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UN warns Gaza faces economic disaster
The Gaza Strip will soon become entirely dependent on foreign aid and face "disastrous consequences" if the Hamas-controlled territory remains sealed off, a senior UN official warned Thursday.
Evidence of grinding poverty and impending economic collapse documented here.
Israel and Egypt closed their crossings with Gaza to all but humanitarian aid after Hamas seized power in the coastal strip in June. The closures have exacerbated poverty among the 1.4 million residents of the already impoverished territory.

The blockade has created a highly volatile situation, and the window of opportunity for addressing it "is small and closing fast," said Filippo Grandi, the deputy head of UN Relief and Works Agency, the international body responsible for Palestinian refugees.

"Gaza risks becoming a virtually 100 percent aid dependent, closed down and isolated community within a matter of months or weeks, if the present regime of closure continues," Grandi told reporters Thursday at a Gaza City press conference.

Failure to open the crossings will "lead to disastrous consequences" and an "atmosphere of hopelessness and despair in which extremism is likely to take hold," he cautioned.
UN seeks to replace the current lose-lose situation wherein Gazans suffer and hardly any Jews are killed, with a win-win situation

Posted by: gromgoru 2007-08-09
http://www.rantburg.com/poparticle.php?ID=195724