What conditions led up to the clashes?
In addition to remaining under a 40-year occupation by Israeli military forces, Palestinians stopped receiving the overwhelming majority of financial aid required to sustain the population. Israel has openly refused to transfer international aid money and taxes – collected from and for Palestinians – to the Palestinian Authority. As a result, government workers (including security employees, teachers, and health workers) went unpaid for many months, the already-fragile private sector faced near collapse, and basic food supplies became increasingly scarce. Meanwhile, Israeli occupation has all but destroyed the majority of basic infrastructure especially in the densely populated and impoverished Gaza strip. Even water and electricity shortages became an ongoing fact of daily life. In an April 2007 survey commissioned by Oxfam International, half of Palestinian families surveyed reported losing over half their income in 2007. UNICEF has reported that since 1999, poverty among Palestinian
