Editing Gaza Strip (section)

====Movement of people====
[[File:Egyptian Convoy to Gaza, Palestine.jpg|thumb|Rafah Border Crossing in 2012]]
Because of the Israeli–Egyptian blockade, the population is not free to leave or enter the Gaza Strip. Only in exceptional cases are people allowed to pass through the [[Erez Crossing]] or the [[Rafah Border Crossing]].<ref name=ocha_factsheet_july_2015>[http://www.ochaopt.org/documents/ocha_opt_gaza_blockade_factsheet_July_2015_english.pdf ''The Gaza Strip: The Humanitarian Impact of the Blockade''] {{webarchive |url=https://web.archive.org/web/20150717234752/http://www.ochaopt.org/documents/ocha_opt_gaza_blockade_factsheet_july_2015_english.pdf |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20150703082308/http://www.ochaopt.org/documents/ocha_opt_gaza_blockade_factsheet_july_2015_english.pdf |archive-date=2015-07-03 |url-status=live |date=17 July 2015 }}. UN OCHA, July 2015. "1.8 million Palestinians in Gaza are 'locked in', denied free access to the remainder of the occupied Palestinian territory and the outside world." Available at [http://www.ochaopt.org/reports.aspx?id=103&page=1 ''Fact Sheets''] {{Webarchive |url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160329054638/http://www.ochaopt.org/reports.aspx?id=103&page=1 |date=29 March 2016 }}.</ref><ref>
*[http://www.ochaopt.org/documents/gaza_crossings_operations_status_september%202015.pdf ''Gaza crossings’ operations status:Monthly update—September 2015''] {{webarchive |url=https://web.archive.org/web/20151028021327/http://www.ochaopt.org/documents/gaza_crossings_operations_status_september%202015.pdf |date=28 October 2015 }}. UN OCHA. Available at [http://gaza.ochaopt.org/2015/09/gaza-crossings-operations-status-monthly-update-july-2015/ ''Gaza Crossings’ Operations Status: Monthly Update''] {{webarchive |url=https://web.archive.org/web/20151016210132/http://gaza.ochaopt.org/2015/09/gaza-crossings-operations-status-monthly-update-july-2015/ |date=16 October 2015 }}
*[http://www.haaretz.com/opinion/1.659942 ''Open Gaza's crossings—Keeping Gazans locked in the crowded Strip is immoral and strategically unwise''] {{Webarchive |url=https://web.archive.org/web/20151029171529/http://www.haaretz.com/opinion/1.659942 |date=29 October 2015 }}. Jack Khoury and Reuters, Haaretz, 28 May 2015
*[http://www.btselem.org/sites/default/files2/201401_'so_near_and_yet_so_far_eng.pdf ''So near and yet so far—Implications of Israeli‐Imposed Seclusion of Gaza Strip on Palestinians’ Right to Family Life'']{{dead link |date=July 2017 |bot=InternetArchiveBot |fix-attempted=yes }}. Hamoked and B'Tselem, January 2014. [http://www.btselem.org/publications/summaries/201401_so_near_and_yet_so_far Here available] {{Webarchive |url=https://web.archive.org/web/20151031114337/http://www.btselem.org/publications/summaries/201401_so_near_and_yet_so_far |date=31 October 2015 }}</ref> In 2015, a Gazan woman was not allowed to travel through Israel to Jordan on her way to her own wedding. The Israeli authorities found she did not meet the criteria for travel, namely only in exceptional humanitarian cases.<ref>[http://gisha.org/press/4726 ''Gisha to the High Court: Allow a woman from Gaza to attend her own wedding''] {{Webarchive |url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160306015101/http://gisha.org/press/4726 |date=6 March 2016 }}. Gisha, 18 November 2015</ref>

Under the long-term blockade, the Gaza Strip is often described as a "prison-camp or open air prison for its collective denizens". The comparison is done by observers, ranging from [[Roger Cohen]] and [[Lawrence Weschler]] to NGOs, such as [[B'tselem]], and politicians and diplomats, such as [[David Cameron]], [[Noam Chomsky]], [[Recep Tayyip Erdoğan]], [[David Shoebridge]] and [[John Holmes (British diplomat)|Sir John Holmes]].<ref>
*{{Cite news |url=https://www.nytimes.com/2014/12/21/opinion/sunday/roger-cohen-what-will-israel-become.html |title=What Will Israel Become? |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20170708030956/https://www.nytimes.com/2014/12/21/opinion/sunday/roger-cohen-what-will-israel-become.html |archive-date=8 July 2017 |work=The New York Times |date=20 December 2014 |quote=Roger Cohen: "The 140-square-mile area is little better than an open-air prison. As incubators for [[violent extremism]] go, it is hard to imagine a more effective setting than Gaza."}}
*[http://www.truth-out.org/opinion/item/12635-noam-chomsky-my-visit-to-gaza-the-worlds-largest-open-air-prison '' My Visit to Gaza, the World's Largest Open-Air Prison''] {{Webarchive |url=https://web.archive.org/web/20151024235819/http://www.truth-out.org/opinion/item/12635-noam-chomsky-my-visit-to-gaza-the-worlds-largest-open-air-prison |date=24 October 2015 }}. Truthout, 9 November 2012. Noam Chomsky: 'And it hardly takes more than a day in Gaza to appreciate what it must be like to try to survive in the world's largest open-air prison,'
*[http://www.truthdig.com/report/item/israel_has_been_bitten_by_a_bat_20140718 'Israel Has Been Bitten by a Bat,'] {{Webarchive |url=https://web.archive.org/web/20150403071846/http://www.truthdig.com/report/item/israel_has_been_bitten_by_a_bat_20140718 |date=3 April 2015 }} [[Truthdig]] 18 July 2014. Lawrence Weschler:'I'm tired, for example, of hearing about how vital and cosmopolitan and democratic are the streets and cafes and nightclubs of Tel Aviv. For the fact is that one simply can't sustain such cosmopolitan vitality 40 miles from a prison camp containing close to two million people: It's a contradiction in terms.'
*[http://www.btselem.org/download/200705_gaza_insert_eng.pdf ' Gaza:One Big Prison,'] {{Webarchive |url=https://web.archive.org/web/20140829212751/http://www.btselem.org/download/200705_gaza_insert_eng.pdf |date=29 August 2014 }}. B'tselem,12 May 2007.
*[http://www.thenational.ae/news/world/middle-east/gaza-is-open-air-prison-un-humanitarian-chief 'Gaza is 'open-air prison',?] {{Webarchive |url=https://web.archive.org/web/20141031023621/http://www.thenational.ae/news/world/middle-east/gaza-is-open-air-prison-un-humanitarian-chief |date=31 October 2014 }}. The National (Abu Dhabi), 12 March 2010. The Under-Secretary-General for Humanitarian Affairs and Emergency Relief Coordinator, Sir John Holmes
*{{cite news |url=https://www.theguardian.com/politics/2010/jul/27/david-cameron-gaza-prison-camp |title='David Cameron: Israeli blockade has turned Gaza Strip into a 'prison camp' |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20190503110926/https://www.theguardian.com/politics/2010/jul/27/david-cameron-gaza-prison-camp |archive-date=3 May 2019 |work=The Guardian |date=27 July 2010 |last1=Watt |first1=Nicholas |last2=Sherwood |first2=Harrie |location=[[Ankara]] and [[Jerusalem]]}}
*{{cite news |url=http://www.ynetnews.com/articles/0,7340,L-3664532,00.html |title='Erdogan: Palestine an open-air prison,' |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20141224223650/http://www.ynetnews.com/articles/0,7340,L-3664532,00.html |archive-date=24 December 2014 |website=Ynet |date=31 January 2009 |quote=Recep Tayyip Erdoğan: "Palestine today is an open-air prison. Hamas, as much as they tried, could not change the situation. Just imagine, you imprison the speaker of a country as well as some ministers of its government and members of its parliament. And then you expect them to sit obediently?"}}
*{{cite news |url=http://www.jpost.com/International/Australia-MPs-Gaza-is-worlds-largest-outdoor-jail |title=Australia MPs: Gaza is world's largest outdoor jail |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20150108000626/http://www.jpost.com/International/Australia-MPs-Gaza-is-worlds-largest-outdoor-jail |archive-date=8 January 2015 |work=Jerusalem Post |date=15 March 2013 |last=Zieve |first=Tamara |quote="How could members, who wanted to get a balanced understanding of the issues facing Israel, Palestine and the Middle East, go to the other side of the planet and fail to visit Gaza, the world’s largest outdoor prison?" Shoebridge asked.}}</ref>
In 2014, French president [[François Hollande]] called for the demilitarization of Gaza and a lifting of the blockade, saying "Gaza must neither be an open prison nor a military base."<ref>[http://www.ynetnews.com/articles/0,7340,L-4560957,00.html Hollande calls for demilitarization of Gaza] {{Webarchive |url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160101014608/http://www.ynetnews.com/articles/0,7340,L-4560957,00.html |date=1 January 2016 }}. Ynet, 20 August 2014</ref>

An anonymous Israeli analyst has called it "Israel's [[Alcatraz]]".<ref>Alain Gresh, Dominique Vidal, [https://books.google.com/books?id=z6mAa4WubagC&pg=PA91 ''The New A-Z of the Middle East,''] {{Webarchive |url=https://web.archive.org/web/20221102101202/https://books.google.com/books?id=z6mAa4WubagC&pg=PA91 |date=2 November 2022 }} 2nd ed. I.B.Tauris, 2004 p.91.</ref> While [[Lauren Booth]],<ref name="Raz2008">Noa Raz,[http://www.ynetnews.com/articles/0,7340,L-3595097,00.html 'Blair sister-in-law: Gaza world's largest concentration camp,'] {{Webarchive |url=https://web.archive.org/web/20150318193203/http://www.ynetnews.com/articles/0,7340,L-3595097,00.html |date=18 March 2015 }} Ynet, 11 September 2008, for Tony Blair's sister-in law, [[Lauren Booth]].</ref><ref name="Shlaifer2014">Ron Shlaifer, [https://books.google.com/books?id=eYqoBAAAQBAJ&pg=PA203]{{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20221102101204/https://books.google.com/books?id=eYqoBAAAQBAJ&pg=PA203|date=2 November 2022}} ''Psychological Warfare [in the Arab–Israeli Conflict,'' Palgrave Macmillan, 2014 p.203 – Lauren Booth's expression</ref> [[Philip Slater]],<ref name="Slater2011">Philip Slater, [https://www.huffingtonpost.com/philip-slater/a-message-to-israel-time_b_155978.html ‘A Message to Israel: Time to Stop Playing the Victim Role] {{Webarchive |url=https://web.archive.org/web/20171024084228/https://www.huffingtonpost.com/philip-slater/a-message-to-israel-time_b_155978.html |date=24 October 2017 }},’ Huffington Post, 25 May 2011:'Calling Hamas the 'aggressor' is undignified. The Gaza strip is little more than a large Israeli concentration camp, in which Palestinians are attacked at will, starved of food, fuel, energy—even deprived of hospital supplies. They cannot come and go freely, and have to build tunnels to smuggle in the necessities of life.'</ref> [[Giorgio Agamben]]<ref name="Jessica2013">Jessica Whyte, [https://books.google.com/books?id=wZXaAQAAQBAJ&pg=PA95 ''Catastrophe and Redemption: The Political Thought of Giorgio Agamben,''] {{Webarchive |url=https://web.archive.org/web/20221102101202/https://books.google.com/books?id=wZXaAQAAQBAJ&pg=PA95 |date=2 November 2022 }} SUNY Press, 2013 p.95.</ref> compare it to a [[concentration camp]]. For [[Robert S. Wistrich]],<ref>[https://books.google.com/books?id=BfQoxsH9bbwC&pg=PA26 ''Holocaust Denial: The Politics of Perfidy,''] {{Webarchive |url=https://web.archive.org/web/20221102101203/https://books.google.com/books?id=BfQoxsH9bbwC&pg=PA26 |date=2 November 2022 }} Walter de Gruyter, 2012 p.26</ref> and Philip Mendes,<ref>[https://books.google.com/books?id=Sh2vAwAAQBAJ&pg=PA91 ''Jews and the Left: The Rise and Fall of a Political Alliance,''] {{Webarchive |url=https://web.archive.org/web/20221102101204/https://books.google.com/books?id=Sh2vAwAAQBAJ&pg=PA91 |date=2 November 2022 }} Palgrave Macmillan, 2014 p.91.</ref> such analogies are designed to offend Jews, while [[Philip Seib]] dismisses the comparison as absurd, and claims that it arises from sources like [[Al Jazeera]] and Arab leaders.{{sfn|Seib|2012|p=153}}

Israel restricts movement of Palestinian residents between the West Bank and Gaza. Israel has implemented a policy of allowing Palestinian movement from the West Bank to Gaza, but making it quite difficult for Gaza residents to move to the West Bank. Israel typically refuses to allow Gaza residents to leave for the West Bank, even when the Gaza resident is originally a West Bank resident. The Israeli human-rights organization [[Gisha (human rights organization)|Gisha]] has helped Gaza residents who had moved from the West Bank to Gaza return to the West Bank arguing that extremely pressing personal circumstances provide humanitarian grounds for relief.<ref>+972 Magazine, 30 June 2020 [https://www.972mag.com/gaza-movement-separation-policy/ "‘Gaza is a One-Way Ticket’: How Israel's Relocation Policy is Separating Palestinian Communities--Israel Is Systemically Routing Palestinian Movement in One Direction — from the West Bank to Gaza"] {{Webarchive |url=https://web.archive.org/web/20200707063716/https://www.972mag.com/gaza-movement-separation-policy/ |date=7 July 2020 }}</ref>