RAMALLAH, West Bank — Since the beginning of 2017, the Gaza Strip has been struggling with a worsening electricity crisis that deteriorated after the Gaza Electricity Distribution Company announced Jan. 7 a breakdown in the second generator of the power plant due to the lack of fuel and the increasing power cuts. This has left citizens with a two-hour electricity supply per day.

The electricity crisis that prompted Gazans to take to the streets in several regions and for several days is but one out of dozens of crises afflicting the Gaza Strip due to the continuation of the Israeli blockade, which gradually started with Hamas’ victory in the legislative elections on Jan. 26, 2006, and intensified with the movement’s takeover of Gaza on June 15, 2007.

An economic report published Dec. 28 and prepared by Maher Tabbah, an economist, analyst and director of media and public relations at the Chamber of Commerce and Industry of Gaza province, said that all indications confirm that Gaza has entered the stage of economic collapse and turned into a model for the biggest prison in the world due to the continuation of the Israeli siege and the breaking out of three wars that caused massive destruction of its infrastructure and its economic sectors.

Tabbah told Al-Monitor that the unemployment rate, according to data from the Palestinian Central Bureau of Statistics (PCBS) for the third quarter of 2016, was 43.2% (218,000 unemployed in Gaza), while the poverty rate is 38.8% (38.8% of the population in Gaza live below the national poverty line of $637, and 21.1% live below the extreme poverty line of $480, according to PCBS data for 2011). Meanwhile, the number of Gazans who rely on assistance from international institutions such as the United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees in the Near East amounted to about 1.5 million citizens in 2016.