The Electronic Intifada 14 March 2018
“I am an old lady and this work is difficult for me, but I have no choice,” says Latifa Abu Taima.
The family’s wages have decreased over the years, as unemployment in Gaza continues to skyrocket after more than a decade of Israeli siege and successive military assaults.
The $16 the family earns each week by cracking two large boxes of nuts is used to put food on the table and pay for the children’s school fees.
Unemployment in the Gaza Strip reached 44 percent in 2017. The unemployment rate for young people is even higher, with 60 percent of Palestinians in Gaza between the ages of 15 and 29 out of work.
In the year 2000, before the blockade, Gaza’s unemployment rate was 19 percent, according to the Palestinian Central Bureau of Statistics.
Half of Gaza’s population of two million is currently moderately to severely food insecure.
Video by Ruwaida Amer and Sanad Ltefa.
