The figures tell the story: mounting poverty, mounting fatalities, and a shrinking percentage of land under Palestinian control. We do the maths on 40 years of occupation.
A fatal conflict
Between September 2000 and end of 2006:
4,046 Palestinians were killed by Israeli forces and civilians
701 Israeli civilians were killed by Palestinians
316 Israeli forces personnel were killed by Palestinians
811 Palestinian minors were killed by Israeli forces
119 Israeli minors were killed by Palestinians.
Poverty
64 per cent of Palestinians live below the poverty line. In 1998 the figure was just 20 per cent.
The majority of the Palestinian population now exist on less than £1.10 a day.
78 per cent of Gazans are now without an income – partly because international sanctions against the Palestinian Authority has left it unable to pay teachers, nurses and other public sector workers.
Separation barrier
On April 2006, the approved length of the final barrier was 703km long
247,800 Palestinians east of the barrier will be completely or partially surrounded, will require permits to live in their homes, and will only be able to leave their communities via a gate in the barrier.
Settlements
Number of settlements in the Occupied Palestinian Territories: 129
Number of settlers in the Occupied Palestinian Territories: 438,088
Settlements west of the barrier: 48 with a total of 187,840 residents
Settlements east of the barrier: 69, with a total of 57,330 residents
Settlements in East Jerusalem: 12, with total of 192,918 residents.
Lack of access to water
Palestinian access to the occupied territories' water supply is limited. Israel controls major Palestinian underground reserves such as the Mountain Aquifer, which runs along the border between the West Bank and Israel. It is the region's largest, cleanest and most reliable water source and Israel currently earmarks 80 per cent of it for its own use. As a result, Palestinians in the West Bank suffer a permanent water crisis, making it impossible for them to meet their basic needs. Israel also prohibits Palestinians from drilling new wells or rehabilitating old ones.
Over 200 communities in the West Bank are not connected to a water network
Israel has the highest per capita consumption of water in the region and uses far more than it produces
Since 1967, Israel has met much of its water demands by drawing it from the Occupied Palestinian Territories
Article 54 of Protocol I of the Geneva Conventions states: ‘It is prohibited to attack, destroy, remove or render useless objects indispensable to the survival of the civilian population, such as foodstuffs, agricultural areas for the production of foodstuffs, crops, livestock, drinking water installations and supplies and irrigation work’
More than 80% of the water from the West Bank goes to Israel
The Palestinians are allotted just 18% of the water that is extracted from their own land
Israeli settlers living in the West Bank have un-metered access to water
The Israeli settlers in the occupied territories benefit from more advanced pump technology and use as much as ten times more water per capita than Palestinians.
Gaza and West Bank
Total land mass of the Gaza Strip and the West Bank is about 6,200 square kilometres – roughly four times the size of Greater London.
Gaza is more densely populated than Greater London with some 5,500 people per sq km, compared with London's 4,200 per sq km.
Palestinian Muslims make up about 90 per cent of the 3.9 million people living in the Occupied Territories (including East Jerusalem).
Approximately 3.9 million Palestinians live in the occupied territories.
Natural resources include arable land, natural gas and water aquifers.
The GDP of the occupied territories is $700 per capita per year. That’s the same as Afghanistan, and only slightly more than Sierra Leone, the world's poorest country.
Israel
About 6.35 million people live in Israel
Israel's GDP is US$26,200 per capita. That’s more than 20 times that of Palestinians living in the occupied territories
About 6.1 million people live in Israel: 80.1% of Israel's population is Jewish, 14.6% is Muslim and 2.1% is Christian and 3.2% other
With a total land area of 20,770 sq km, Israel is about the same size as Wales.
Sources: B’Tselem, 2007; UN OCHA, 2006; Negotiations Affairs Department, PLO, 2006; UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs, January 2007; Israeli Central Bureau of Statistics; PA Central Bureau of Statistics; US AID and Palestinian Water Authority 2005; CIA World Factbook; UNRWA.