Reports and Studies

Report: Humanitarian Implications of Israel's Siege on the Gaza Strip, 1 October 2007

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15 October 2007

Restriction of Palestinians' movement represents the cornerstone of Israel's policy on the Occupied Palestinian Territories (OPT); and particularly the Gaza Strip (Gaza).
The word siege in this report refers to the closure instituted by Israel of all Gaza's passage points.
These include Gaza's five land crossings (only one of which, Rafah, is not shared with Israel), Gaza International Airport, and an unfinished seaport.
The siege imposes restrictions on the movement of both people and goods, allowing only a very limited number of people to move across the border and only a restricted amount of goods to enter or leave Gaza.
Movement restrictions are a major direct cause of human rights violations in Gaza.
Besides representing an illegal constraint on the right of every person to move freely, including within one's country and outside it, as stipulated by Article 13 of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights (UDHR) and the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights (ICCPR), these restrictions are the primary cause of violating several other human rights.