israeli blockade

Gazans light fireworks over the ruins of Khan Younis to celebrate Ramadan, with Israel’s blockade causing an ongoing electricity blackout, March 12, 2025. (Doaa Albaz/Activestills)

Fasting while starving, Gazans struggle to mark Ramadan

As Israel continues to prevent the entry of food into the Strip, Palestinians are gathering with surviving family members to observe the holiday in the rubble.

By Ruwaida Kamal Amer and Ibtisam Mahdi March 17, 2025

A fisherman checks the fish he managed to catch, on the beach of Deir al-Balah, central Gaza Strip, December 7, 2024. (Ruwaida Amer)

‘Anyone who goes near the water risks his life. But if we leave the sea, we die’

Little remains of Gaza’s fishing industry, devastated by the war and years of Israeli restrictions. Yet fishermen are still clinging on to their livelihood.

By Ruwaida Kamal Amer March 11, 2025

Palestinian workers wear face masks for fear of the coronavirus at a shop in Gaza City, March 9, 2020. (Ali Ahmed/Flash90)

Palestinians worry for livelihoods as COVID-19 cripples blockaded Gaza

The coronavirus crisis has deteriorated the already-low quality of life for Palestinians in Gaza. Without a recovery plan free from siege, it will get worse.

By Fidaa Shurrab May 28, 2020

Latest

Omar Odeh helped establish a follow up committee dealing with the affairs of Palestinian refugees from Syria who fled to Gaza. (Mohammed Al-Hajjar)

Displaced again: Palestinian refugees from Syria struggle to survive in Gaza

With surging unemployment rates and high rents, Palestinian refugees who fled the Syrian war for Gaza are struggling to climb out of poverty. Like many Gazans, they hope to leave the strip in search of a better life. By Amjad Yaghi In mid-2012, Egyptian police arrested Omar Odeh for violating the conditions of his residence permit and overstaying his…

By +972 Magazine August 21, 2019

A Palestinian man checks the damage following an Israeli air strike in the southern Gaza Strip city of Khan Yunis, March 10, 2019. (Abed Rahim Khatib/Flash90)

PODCAST: Suffering in Gaza isn’t a humanitarian issue, it’s an Israeli political decision

Recent rockets fired into central Israel by armed groups in Gaza were not ‘mistakes,’ as both Hamas and Israel claim. The counter-intuitive context, Tareq Baconi explains, is a Hamas attempt to get Israel back onboard with a cease-fire agreement. Excerpts from The +972 Podcast. Hamas and Israel reached a cease-fire agreement last November following months…

By Henriette Chacar March 29, 2019

US Ambassador to the UN Nikki Haley visits a tunnel built by Hamas on the border of Israel with the Gaza Strip, June 8, 2017. (Matty Stern/U.S. Embassy Tel Aviv)

Nikki Haley’s view of Gaza is through Israeli eyes only

U.S. Ambassador to the United Nations Nikki Haley came to Israel to see the conflict up close. It’s a shame that when it came to Gaza, she only got one perspective. By Yoni Mendel “We are at the height of an important visit from UN Ambassador Nikki Haley in Israel. We are visiting the towns…

By +972 Magazine June 11, 2017

Palestinians climb over the Israeli Wall to attend the Friday prayer in Al-Aqsa Mosque, in the town of Al-Ram, near the Qalandiya checkpoint between the West Bank city of Ramallah and Jerusalem, on the second Friday of the Muslim holy month of Ramadan, July 3, 2015. (Yotam Ronen/Activestills.org)

The people behind the numbers: ‘Palestine Speaks’

A collection of oral histories offers a penetrating look at life in the Israeli-occupied West Bank and Gaza Strip. Gaza could be uninhabitable by 2020. More than 2,000 Palestinians were killed in 2014 and more than 17,000 were injured. Israel arrests and detains between 500 and 700 Palestinian children every year. In August of 2015…

By Mya Guarnieri Jaradat September 8, 2015

Palestinian school girls walk across a destroyed part of Shujayea neighborhood, Gaza city, November 4th, 2014. (Photo by Anne Paq/Activestills.org)

Do Israelis have any idea how bad it is in Gaza?

Nearly two million Gazans are living in a state of poverty and shortages, with few options of leaving and even fewer options for work. Nearly two million people who live in a giant prison, and Israelis cannot even begin to fathom how terrible their situation is. “I’m extremely concerned that if you leave Gaza in…

By Haggai Matar February 17, 2015

A Palestinian man and boy react to the sound of a Israeli warplane, flying at very low altitude above the ruins of the government building, which was completely destroyed that morning. Gaza city, November 17, 2012 (photo: Anne Paq/Activestills.org)

It’s time to talk about Gaza

For the sake of both the residents of Israel’s south and the Palestinians, we must speak about Gaza as a place with real people, rather than as a science experiment. Over the past few years, the Israeli public discussion has reduced conditions in Gaza to one of two situations: either it’s the place where rockets…

By Haggai Matar July 3, 2014

Israeli navy assaults Palestinian fishermen in Gaza waters

The latest incident is one of many examples of the Israeli navy entering Gazan waters to attack, harass, and detain Palestinian fishermen. The effect of Israel’s control of the waters off the coastal territory has been devastating. According to the Civil Peace Service Gaza (CPSGAZA): At 10:55 am on Wednesday morning, an Israeli naval…

By Mya Guarnieri Jaradat December 29, 2011

4 things Israel doesn’t want you to know about the Gaza blockade

IDF statements about the siege of Gaza obscure much more than they reveal According to the “IDFSpokesperson” account on Twitter, “Gaza is under a maritime security blockade according to international law.” The two-boat flotilla known as “Freedom Waves to Gaza,” which the army stopped yesterday from reaching the coastal territory, is, according to the same…

By Mya Guarnieri Jaradat November 4, 2011