Over 2 million people, half of whom are children, live in Gaza, which has been called "an open-air prison" by human rights organisations
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00:00 What is the Gaza Strip?
00:02 Who lives there?
00:03 What is it like living there?
00:05 The Gaza Strip, or just Gaza,
00:07 is an extremely small piece of land
00:09 on the coast of the Mediterranean Sea.
00:12 It's just 365 square kilometers,
00:15 with over 2 million people packed into it.
00:18 For comparison, Ras al-Khaimah,
00:20 which is bigger at 373 square kilometers,
00:24 has only less than 192,000 people living there.
00:29 Since 2007, Gaza has been under blockade
00:32 by its neighbors, mainly Israel.
00:35 This means that Palestinians can neither receive
00:37 nor send out food, supplies, or medicine
00:41 without being monitored by the military.
00:44 This is why human rights organizations
00:46 call Gaza an open-air prison.
00:49 Even before current events,
00:51 Palestinians along the Strip face terrible sewage
00:54 and electrical services,
00:56 and over 90% of their water is undrinkable.
00:59 The unemployment rate is over 40%,
01:02 as there are very few businesses inside Gaza itself.
01:06 Aside from being stopped at checkpoints
01:08 constantly across the Strip,
01:10 many Palestinians often wait for hours
01:13 to cross the border into Israel to work as cheap laborers.
01:17 They have to do this every single day
01:20 because they can't stay in Israel overnight.
01:23 But the people who've suffered the most in Gaza
01:26 are its children.
01:28 About 50% of all those living on the Strip are under 18,
01:32 and most live in poor conditions.
01:35 They usually have little to no access
01:37 to medical care or an education.
01:40 Most don't even have food to eat or clean water to drink.
01:44 The people of Palestine were already suffering.
01:48 Today, they have no guarantee
01:50 that they will wake up tomorrow.
01:51 (gentle music)
01:54 (upbeat music)
01:56 [MUSIC]