International aid agency: 80 percent of Gazans now rely on food aid

       Eighty percent of Gazans receive food aid from the World Food Program or from UNRWA, WFP spokesperson Kirstie Campbell says, "and without it they are liable to starve." The dozens of laborers who used to cross into Israel every day to work also found themselves unemployed as a result of laws prohibiting them from working and the construction of the separation barrier. WFP officials refer to the people affected by these developments "the new poor," former members of the middle who lost their source of income. Some were able to find other jobs, but the case of the Hassein family is particularly complex. According to WFP figures, 34 percent of residents of the territories suffer from food insecurity, which the UN food agency defines as the inability of a household to produce and/or access at all times the minimum food needed for a healthy and active life. In the Gaza Strip, where four out of five Palestinians are below the poverty line, the figure is 54 percent, mesdia reported.(15,30)