How many Palestinians live in Gaza?
There are 1.5 million people, of whom about 1 million depend to some extent on regular supplies of UN and other foreign aid brought in overland after Israeli inspection. Why is Gaza under blockade? Because it is under the control of the Islamist movement Hamas, which does not accept Israel’s right to exist and remains committed to armed resistance. The blockade was conceived three years ago as a way of suffocating popular support for Hamas, but the strategy has not worked. Hamas remains firmly in power and the blockade is denounced by critics as a form of collective punishment. Who decides what gets in and out of the enclave? Israel alone decides on what is openly allowed to cross the closed borders of the Gaza Strip. Most commercial goods are banned. Humanitarian aid is allowed in. Gaza smugglers have dug hundreds of underground tunnels to Egypt on the southern border where contraband of all sorts, including weapons, is smuggled in. Gaza residents say they particularly miss ice cream,
