Gaza ‘could be uninhabitable’ in five years, say UN

Gaza could be unliveable within five years, a report from the UN has warned.

The devastated Strip – home to approximately 1.8 million people – has had “no time for meaningful reconstruction or economic recovery” after Israel’s 8 year long economic blockade and last summer’s Operation Protective Edge, the United Nations Conference on Trade and Development says.

The annual report of the UN agency, a development body which provides assistance to displaced Palestinians, said: “The social, health and security-related ramifications of the high population density and overcrowding are among the factors that may render Gaza unliveable by 2020, if present trends continue.”

It added: “Reconstruction efforts are extremely slow relative to the magnitude of devastation, and Gaza’s local economy did not have a chance to recover.”

Israeli authorities recently relaxed regulations on its ‘dual usage list’ – which proscribes certain items that could be used as weapons by terrorists – to aid reconstruction.

The scale of destruction and the struggle to reconstruct Gaza that lies ahead was illustrated in stark detail by a Channel 4 News report fronted by Jon Snow last month.