The Gaza Strip is a difficult place to hold down a job, and recent violence against the main Palestinian union federation only worsened the lot of workers there. One and a half million Palestinians live in Gaza under an Israeli economic siege that has closed borders and ports, and restricted access to water, electricity, and basic goods. The resulting conditions have been dire. According to the UN Relief Works Association, unemployment and poverty rates have soared to 80 percent since the economic blockade ramped up three years ago.

Conditions deteriorated even further when Israel initiated military raids in late February, killing more than 100 civilians, a third of them children.

One of the targets of the midnight attacks was the Palestine General Federation of Trade Unions. Israeli F-16s launched missiles that destroyed the union’s Folks Center, its five-story headquarters in Gaza City, and other civilian targets.

The attacks leveled the building, which offered health care to the community as well as a key organizing space. One person was killed and 37 more were injured, and electricity was cut while shrapnel punctured water tanks, creating further shortages.

Following the destruction of their office, union members continued operations from a tent. They are urging an international boycott of Israeli goods, and calling for a response from the International Labor Organization to pressure Israel to compensate the federation for the destruction of its space.

Send messages of solidarity to or by mail to the West Bank at: Al-Rahbat Street, P.O.Box 1216, Nablus- Palestine. Relief donations can be directed to the Palestine Red Cresent Society [1].