![A Palestinian flag and a Hamas flag (R) flutter atop the wreckage of a house, which witnesses said was destroyed during the seven-week Israeli offensive, in the east of Gaza City September 3, 2014. Fifty days of war in one of the most densely populated parts of the world have left swathes of Gaza in ruins. With the economy reeling under an Israeli-Egyptian blockade, the enclave now faces an almost impossible task of rebuilding. Picture taken September 3, 2014. REUTERS/Suhaib Salem (GAZA - Tags: CIVIL UNRES](/sites/default/files/styles/article_header/public/almpics/2014/10/RTR45XWO.jpg/RTR45XWO.jpg?h=f7822858&itok=2VYyjwGF)
Omar Shaban is the founder and director of Palthink for Strategic Studies. An independent researcher and analyst specializing in Palestinian affairs and the Arab-Israeli conflict, he writes about developments in Palestine and the Arab world.
![A Palestinian flag and a Hamas flag (R) flutter atop the wreckage of a house, which witnesses said was destroyed during the seven-week Israeli offensive, in the east of Gaza City September 3, 2014. Fifty days of war in one of the most densely populated parts of the world have left swathes of Gaza in ruins. With the economy reeling under an Israeli-Egyptian blockade, the enclave now faces an almost impossible task of rebuilding. Picture taken September 3, 2014. REUTERS/Suhaib Salem (GAZA - Tags: CIVIL UNRES](/sites/default/files/styles/article_header/public/almpics/2014/10/RTR45XWO.jpg/RTR45XWO.jpg?h=f7822858&itok=2VYyjwGF)
![Palestinians gather around the remains of a mosque, which witnesses said was destroyed in an Israeli air strike before a 72-hour truce, in Khan Younis in the southern Gaza Strip August 11, 2014. Israeli negotiators were due in Cairo on Monday for talks on ending a month-old Gaza war with Palestinian militants, an Israeli government official said, after a new 72-hour truce brokered by Egypt appeared to be holding. REUTERS/Ibraheem Abu Mustafa (GAZA - Tags: POLITICS CIVIL UNREST RELIGION TPX IMAGES OF THE DA](/sites/default/files/styles/article_header/public/almpics/2014/08/RTR41YFR.jpg/RTR41YFR.jpg?h=c2c5b897&itok=NyQqARkj)
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Omar Shaban
![Tunnel workers sit outside a smuggling tunnel on the border between Egypt and the southern Gaza Strip February 17, 2014. Voices of construction workers and the noise from their tools used to ring out in Gaza's streets. Now hulks of unfinished buildings stand in eerie silence, and the idle builders are left to worry how to make ends meet. An Egyptian-Israeli blockade on Gaza, run by the Hamas Islamist movement, has left industry and construction gasping for resources, pushing unemployment to dizzying heights](/sites/default/files/styles/article_header/public/almpics/2014/03/RTX1981E.jpg/RTX1981E.jpg?h=f7822858&itok=tyTvRSP-)
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Omar Shaban
![A Palestinian man warms himself by a fire inside his makeshift shelter during a power cut in the northern Gaza Strip November 11, 2013. Gaza's lone power plant shut its generators on November 1, 2013 due to a fuel shortage, a move that will likely increase already long blackout hours in the impoverished coastal territory run by the Islamist Hamas group. Power has been provided to different areas in the territory in six-hour shifts since the closure. REUTERS/Mohammed Salem (GAZA - Tags: ENERGY) - RTX159HC](/sites/default/files/styles/article_header/public/almpics/2013/11/RTX159HC.jpg/RTX159HC.jpg?h=2d235432&itok=piyBOcwl)
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Omar Shaban
![Activists unveil a giant Palestine flag in support of a Palestinian statehood outside the European Union Council in Brussels November 19, 2012. REUTERS/Francois Lenoir (BELGIUM - Tags: POLITICS CIVIL UNREST) - RTR3ALZ9](/sites/default/files/styles/article_header/public/almpics/2013/11/RTR3ALZ9.jpg/RTR3ALZ9.jpg?h=2d235432&itok=IbLWoYvq)
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Omar Shaban
![U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry (C) is joined by Israeli President Shimon Peres (L) and Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas at the World Economic Forum on the Middle East and North Africa at the King Hussein Convention Centre, at the Dead Sea, Jordan, May 26, 2013. REUTERS/Jim Young (JORDAN - Tags: POLITICS BUSINESS) - RTX101SH](/sites/default/files/styles/article_header/public/almpics/2013/11/RTX101SH.jpg/RTX101SH.jpg?h=6c6b25af&itok=etxClnUk)
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Omar Shaban
![A Palestinian trader looks at the exchange board in the West Bank city of Nablus’ Stock Exchange on October 8, 2008. Arab stock markets tumbled for the fourth day running today amid growing fears that policymakers may be powerless to stop the worst financial shock since the Great Depression. AFP PHOTO /JAAFAR ASHTIYEH (Photo credit should read JAAFAR ASHTIYEH/AFP/Getty Images)](/sites/default/files/styles/article_header/public/almpics/2013/05/83173321.jpg/83173321.jpg?h=2d235432&itok=kUrawLrZ)
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Omar Shaban
![A Palestinian man waits at a counter to make a withdrawal at the Housing Bank for Trade & Finance in the West Bank city of Ramallah January 22, 2013. A central bank in the making, the Palestine Monetary Authority (PMA) is a rare bright spot as the economy of the Palestinian territories struggles with Israeli sanctions. Enforcing on Palestinian banks a regimen of conservative lending that has kept bad loans minimal and guaranteed liquidity, the PMA's technocratic prowess is the pinnacle of a Palestinian driv](/sites/default/files/styles/article_header/public/almpics/2013/05/Palestine%20economy.jpg/Palestine%20economy.jpg?h=2d235432&itok=P07Jjz2M)
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Omar Shaban
![A Palestinian farmer burns mints at a farm in Khan Younis in the southern Gaza Strip April 13, 2013. Palestinian farmers in Gaza began destroying three tonnes of herbs on Saturday, saying a prolonged closure of the crossing into Israel meant the plants were no longer fit for export to Europe. REUTERS/Ibraheem Abu Mustafa (GAZA - Tags: POLITICS AGRICULTURE BUSINESS FOOD) - RTXYK04](/sites/default/files/styles/article_header/public/almpics/2013/04/Gaza%20Strip%20exports.jpg/Gaza%20Strip%20exports.jpg?h=2d235432&itok=aMkNCZu7)
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Omar Shaban
![The motorcade of U.S. President George W. Bush moves towards the Church of the Nativity in the West Bank town of Bethlehem January 10, 2008. Passing through a tiny "Door of Humility", Bush made a pilgrimage to the traditional birthplace of Jesus on Thursday in the first U.S. presidential visit to the occupied West Bank. REUTERS/Ammar Awad (WEST BANK) - RTX5EYY](/sites/default/files/styles/article_header/public/almpics/2013/04/1-RTX5EYY.jpg/1-RTX5EYY.jpg?h=2d235432&itok=shLDlLmZ)
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Omar Shaban
![Palestinian Finance Minister Nabil Kassis reads a local newspaper as he waits for the start of the Ad Hoc Liaison Committee meeting, the donor support group for the Palestine, at the United Nations in New York, September 23, 2012. REUTERS/Eduardo Munoz (UNITED STATES - Tags: POLITICS BUSINESS) - RTR38BWP](/sites/default/files/styles/article_header/public/almpics/2013/04/RTR38BWP.jpg/RTR38BWP.jpg?h=2d235432&itok=P19fWS2K)
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Omar Shaban
![A truck loaded with building materials drives at the Rafah crossing with Egypt, in the southern Gaza Strip December 30, 2012. Islamist-led Egypt allowed building materials into Gaza via the Rafah crossing on Saturday for the first time since Hamas seized control of the Palestinian enclave in 2007, an Egyptian border official said. REUTERS/Ibraheem Abu Mustafa (GAZA - Tags: POLITICS CONSTRUCTION) - RTR3BZDB](/sites/default/files/styles/article_header/public/almpics/2013/04/1-RTR3BZDB.jpg/1-RTR3BZDB.jpg?h=2d235432&itok=sIFzzM5E)
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Omar Shaban