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| A Gazan woman surveys here destroyed home. Courtesy Reuters/Suhaib Salim. |
As
the dust and smoke clear over the Gaza Strip in the wake of Tuesday’s ceasefire
agreement between Hamas and the Israeli government, the toll of the 50-day
conflict begins to become clear. The human losses are undeniably first in the
minds of Gazans and Israelis: over 2,200 dead and 11,000 injured, mostly
Palestinian civilians, numbers that bely the terror visited upon both
communities living under siege for almost two months. While the human costs are
horrific, Gaza’s future viability may turn out to be a more long-term casualty
visited upon Gazans. In 2012, the UNRWA released a report
that estimated Gaza would be uninhabitable for the two million plus people who
will be imprisoned there by 2020. As the
damage stemming from the most recent conflict is assessed, there is no question
that this picture will look much bleaker, and the timeline for Gaza’s demise
will have accelerated unless dramatic action is taken on the part of Hamas, the
Israeli government, and the international community.
