it’s just that their brains shut down when they think some portion of science is in conflict with their religious beliefs.
I suppose you are probably right, and this is going to sound arrogant but I can’t even conceive of having an attitude like that. The way Witty acts is, to me, the height of irrationality.
And on the flip side, motive or not, the result is still evident — hypocrites like Witty are destroying the foundation of American society. We’re already seeing deep divisions in US society that are rapidly mirroring those that emerged at the time of the Civil War.