The Gaza Strip has been under direct Israeli occupation since 1967 and since 2005, Israel has claimed to withdraw from it, however, it remains an occupying power according to international law. Since 2006, Israel has imposed a suffocating blockade on the Palestinian exclave, which, along with the concurrent systematic and organized military aggression, has led to the destruction of the economy as well as the fragmentation of the population's livelihood and means of production. The repercussions of this blockade and the ongoing aggression continue to inflict unprecedented human physical and psychological damage on the population. Through these policies, Israel aims to control the daily activities of the local community and drown them in the worries of making end meet amidst a deteriorating humanitarian situation and the existing infrastructure that no longer possesses the capacity to recover. It is worth pointing out that Israel imposes such conditions to paralyze people's ability to withstand and resist occupation. The present context has led many international organizations, most notably the United Nations, to warn that the continuation of the occupation's policies in their inhumane manner will turn Gaza into an uninhabitable place by the year 2020. Meanwhile, more than two million remain subject to tight control established and widely implemented by the occupation forces, converting the place into the so-called 'world's largest open-air prison'.
Against this backdrop, particularly with the continuation of the Palestinian political division, and the absence of unified national strategies to resist the blockade, multiple humanitarian and development organizations started calling for the application of comprehensive and integrated mechanisms to respond to crises resulting from the long-term conflict in Gaza, the most prominent of them is the Humanitarian, Development, and Peace Nexus (HDPN) or the "Triple Nexus" approach, which means linking humanitarian, development, and peace-related programs together. There is a demand from some international actors and donors to push humanitarian organizations in the Gaza Strip to implement this approach, yet its introduction in the Palestinian context, in general, collides with many challenges. Before exploring these challenges that the application of the "Triple Nexus" approach can face in the Gaza Strip, the author points out the practical applicability of the article for decision-makers, with regard to the analyzed approach, and to what extent it can be applied in the Gaza context.
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