The People´s Committee to confront the blockade of Gaza said today, Friday, that there are a quarter of a million unemployed workers in the Gaza Strip, while factories work at 20 percent of their production capacity.
In a statement, the head of the committee, Jamal Al-Khudari, attributed this reality to the Israeli blockade, the closure, the restriction of the movement of import and export, and the continuous attacks to and from the Gaza Strip.
Al-Khudari said that the siege of Gaza, which extends for the thirteenth year in a row, and its consequences on the economic situation, has paralyzed commercial and industrial life, and the contracting and business sector in general, and has stopped nearly 80 percent of economic establishments from working, as they are deemed closed.
He added that this has increasingly reduced the number of workers, and closed the door almost completely to the availability of new job opportunities, which raised the number of unemployed workers to almost a quarter of a million workers.
He pointed out that Israel prevented many of the raw materials needed for the industry, which reduced the wheel of production in the industrial sector in general to approximately 20 percent of its production capacity.
He pointed out that several international and international organizations have warned that the year 2020 will be the harshest for Gaza due to the blockade, during which the sector may become unviable, according to the required standards in the fields of health, availability of services, water, electricity, and job creation.
Al-Khudari called on the international community to compel Israel to lift the "illegal" blockade that contradicts the principles of international law, the Fourth Geneva Convention and the Universal Declaration of Human Rights "on the Gaza Strip.
