That was from 1967, when Egypt gladly left Gaza in the hands of Israel in the Six-Day War in 1967. Cairo had let Gaza sink into it a hell-hole. After 1967, like Judea and Samaria that was ignored and abused by Jordan, Gaza began to flower.
Israelis, including hundreds whom the Begin administration expelled from the Sinai Peninsula, poured into Gaza and built greenhouses and turned sand dunes into flourishing farms that gave Gaza Arabs decent work.
Israelis even taught Gaza farmers the secrets of success to help them start their own farms.
Tens of thousands of Gaza Arabs worked in Israel.
There was no terror. Tourists from Israel shopped in Gaza, as well as in all of Judea and Samaria.
Then, Yasser Arafat showed up for lunch.
The growing economy under the “occupation” in Gaza was a serious problem for the United Nations, whose UNRWA camps imprison tens of thousands of Arabs in Gaza, Judea and Samaria by calling them “refugees” so they can be used as a pawn to move into Israel and turn the Jews into a minority.
That is only of several reasons that Mladenov cannot look the truth in the eye and suggest rehabilitating Gaza with the only formula that has worked so far.
The United Nations prefers formulas that don’t work, like freezing homes for Jews.