And this has been achieved at a very heavy price. First, more than 450 Palestinians have been killed and 1,800 wounded in the power struggle between Fatah and Hamas. Second, poverty and unemployment in the Gaza Strip are estimated at 70%.
Most of the 3,900 factories have closed in the past year. In addition, 12 hotels and 25 tourist restaurants have been forced to fire about 500 workers.
Nearly half of the 3,000 fishermen in Gaza have been forced to stop working because of the lack of fuel and restrictions imposed by the Hamas government.
Most of the international organizations that once employed thousands of Palestinians have left. Today, according to human rights organizations, about 85% of the Palestinians living in the Gaza Strip rely on charities and aid provided by various institutions.
Hamas's failure to improve medical services has resulted in the death of more than 190 patients in the past year. However, the Hamas-run Health Ministry continues to blame Israel for the deaths because of the blockade on the Gaza Strip and its refusal to grant permission to patients to leave the area.
Yet all this has hardly affected Hamas's standing in the Gaza Strip, according to many Palestinians living there.
"As long as the Palestinians don't see a better alternative to Hamas, they will continue to support the movement," a Palestinian editor from Gaza City said. "The only way to get rid of Hamas is by offering the Palestinians a better alternative to Hamas. Many Palestinians still don't trust Fatah because of its failure to reform itself and remove all the corrupt leaders.