ISRAEL-OPT: By the numbers

Photo: Erica Silverman/IRIN

Houses destroyed by the Israeli army in East Jablia, Gaza, during its offensive in January 2009

TEL AVIV, 30 June 2009 (IRIN) - A new report by the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) paints a grim picture of life in the Gaza Strip: insufficient housing, damaged infrastructure, limited access to clean water and the discharge of raw sewage into the sea. 

The report identifies restrictions on the movement of people and goods over the past two years as one of the main causes of the crisis in Gaza. 

"Israel has the right to protect its population against attacks," Antoine Grand, head of the ICRC's sub-delegation in the Occupied Palestinian Territories (OPT), said in a statement. "But does that mean that 1.5 million people in Gaza do not have the right to live a normal life?"

IRIN has collected some statistics comparing Israel and the Occupied Palestinian Territories (The West Bank and Gaza Strip combined) that can put the ICRC report in context:

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Israel and OPT in statistics
	Israel	OPT
Population in 2007	7.18 million	3.71million
Gross National Income per capita in 2005	US$22,930	US$1,290
Gross Domestic Product in 2005	$133.19 billion	$4.02 billion
Adolescent fertility rate (births per 1,000 women aged 15-19) in 2007	14	79
Total fertility rate (number of births per woman) 2000-2005	2.9	5.8
Child mortality (under-five) rate in 2007	5	27
TB prevalence in 2005 (per every 100,000)	6	36
Number of mobile cellular subscriptions per 100 people	124	28
Number of telephone mainlines per 1,000 people in 2005	424	96
Number of Internet users per 1,000 people in 2005	470	67
% of people undernourished in 2002-4	<2.5%	16%
(Sources: UN Human Development Report 2007/2008 and World Bank)