The Palestinian Return Centre (PRC) in London has expressed deep concern about the suffocating blockade of Gaza, which has regressed Gaza’s development potential for the past 15 years.

 “The United Nations and other humanitarian actors have spent 15 years on delivering vital humanitarian support to over 2.1 million Palestinians blockaded inside Gaza”, said PRC in a statement delivered as part of Item 7 of a General Debate at the UN Human Rights Council.

“In those 15 years the international community has spent an estimated $5.7 billion in Gaza, just to help keep the population afloat, in impossible conditions”, it said. “Gaza has the potential to flourish through its own development, however the blockade prevents it from doing so, from the ban of importing building materials to Israeli forces forbidding the use of 3G and 4G phone data.”

PRC quoted Oxfam’s country director, Shane Stevenson, who recently stated that ‘Most of Israel’s blockade restrictions are motivated by politics, not security. Palestinian families in Gaza are being collectively and illegally punished.’

PRC said the right to development is an inalienable human right and the human right to development also implies the full realization of the right of peoples to self-determination.