- BEIRUT (Reuters) -- Economic
and living conditions are getting worse for Palestinians in the West Bank,
Gaza and Jerusalem as a result of Israel's occupation, a UN report said
on Friday.
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- The United Nations Economic and Social Commission for
Western Asia (ESCWA) said two million Palestinians were living on less
than 2.1 Euro a day, a poverty rate of 63 percent, in mid-2003.
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- By March 2003, 42 percent of families were destitute
and dependent on humanitarian assistance. ESCWA said the World Bank had
described the recession in the Palestinian territories as "one of
the worst in modern history". "The present review period demonstrates
mounting economic and social damage under military occupation," the
ESCWA report researched between January 2003 and February 2004 and released
on Friday in Beirut said.
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- "Most economic and social data show marked deterioration
of living conditions for the Palestinian people, including new forms of
dispossession and destruction of private and public assets of all kinds."
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- Refugees, women and children bore the brunt of Israeli
measures, ESCWA said. Malnutrition was on the rise. Israeli restrictions
regularly impeded humanitarian services to Palestinian territories.
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- Israel captured the West Bank and Gaza in 1967 and has
stationed troops there since. The United Nations describes them as Israeli-occupied
territories.
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- Extra-judicial killings
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- ESCWA said Israel had intensified extra-judicial killings
of Palestinians suspected of armed attacks against Israelis. Extra-judicial
killings or attempts killed 349 Palestinians between October 2000 and March
2004, including 137 bystanders. Between December 2002 and December 2003
ESCWA said 785 Palestinians were killed and 5,130 injuries recorded. Since
September 2000, 512 Palestinian children were killed. ESCWA said 946 Israelis
had been killed or injured since September 2000.
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- About 8,000 Palestinians remained in Israeli prisons
and detention centers. Hundreds were subjected to torture or inhumane treatment.
Unemployment stood at 26 percent in the fourth quarter of 2003, but reached
70 percent in some areas. Food consumption was down by 86 percent.
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- "Humanitarian assistance is not sufficient to ensure
a sustainable life with dignity and rights for the Palestinian civilians
under occupation," the report said.
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- "The sustainable option for addressing the current
economic and social deprivation lies in lifting the occupation of the Palestinian
territory, as well as the Syrian Golan."
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- In the Syrian Golan Heights, annexed by Israel in 1981,
ESCWA said Israeli settlements continue to expand. It said access to natural
resources and social services like schooling and medical facilities were
inadequate for the Arab population.
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