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Post-Withdrawal, Israel Continues to Wreak Havoc in Gaza Strip

While Israeli occupation forces unilaterally withdrew from the Gaza Strip in Augus 2005t, Israel did not give up control of all access points for bringing goods in and out of the Gaza Strip. The forced closure by Israeli soldiers of the main commercial crossing in the Gaza Strip has devastated the local economy, with the area on the verge of an “agricultural disaster” according to a report released March 7 by the U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID). Israel first closed the Karni crossing from January 15 to February 5, claiming the move was necessary to prevent Palestinian attacks on Israel or illegal Israeli settlements in the West Bank and East Jerusalem. The crossing was again closed on February 21 after reports of explosions in the area, and has remained closed ever since.

The USAID report estimates the Karni closing has caused agricultural losses of more than US$450,000 per day. PEC, a Palestinian cooperative established after the Israeli withdrawal to manage the greenhouses left behind by Jewish settlers, has been losing more than $120,000 per day. Greenhouses built by settlers during the occupation occupy 56 kilometres of the Gaza Strip and are serviced by 12 wells. The greenhouses, constructed by the settlers with public funds, were then purchased from the settlers by private foreign donors for several million dollars before being turned over to the PEC. Production at the greenhouses employs close to 1,000 Palestinians. In addition, the United Nations warned last week that stocks of staples such as wheat, sugar and cooking oil were likely to run out in the Gaza Strip within days.

If the crossing is not reopened, USAID estimates that within a few weeks, nearly 100 tonnes of produce per day will have to be destroyed. Already during the first week of March, while many of the Gaza’s 1.4 million inhabitants are living without enough food to eat, , 58 trucks carrying 450 tonnes of tomatoes, cucumbers, sweet peppers and other produce were turned away from Karni. Their contents were later destroyed.

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