Six months after Israel launched its 22-day onslaught in the Gaza Strip, the impoverished territory’s 1.5m Palestinian residents are “trapped in despair” amid Israel’s crippling blockade and soaring poverty and unemployment rates, the International Committee of the Red Cross said on Monday.

Israel’s restrictions on the enclave’s crossing points, most of which it controls, and its stringent limitations on imports such as building materials, spare parts and basic medicines are making it “impossible” for Gazans to rebuild their lives, the Geneva-based group said in a report. It warned that should the restrictions not be lifted, the $4.5bn in aid pledged in March by international donors to help reconstruct Gaza will be of little use.