UN: Poverty tripled in Gaza

Poverty in the Gaza Strip has tripled this year under the Israeli blockade, according to the UN agency helping refugees living there. John Ging, the head of the UN Relief and Works Agency (UNRWA) in Gaza, told reporters on Thursday that the number of Gazans considered "abject poor" had tripled to 300,000 this year, equal to one in five Gazans. Ging described the situation in the narrow and overcrowded Palestinian territory as "unbearable" and as a "man-made crisis", calling on Israel to ease its siege immediately. "The humanitarian situation here in Gaza continues to deteriorate at an alarming rate for the ordinary poor citizens," Ging said. He reported that 80,000 families, representing 400,000 Palestinian refugees, had applied to UNRWA for extra assistance.