UN report warns Gaza would be unliveable in 2020

[hellheaven1987]

Remind me Warsaw 1944.

The Gaza Strip will not be "a liveable place" by 2020 unless action is taken to improve basic services in the territory, according to a UN report.

Basic infrastructure in water, health, education and sanitation "is struggling to keep pace with a growing population", according to the report.

It estimates Gaza's population will rise from 1.6m to 2.1m by 2020.

Israel tightened a blockade on Gaza after the Islamist movement Hamas came to power in the territory in 2007.

Israel says the blockade, which is policed with Egyptian co-operation and has never been fully lifted, is necessary to prevent weapons reaching Hamas.

The UN report estimates Gaza will need double the number of schools and 800 more hospital beds by 2020, and says the territory is already suffering from a housing shortage.

The report also says the coastal aquifer, the territory's only natural source of fresh water, may become unusable by 2016.

Source

The situation offers several possible and interesting paths for Gaza in future:

1. The situation is unacceptable, Hamas is disarmed volunteerly and Israel happily colonize Gaza (West Bank scenario).

2. The situation is unacceptable, Hamas is disarmed in the agreement of military protection under a joint force of Egypt + Turkey + Arab states. Israel is pissed.

3. The situation is unacceptable, Hamas is disarmed under UN agreement and Gaza is under UN control and protection. Israel is still pissed.

4. The situation is unacceptable but Hamas fight on, Israel is still pissed anyway.

Wonder which future path Gaza would take (please screw Israel).

[Inconsistent]

Please screw Israel

What a mature way to start off this discussion.

I don't see Israel disagreeing to the UN disarming Hamas, as long as they're disarmed. Sure there will be complaints that they won't be thorough enough, but it's not like they'll raise hell at the UN.

[Morbius Sire]

Desperate situations will call for desperate solutions. Hamas will not let go of her power, not without any major threat to it; if Gazans begin revolting, Hamas will be forced to make concessions, even disarming.

I would love to see, not matter how unlikely it is, Egypt taking control of the Gaza strip. Especially if most Gazans demand it.

[Sphere]

Problem solved.

[boofhead]

So they need 1 water pipe, 1 hospital, and to add some buildings to their 210 schools or build some more.

If that's the definition of a disaster then every Western country in the world is already royally screwed. My own country is completely ed.

Warsaw 1944 my arse.

[I WUB PUGS]

So the Palestinian strategy of "let us breed until the stench can no longer be ignored" is going to be realized in 2020.

Don't care now, won't care then. Could be worse.

[Sphere]

Don't care now, won't care then. Could be worse.

Could be Detroit?

[Sir Pignans]

I think Egypt opening the border unilaterally is more likely to be honest.

[I WUB PUGS]

I've been saying it for years. The Saudis should just donate sand to fill in an area adjacent to Gaza and move all the Palestinians there. Nice little buffer state between Egypt and Israel.

But these are the types of solutions you get when you have pragmatic thinking. I don't care about feelings or fairness, I just want them to shut the up about it. Have trillions of tons of Saudi sand and make a new home.

[Armenum]

Israel not only would be doing the right thing in letting some humanitarian aid/supplies flow into Gaza, but also would give a boost to its rather muddy public image. Of course there are limits to how much it can open the border given the people in charge in Gaza are hostile to Israel. You don't want to shoot yourself in the foot.

[boofhead]

Israel not only would be doing the right thing in letting some humanitarian aid/supplies flow into Gaza

They do. They let in all sorts of aid, they just insist it goes through them, to avoid weapons shipments getting through.

And they supply most of the fresh water as it is, and are working on improving things for the Gazans, while the Gazans spend their energy on other things, like making rockets.

http://www.haaretz.com/news/diplomac...sEnabled=false

[Grouchio]

And all of this would be solved by a simple, passing epidemic that goes through the Gaza Strip and kills most of the inhabitants. A few hundred thousand less Palestinians to deal with, Israel can for once relax, and the problem solved.

[Manuel I Komnenos]

Time for Palestine to start considering taking the Israeli offer for independence? And then try to bring Gaza under the control of the Palestinian government?

[PointOfViewGun]

What offer?

[Manuel I Komnenos]

What offer?

Wow, never heard it?

http://www.reuters.com/article/2009/...55C2DL20090615

[PointOfViewGun]

Wow, never heard it?

http://www.reuters.com/article/2009/...55C2DL20090615

I fail to see anything new.

[Manuel I Komnenos]

Isn't it new that the Israeli PM talked for a two-states solution for the first time?

[PointOfViewGun]

Isn't it new that the Israeli PM talked for a two-states solution for the first time?

Maybe in his speech record but how it is new for the whole conflict?

[Manuel I Komnenos]

Maybe in his speech record but how it is new for the whole conflict?

Because it has rendered the argument that the Israelis are to blame, obsolete. The only reason why things are like that is because Palestine won't agree to the Israeli terms. And as long as Palestine is not independent, it'll never be able to exert control over Gaza.

[hellheaven1987]

Palestine won't agree to the Israeli terms.

I think no one would agree this term.

Netanyahu, who has refused to back a state for Palestinians since he took office in March, said he would now endorse the establishment of a such a state -- but only if Israel received in advance international guarantees the new nation would have no army and Palestinians recognized Israel as a Jewish state.

"If we receive this guarantee regarding demilitarization and Israel's security needs, and if the Palestinians recognize Israel as the state of the Jewish people, then we will be ready in a future peace agreement to reach a solution where a demilitarized Palestinian state exists alongside the Jewish state," Netanyahu said at Bar Ilan University near Tel Aviv.

What Mr Netanyahu did not tell you is that East Jerusalem and settlements in West Bank would be counted not as part of new Palestine.