POVERTY: Occupied Palestine Territory, Gaza statistics

In the third quarter of 2008, 51 percent of Palestinians lived below the poverty line (56 percent for Gazans and 48 percent for those in the West Bank), with 19 percent living in extreme poverty.In the second half of 2008, one third of West Bank households and 71 percent of Gaza households received food assistance, with food accounting for roughly half total household expenditures - making families highly vulnerable to food price fluctuations. In May 2008, 56 percent of Gazans and 25 percent of West Bank residents were deemed food insecure by the UN. Chronic malnutrition has risen in Gaza over the past few years to reach 10.2 percent.That comes at a time when UNRWA - responsible for providing assistance, protection and advocacy for some 4.7 million registered Palestine refugees in Jordan, Lebanon, Syria and the oPt - is projecting a 25 percent shortfall in its core budget. “UNRWA is a very massive machine to feed and unfortunately, although our donations increase, in fact they don’t increase fast enough to meet the needs,” Grandi said.HealthHealthcare services have generally improved in the West Bank over the past year because of eased movement restrictions and the efforts of the Palestinian Ministry of Health with the support of donors and other stakeholders. However, the impact of Israel’s “Separation Wall” and the difficulties of access to hospitals in east Jerusalem, where nearly 50 percent of Health Ministry referrals were to in 2009, remain areas of concern.In Gaza, Israel’s blockade is debilitating the healthcare system, limiting medical supplies and the training of medical personnel and preventing serious medical cases from travelling outside the Strip for specialized treatment.Israel’s 2008-2009 military operation damaged 15 of the Strip’s 27 hospitals and damaged or destroyed 43 of its 110 primary health care facilities, none of which have been repaired or rebuilt because of the construction materials ban. Some 15-20 percent of essential medicines are commonly out of stock and there are shortages of essential spare parts for many items of medical equipment, the WHO report said. As a result, the steady decline in the infant mortality rate in recent decades has stalled over the past few years and may have even risen in Gaza, which has a mortality rate around 30 percent higher than in the West Bank. Watery diarrhoea, acute bloody diarrhoea and viral hepatitis are the major causes of morbidity among reportable infectious diseases in the Strip.
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