Ever since Hamas took the reins in Gaza by means of a bloody coup against the pro-Western Fatah in the summer of 2007, Israel and Egypt have maintained a siege on this little stretch of land on the Eastern Mediterranean coast. Now, the economy of the little strip, about half the size of Toronto, has been in dire straits. Aid organizations are warning that a “humanitarian crisis” may soon threaten the lives of many of its 1,6 million inhabitants.

Even before the siege was imposed, Gaza was no prosperous place. But the closure has brought economic life here to a grinding halt. The number of people who live in “dire poverty”, who cannot even afford to by drinking water or soap, has tripled to over 300.000. Most factories have been forced to shut down and lay off their workforce, more than 80% of the Gazans are now defined as poor. No one in Gaza is starving yet, but malnutrition, especially amongst children, has reportedly become wide spread. Whoever can afford it has bought private power generators, as most Gazans receive electricity only spuriously for less than 12 hours a day. Many tend to describe their home as “the largest open air prison in the world.” Trying to obtain an exit permit is taxing, trying to leave without one costly, and at times outright dangerous.

Israel does not refute the UN’s alarming statistics; it suggests, however, a different reading of the same data. “There is no humanitarian crisis in Gaza”, insists Israel’s minister of Defence Ehud Barak. The army boasts of granting exit permits to 10,544 residents for medical treatment in Israel in 2009, along with 12,000 accompanying individuals. It insists that it monitors the situation in Gaza closely, and lets goods into the strip as necessary. In the first quarter of this year, 3,676 trucks with 94,500 tons of supplies entered the Gaza strip from Israel. But aid organizations claim that this is too little, and that the unpredictable closings of the crossings render any trade impossible. Israel responds that these closings are the result of recurring terror attacks by Palestinian militants that have repeatedly claimed the lives of Israeli workers at the crossings.

Officially, the siege on Gaza, which is also maintained by Egypt, is supposed to prevent arms and dual use equipment from reaching Hamas, which has shelled Israeli cities with thousands of rockets in the past decade. Building materials have not been allowed into the strip to foil attempts to build an underground bunker network and fortify positions. But in fact, no militant organization in Gaza is complaining about a lack of military supplies. Weapons and ammunition, smuggled in from Egypt through hundreds of tunnels with hardly any impediment, abound.

It is therefore more likely to assume that this blockade aims to put pressure on Gaza’s population and lead to upheaval that will spell the end of Hamas’ rule. Many Israelis want Gazans to suffer as long as Gilad Shalit, an Israeli soldier abducted by Hamas four years ago, is at least granted the rights of the Geneva Convention, such as access by the Red Cross and contact with his family.