section_path: Status/Gaza blockade
section_name: Gaza blockade
paragraph_text: Gaza blockade
  
  Israel and Egypt maintain a blockade of the Gaza Strip in response to security concerns, such as the smuggling of weapons into Gaza. Israel has also stated that the blockade serves as "economic warfare". The Israeli human rights organization Gisha reports that the blockade undermines basic living conditions and human rights in Gaza. The Red Cross has reported that the blockade harms the economy and causes a shortage of basic medicines and equipment such as painkillers and x-ray film.
  
  Israel describes the blockade as necessary to prevent the smuggling of weapons into Gaza. Israel maintains that the blockade is legal and necessary to limit Palestinian rocket attacks from the Gaza Strip on its cities and to prevent Hamas from obtaining other weapons, although the legality of the blockade has been challenged by multiple human rights organizations.
  
  According to director of the Shin Bet, Hamas and Islamic Jihad had smuggled in over "5,000 rockets with ranges up to 40 km (25 mi)." Some of the rockets could reach as far as the Tel Aviv Metropolitan Area.
  
  Facing mounting international pressure, Egypt lessened the restrictions starting in June 2010, when the Rafah border crossing from Egypt to Gaza was partially opened by Egypt. Egypt's foreign ministry said that the crossing would remain open mainly for people, but not for supplies.
  
  Israel also eased restrictions in June 2010 as a result of international pressure following the Gaza flotilla raid after which food shortages decreased. The World Bank reported in 2012 that access to Gaza remained highly restricted and exports to the West Bank and Israel from Gaza are prohibited. This ban on exports was not lifted until 2014.
  
  In January and February 2011, the United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (UNOCHA) assessed measures taken to ease the blockade and concluded that they were helpful but not sufficient to improve the lives of the local inhabitants. UNOCHA called on Israel to reduce restrictions on exports and the import of construction materials, and to lift the general ban on movement between Gaza and the West Bank via Israel. According to The Washington Institute for Near East Policy, the blockade resulted in a loss of over $17 million in exports in 2006 from 2005 (roughly 3% of all Palestinian exports). After Egyptian president Hosni Mubarak resigned on 28 May 2011, Egypt permanently opened its border with Gaza to students, medical patients, and foreign passport holders. Following the 2013 Egyptian coup d'état, Egypt's military has destroyed most of the 1,200 tunnels which are used for smuggling food, weapons, and other goods to Gaza. After the August 2013 Rabaa Massacre in Egypt, the border crossing was closed 'indefinitely.'
  
  While the import of food is restricted through the Gaza blockade, the Israeli military destroys agricultural crops by spraying toxic chemicals over the Gazan lands, using aircraft flying over the border zone. According to the IDF, the spraying is intended "to prevent the concealment of IED's, and to disrupt and prevent the use of the area for destructive purposes." Gaza's agricultural research and development station was destroyed in 2014 and again in January 2016, while import of new equipment is obstructed.