Blockades and Flotillas

One legacy from the Gaza war was the imposition of an Israeli naval blockade of Gaza on 3 January 2009. A World Bank report in October 2011 noted that unemployment in Gaza in 2009 had reached 41 per cent and that 71 per cent of its citizens drew ‘at least one form of social assistance’. Gaza's isolation had meant that the pool of labourers – some 27,000 in 1998 – who had originally worked in Israel now no longer had employment. Moreover Israel had formerly accounted for over 90 per cent of Gaza's exports. By the end of 2008, the per capita consumption in Gaza was 40 per cent below its 1999 level. The International Monetary Fund reported that in 2009 the annual growth rate in Gaza was 1 per cent while the West Bank boasted an increase of 8.5 per cent due to the resumption of funding by the international community.

The Karni Crossing under Israeli military control was the only official method of transferring goods and accessing general passage into Israel. While 89 per cent of all critically ill patients were allowed to travel into Israel for treatment at the beginning of 2007, this figure had dropped to 64 per cent by the year's end, following the Hamas takeover. Similarly a report in 2010 from the UN's Food and Agriculture Organization noted that 46 per cent of all agricultural land had become inaccessible in the aftermath of Operation Cast Lead. There had also been a dramatic drop in deep sea fishing due to the imposition of a limit around Gaza.