Election poll day in Gaza

An article on election poll day in the Gaza Strip highlighting: the party-like atmosphere at the polling stations, the voices of the people against occupation and corruption and the popular support for Hamas - born in Gaza. According to the author of the article, Eóin Murray: "Certainly anyone who has ever been to the Gaza Strip and witnessed Israeli human rights violations and the chaos on the streets because of the collapse of law and order is not shocked at a good showing by Hamas".

'Occupation' and 'collapse of law and order' reminded me to put the following figures:

• More than 1.4 million Palestinians live in the Gaza Strip.
• 90% of the population are refugees.
• Gaza has the highest birth-rate in the region – 5.5 to 6.0 children per woman.
• Eighty per cent of the population is under 50; 50 per cent is 15 years old or younger.
• Access to healthcare and education is rapidly declining.
• The half of the territory in which the population is concentrated has one of the highest densities in the world.
• Levels of unemployment are of 35 to 40 per cent.
• Some 65 to 75 per cent of Gazans are impoverished (compared to 30 per cent in 2000); many are hungry.
• About 42 per cent of Gazans are categorised by the World Food Programme (WFP) as 'food insecure'; in five areas of Gaza, the figure exceeds 50 per cent. An additional 30 per cent of the population is 'food vulnerable', i.e. under threat of becoming food insecure or malnourished.
• According to the World Bank, Palestinians are currently experiencing the worst economic depression in modern history, caused primarily by the long-standing Israeli restrictions that have dramatically reduced Gaza's levels of trade and virtually cut off its labour force from their jobs inside Israel.

The question is now: What comes next? What will be the relationship between the new leadership and the international community? Will violence excalate? Will the international donor community cut off aid? What will happen to Gaza?