Palestine

Palestine, sometimes called the Occupied Palestinian Territory (OPT), is located in the Middle East but has no officially recognized borders at this time. The former British mandate of Palestine originally extended across the current State of Israel and into part of modern Syria. This mandate ended in 1947, and the United Nations passed a resolution creating the separate Jewish state of Israel and Arab state of Palestine. The resolution was rejected by the Arab world, leading to more than 50 years of conflict and Palestinian marginalization.

Palestinians are today a stateless people with limited self-government under the Palestinian Authority, confined to two noncontiguous regions within Israel: the West Bank along the Jordanian border, and the narrow Gaza Strip, stretching along the Mediterranean coast the Egyptian boarder.

The population of the OPT is estimated by the World Health Organization at 3.9 million, with 1.5 million living in Gaza and 2.5 million in the West Bank. Low infant mortality rates and the absence of major communicable diseases give Palestinians a life expectancy of 72.3 years. The fertility rate remains high, at 4.6 births per woman.

Ongoing violence between Israel and the Palestinians makes life difficult for most of those in the occupied territories. Border closures and security crackdowns restrict movement. Palestinians fire crude bombs and rockets over the border, causing Israeli defense forces to retaliate with their own artillery bombardments and air strikes. Firing into densely populated areas often leads to civilian casualties. The United Nations noted that in July 2006, as world attention was focused on the conflict between Israel and Lebanon, 175 Palestinians were killed (including at least 40 children) in Israeli incursions in Gaza. The economy of the occupied territories has stagnated over the past several years. Unemployment is around 25 percent. Poverty levels are extremely high, at 56 percent in the West Bank and up to 80 percent in Gaza.

Limited access to food has led to widespread malnutrition in Palestinian areas. A survey in spring 2007 found that 10 percent of Palestinian children suffer from chronic malnutrition, with 13.2 percent of children in Gaza and 7.9 percent of those in the West Bank showing signs of stunting. Anemia is also common, affecting 44 percent of children under 5, as well as 53 percent of women in Gaza and 44 percent of women in the West Bank. Eighty percent of Palestinian women of childbearing age are deficient in vitamins A and E.

The Ministry of Health noted in 2005 that visits to mental health clinics rose by over 20 percent in a single year. Researchers have found that 33 percent of children in Gaza suffer from severe post-traumatic stress disorder (PSTD), with another 49 percent showing moderate signs of the illness. Fifty percent of children polled said they had lost at least one close family member to violence in their lifetimes. Parents also report a high level of aggression in their children.

Noncommunicable diseases are the chief cause of morbidity and mortality in Palestine. However, the Ministry of Health notes that the region lacks a good monitoring system by which to track diseases such as diabetes and cardiovascular disorders. The Ministry of Health controls 60 to 70 percent of the 77 hospitals within the Palestinian Authority (22 in Gaza and 55 in the West Bank). Aside from general hospitals, there are 20 maternity hospitals, 10 specialized facilities, and four rehabilitation clinics. Medical staff is around 19,500, which includes those working for the Ministry of Health, nongovernmental organizations, the United Nations, and other international groups.

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