Since 2008, Israel has launched three military offenses against the Gaza Strip, causing irreversible damage of the fragile infrastructure and exacerbating an already existing humanitarian crisis. Adding to this devastation, the Gaza Strip remains under a suffocating blockade strangling Palestinians for more than eleven years.

The blockade affects the daily lives of more than 2 million citizens, including 1.3million refugees in their direct livelihoods. Illegal under international law and frequently condemned by international bodies, this blockade leaves the coastal enclave in constant shortage of medicine, water, fuel, and food. Moreover, the restrictions of movement of goods continue to prevent the reconstruction of thousands of homes, schools, hospitals, power plants and water networks destroyed during Israel's Protective Edge offensive in 2014. Additionally, Israel's strict control of trade has contributed to depleting the resources of a collapsing economy.  With an unemployment rate reaching over 43.2 percent of the population, an increasing number of Gazan families are falling further into poverty. Dependence on aid becomes more severe while access to humanitarian aid remains retrained.