The blockade on Gaza “has had a devastating impact on the lives and wellbeing of Gaza’s civilian population and on Palestinian development”,291 while Israel’s control over exports “determines which of Gaza's industries will function”.292 Along with the cyclical escalations of conflict (in 2008/2009, 2012 and 2014, most notably), the Israeli blockade of the Gaza Strip has rendered 80% of Gaza’s residents dependent on humanitarian aid for their survival.293 Furthermore, the control over the entry of construction materials allows Israel to curb the urban development of Gaza and to influence its shape: for example, in 2010, Israel's “Coordinator of Government Activities in the Territories” reviewed UNRWA’s list of sites for Gaza schools and, in “one or two occasions […] [they were] asked to move the location a few hundred meters, since they were [allegedly] near Hamas installations”,294 as a condition for allowing the entry of the necessary construction materials.295 The blockade itself constitutes a form of collective punishment, expressly prohibited under international humanitarian law.296 Moreover, according to a secret cable sent to Washington297 by US officials in Tel Aviv of 3 November 2008, “Israeli officials have confirmed to Embassy officials on multiple occasions that they intend to keep the Gazan economy functioning at the lowest level possible consistent with avoiding a humanitarian crisis”. Since the Palestinian elections in 2006, Israel has designated Gaza as a “hostile entity”, which has resulted the tightened embargo on the Strip.298 Israel’s blockade on Gaza, as well as the Israeli-enforced land and naval buffer zones, seem to further this strategy of keeping the region “on the brink of collapse”, and its population in substandard living conditions.299 Palestinians in the Gaza Strip are at continuous risk of forcible displacement, due to such Israeli policies and which have undermined their physical security, lowered their standard of living, and increased their poverty levels and dependence on humanitarian aid. Here it is again important to note that the forcible dimension in the term forcible displacement: [...] is not restricted to physical force, but may include threat of 291 Hartberg, Beyond Ceasefire, 1. 292 Bashi and Feldman, Scale of Control, 14. 293 Norwegian Refugee Council, “A Crisis Within a Crisis: Humanitarian Emergency in the Gaza Strip.” 294 Yaakov Katz, “Israel Reviewing UNRWA List of Sites for Gaza Schools.” 295 Bashi and Feldman, Scale of Control, 14. 296 OCHA - Occupied Palestinian Territories, Easing the Blockade: Assessing the Humanitarian Impact on the Population of the Gaza Strip, 22; see also International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC), “Customary IHL - Rule 103. Collective Punishments”; and International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC), “Fourth Geneva Convention”, Article 33. 297 Gentile, “WikiLeaks Cable Reveals New Details of Gaza Embargo | Need to Know | PBS.” 298 WikiLeaks, “CASHLESS IN GAZA? - Cable: 08TELAVIV2447_a, of 3 November 2008,” para. 1. 299 Ibid., para. 2. 76