(MENAFN- The Peninsula) Groaning under a crippling Israeli blockade since a decade, Gaza Strip";s 1.9 million people have been deprived of basic commodities, including food, fuel and medicine. The illegal, anti-human and immoral blockade by the Israeli occupation forces has been in place since 2006 after Islamist movement Hamas";s thumbing victory in the Palestinian general election held in 2005 and its subsequent takeover of the coastal strip after fierce clashes with rival Fath faction. Six of Gaza";s seven border crossings linking it to the outside world are controlled by Israel, while the seventh - the Rafah crossing - is controlled by Egypt, which keeps it tightly sealed for most of the year. Israel sealed four of its commercial crossings with Gaza in June 2007 after Hamas took control of the strip from the West Bank-based Palestinian Authority. The territory";s water sources are controlled by Israel and infrastructure has almost shuddered under the decade-long siege and three major Israeli offensives since 2008.
Qatar, a nation that always stood with Gazans, has once again extended its unparalleled helping hand to the people of the territory during their most difficult times. Qatar";s outreach to Gaza became stronger during the historic visit by Father Emir H H Emir Sheikh Hamad bin Khalifa Al Thani in October 2012 to inaugurate a Qatari investment project worth hundreds of millions of dollars to rebuild the impoverished and overcrowded enclave. Father Emir was the first head of state to visit Gaza since the imposition of a widespread international boycott of the territory. Qatar has set up a Committee for the Reconstruction of the Gaza Strip that focuses to alleviate the sufferings of the people by building residential units to those who lost their homes during Israel";s bloodiest war. The first phase of the H H the Father Emir Sheikh Hamad bin Khalifa Al Thani";s Residential City project has handed 1,000 residential units to families whose houses were demolished.
Last month, Emir H H Sheikh Tamim bin Hamad Al Thani had ordered to pay July salary of Gaza";s 50,000 government employees. Qatar";s ambassador and chairman of the Committee for the Reconstruction of the Gaza Strip Mohamed Ismail Al Emadi announced new initiative to solve the electricity crisis in Gaza, by providing a power generator with a capacity of 100 megawatts. Qatar has also offered $500 to every deaf graduate at the Islamic University in Gaza. It is worth mention that Qatar showed its solidarity with the Gazans by committing $1bn out of $5.4bn pledged by international donors to rebuild the territory at a donors"; conference in Cairo after the 50-day war in 2014 that destroyed much of Gaza";s buildings and infrastructure. International community should force Israel to end the inhuman blockage on Gaza. Those who support Israel blindly may not feel the gravity of the situation, but no civilised people can tolerate the horrific siege on Palestinians living in the Gaza Strip.