World's worst tragic figures recorded in Gaza: NGO

ANKARA

The blockaded Gaza Strip has marked the highest tragic humanitarian figures in the world, a humanitarian aid NGO said Thursday.

The Istanbul-based Gaza Aid Association held a conference dedicated to the Gaza Strip, and released its annual report on the humanitarian situation in the enclave.

The situation in the strip is "the worst over the years of siege," said Abdul Majed al-Aloul, general manager of the association.

It recorded tragic humanitarian figures that were "the highest in the world in the fields of unemployment with 52%, poverty 53% and water pollution 95% and the daily power outage rate that reached 75%," he said.

He warned against "an imminent disaster in the Gaza Strip as the year 2020 approaches when Gaza will not be liveable according to UN estimates."

The rate of medicines shortage is 50% in the enclave and lack of medical supplies is 27%, said Omar Tasli, a regional representative of the Islamic Committee of the International Crescent, speaking at the conference.

Also, 77% of homes in the Gaza have been destroyed and damaged by Israeli attacks leaving thousands of families homeless or displaced amid crippled reconstruction process, according to Anne Jellema, head of the Run4, a Netherlands-based relief foundation.

Israel has imposed a crippling blockade on the Gaza Strip in 2007 after Palestinian group Hamas seized control of the strip from its rival group Fatah, badly affecting livelihood in the Palestinian enclave.