Gaza fits inside London’s M25

HOW big is the Gaza Strip? It fits easily inside the M25 motorway that circles London. A lot of it would fit inside the north and south circulars.

Now imagine one of the world’s most high-tech armies bombing and shelling a poverty-stricken population of more than 1.4 million trapped inside a narrow strip, mostly less than five miles wide — at most less than eight miles wide — and stretching under 25 miles from Epsom in the south-west across the heart of central London to Loughton in the north-east. It fits inside the yellow boxes in the pictures to the left and below (click the pictures for larger views in new windows)

Imagine, instead of the central-london chic villages of smart Kensington, Notting Hill, Maida Vale to the west, the Mediterranean’s most miserable beaches.

To the south-west, instead of the respectable suburbs of Epsom, a seven-mile border with Egypt’s Sinai desert. To the east and north, instead of the suburbs of south London, there’s barbed wire, concrete, corrugated iron and a 32-mile long border with southern Israel.

The lucky people of Richmond, Muswell Hill, Dulwich, Blackheath would be living outside the barbed wire. But those in Fulham, Clapham, Brixton, the MPs and Lords in The Houses of Parliament, the Queen in her Buckingham Palace, the tourists riding the London Eye or viewing the execution axes in the Tower of London, Finsbury, Dalston… all trapped inside a ring of barbed wire, concrete and corrugated-iron fencing.

There’s one gate to the north, five to the east and one to the south.

Imagine one road into the yellow box from Loughton in the north.

Another five gates allow entry into the yellow box from the east possibly at Balham, Herne Hill, Deptford, West Ham, one road from Weybridge goes to the check-point in the south.

The M4 from the airport is blocked off. No gates at Richmond, Acton, Notting Hill, Tufnell Park from the north and west. Everything is blocked off with concrete and razor wire.

And it is the people of Loughton, Richmond, Notting Hill and Weybridge who decide whether or not the gates are open or not. Often they’re not.

All other roads are blocked by concrete and barbed wire. And it’s been like this for 40+ years.

For a fuller description of life inside the Gaza Strip — plus how Gaza fits on top of New York City — see the post below.