With more than two million inhabitants, Gaza had industry, agriculture, small businesses, shopping centers and other businesses just over seven months ago. Gaza was underdeveloped and poor, but full of life.
Now the vast majority of residential buildings and others in Gaza have been destroyed by Israeli attacks, and the Palestinians have had to find a new place to sleep in tent camps and self-imposed slum villages. At the same time, the possibilities for a normal life have largely disappeared. There has even been talk of famine. According to a recent report by the EU, the UN and the World Bank attacks on Gaza have killed more than 31,000 people by March.
But how did the Palestinians live and live on a strip of land the size of Espoo before the Gaza war that broke out last fall?
The thing is a familiar ambassador Päivi Peltokoski. He is the head of Finland’s Ramallah liaison office in the Palestinian territories of the West Bank and Gaza.
Let’s start with apartments. There is no municipal rental housing system in Gaza. According to Peltokoski, UNRWA, the UN aid organization for Palestinian refugees, has built the most residential houses and others in Gaza. More than 80 percent of the population of Gaza are Palestinian refugees or their descendants and live with refugee status.
– The concrete houses were originally built with Unrwa’s money and usually in places where camp villages were set up for Palestinian refugees after the 1948 war. Officially, the houses have been handed over to the host state of Palestine, but in practice it has had no funds to maintain them.
– As a result, houses have been renovated and new ones built with Unrwa’s funds and the families’ own money. Over the years, the houses have grown up floor by floor after the birth of new generations.
According to Peltokoski, refugees do not pay for their housing unless they have moved outside the camps to the private market. Water and electricity are paid for by the host country, in Gaza the Palestinian Authority.
Outside the refugee camps, the apartments have been privately owned.
– Private people have been able to rent out their own apartments.
Gaza has grown since the 1950s
Gaza has been inhabited for thousands of years: Philistines, Greeks, Romans, Jews, Egyptians, Persians and Bedouins, among others.
Today’s Palestinians are the descendants of all these peoples. The Palestinians’ own identity only really began to form in the 19th century.
Actually, the population of Gaza started to rise after 1948, when Israel became independent. As a result of that war, Palestinians moved from the territory of present-day Israel to Gaza, and since then the population has grown dramatically in the area.
UNRWA was founded in 1952 by a decision of the UN.
– So the construction work of Unrwa in Gaza has started, Peltokoski says.
UNRWA’s role is not limited to the establishment of refugee camps and the construction of residential buildings, but its role is broader. It resembles the mission field of the state or municipality in Finland, Peltokoski clarifies.
– Unrwa is the only entity that has offered and offers Palestinian refugees basic education, health care and small-scale social assistance, Peltokoski says.
Unrwa has received its funding from the international community. For example, Finland has supported the aid organization annually with five million euros.
Work and business
Israel has blockaded Gaza for 17 years, which means that the possibilities for a normal life have been difficult for a long time. Still, life in Gaza was more normal even before the outbreak of the current war. There was a lot of unemployment, but a large part of Gazans worked or studied.
– The public sector has been a big employer: schools, hospitals, health centers. The Palestinian Authority has paid public sector salaries in Gaza, Peltokoski says.
The Palestinian Authority, on the other hand, collected money for its budget through, among other things, customs and tax payments. According to Peltokoski, there were foreign trade taxes and business taxes. Employees paid tax on their wages.
Companies and exports too
Although life in Gaza has largely revolved around Unrwa, there has also been normal business in the strip.
– There have been shopping centers, industry, agriculture, businessmen, small entrepreneurs. The center of Gaza City looked like a decent city, Peltokoski remembers.
– Due to fuel restrictions, donkeys were a common form of transport.
The real estate market also worked: apartments and business premises were sold and bought.
According to Peltokoski, there have been small workshops, a small textile industry, a food industry and a fish processing industry in Gaza.
Israel withdrew its settlements from Gaza in 2005. The greenhouses in the settlements were a significant source of employment for Gazans.
– Business in Gaza has been very Egypt-oriented. Egyptian companies and businessmen have been moving in the area for a long time.
There could have been opportunities for tourism, but due to the restrictions imposed by Israel, it has been practically difficult.
Palestinians used to work on the Israeli side as well, mostly in construction and agricultural work. Before the war, the work quota was 180,000. During the war, Israel has no longer issued work permits.
Strawberry for export
Farming has also been practiced in Gaza, even though the area is small in area, the size of Espoo.
– There is little arable land. There are no fields there, but mainly greenhouses, where vegetables and strawberries, among other things, have been grown.
According to Peltokoski, strawberry was even the biggest export item to Israel.
– Now all the strawberry plantations have been destroyed by bombs.
The neighboring Mediterranean has also offered sustenance. However, Israel has defined the permitted fishing area and even the size of the fishing boat.
In any case, Gaza’s own food production has not been enough, and Gazans have been relying on imports for food. It has been both humanitarian aid and intended for the commercial market.
Massively unemployed
Gazans have been doing badly financially for a long time.
– Those who have managed to get a job are few and lucky. A large number have been unemployed for years and very dependent on humanitarian aid, says Peltokoski.
– That is why 500 truckloads of humanitarian aid per day have had to be taken to Gaza.
A recent report by the UN, the EU and the World Bank according to more than 63 percent of Gaza’s population already lived in poverty on the eve of the conflict last fall. The situation has only worsened since then. More than a million have been forced to leave their homes.
According to STT’s story, the UN estimates that 72 percent of residential buildings in Gaza have been completely or partially destroyed. According to the UN, reconstruction will cost 30-40 billion dollars.