Misery mounts in Gaza

January 22nd, 2008
Misery mounts in Gaza

The UN said it might have to stop the distribution
of food to more than 800,000 Gazans [AFP]

 

On Monday evening, Israel said that it would allow some deliveries of fuel and medicine into the territory on Tuesday.
Ehud Olmert promised that humanitarian aid would reach “hospitals, clinics, young children and helpless people”, but did not say when.

 

‘Gazans can walk’
But Olmert also said that he had no intentions of letting Gazans “live comfortable and pleasant lives” until rocket attacks from the territory ceased.

“As far as I’m concerned, all the residents of Gaza can walk and have no fuel for their cars, because they have a murderous terrorist regime that doesn’t allow people in the south of Israel to live in peace,” he said.

Meanwhile in New York, the UN Security Council agreed to hold an emergency meeting on Tuesday to discuss the situation in the Gaza Strip, diplomats said on Monday.
The decision was in response to a request from Arab envoys to the United Nations and the 57-member Organisation of the Islamic Conference, they added.
Ryad Mansour, the Palestinian observer at the UN, said he wanted a resolution or a statement demanding that Israel lift “its crippling, cruel siege on the Palestinian civilian population” of Gaza which he said amounted to “collective punishment” for rocket firing into the Jewish state.
Israel said its decision to allow the European Union to resume deliveries of industrial fuel as well as diesel for generators and gas used for cooking was only for Tuesday and restrictions would remain in place on petrol for vehicles.

Arye Mekel, an Israeli foreign ministry spokesman, said: “We think Hamas got the message.

“As we have seen in the past couple of days, when they want to stop the rockets, they can,” he said.
Five rockets were fired from Gaza on Sunday, according to the Israeli army, down from 53 in the two previous days.
Gaza City was plunged into darkness on Sunday after its sole power plant was switched off as fuel supplies dried up following the Israeli blockade.
The Israeli move to ease the restrictions came after the UN agency which supports the Palestinians warned it might be forced to stop distributing food aid to 860,000 people in Gaza because of a shortage of plastic bags to pack the food in and fuel for vehicles and generators.
Christopher Gunness, a spokesman for the United Nations Relief and Works Agency (UNRWA), said that the on-off blockade made it very difficult for his agency to provide relief.
“I suppose we have to be grateful for whatever they allow in, because at least it allows us to partially fulfil our mandates,” he told Al Jazeera.
“This hand on the tap, allowing drips in now and drips in later, that’s not what we need. What we need is a sustained opening of the crossings.”
Grave situation
Margaret Chan, director-general of the World Health Organisation, described the situation as grave.
Factbox: Gaza in darkness

Israel normally supplies 60 per cent of the electricity for Gaza’s 1.5 million inhabitants

Gaza needs around 240 megawatt of electricity, but normally receives only about 200 megawatts, with 8 per cent from Egypt

Israel is the only source of industrial fuel for Gaza’s power station

Israel stopped supplying industrial fuel supplies to Gaza on January 19

The EU pays Israel around $10m per month for Gaza’s industrial fuel

Around 800,000 people in Gaza City and its surrounding areas are now in darkness

“Disruptions in the continuity of essential services take a heavy toll on people needing emergency care and those suffering from conditions such as cancer, heart disease, and diabetes,” she said.

EU officials said hospitals had already been badly hit in the absence of electricity.
Khaled Radi, a spokesman for the ministry of health in Gaza, said that many of them were only performing emergency surgery.
Al Jazeera’s Jacky Rowland, reporting from the east of the Gaza Strip, said raw sewage was spilling out on to the streets, homes and fields because sewage treatment plants were no longer operating as there was no electricity.
 

Source: Al Jazeera and agencies

‘Collective punishment’, Worldwide anger over Gaza plight

January 22nd, 2008

The criticism of Benita Ferrero Waldner, EU external relations commissioner, was also strong as she accused Israel of carrying out ”collective punishment” of Gaza’s 1.5 million people.

Palestinian crisis
Israel’s blockade of Gaza
 
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The EU commissioner warned that neither the closure of Gaza’s border nor the deadly air raids and incursions of the past week would bring Israel security from rockets fired by Palestinian armed groups.

“Only a credible political agreement this year … can turn Palestinians away from violence,” she said.

Hosni Mubarak, the Egyptian president, phoned Ehud Olmert, the Israeli prime minister, on Monday to stress “the need to stop the Israeli aggression against the Palestinian people”.

He also warned ”of the deteriorating humanitarian situation resulting from the blockade imposed on the [Gaza] Strip by Israel.”

  
The Hamas movement, which took full control of Gaza last June, has called on other nations to put pressure on Egypt to open its Rafah crossing with the territory to let in desperately needed supplies.

“We have one demand and that is the opening of the Rafah crossing and the breaking of the siege,” Ismail Haniya, Hamas leader, said.

Peace talks ‘a mockery’

Syria said Israel’s actions made a mockery of the relaunched peace talks with the Palestinian government led by Mahmoud Abbas, the president.

“Talk of a peace process between Israel and the Palestinians flies in the face of the green light being given to the attacks and blockade,” a foreign ministry statement said.

Protesters took to the streets
in many cities [AFP]

Neighbouring Lebanon called on Western powers to end their silence over Israel’s military action against Gaza which has killed at least 37 people in the past week.

“Israel is profiting from the international silence … to  unleash its rage against the inhabitants of Gaza,” Fuad Siniora, the Lebanese prime minister, said.

People gathered across the occupied Palestinian territories as well as in Amman, the Jordanian capital, and Palestinian refugee camps in Lebanon, to protest against the blockade.

“Oh Arabs, where is your compassion? They are slaughtering our people in Gaza,” chanted hundreds of demonstrators in the Ein al-Helweh camp.


In Amman, about 2,500 people marched from the headquarters of Jordan’s main opposition party, the Islamic Action Front (IAF), to the parliament building in the city centre.

“Bush [US president], Olmert, you are despicable. Our blood is not cheap,” chanted the protesters.

Thousands of university students also protested in Algiers, Algeria’s capital.

 

Source: Al Jazeera and agencies

Gazans Endured a Fourth Day of Blackout

January 22nd, 2008

The impact of the blockade, which has affected hospitals and caused sewage to flood the streets, has sparked international condemnation.

On Monday, the European Union accused Israel of the “collective punishment” of Gaza’s civilian population.

The United Nations had warned that it would be forced to stop distributing food aid to hundreds of thousands of people within days if the lockdown continued.

The UN Security Council is to hold an emergency meeting later on Tuesday to discuss the situation following a request from Arab states.

The Israeli defence minister had ordered the easing of the blockade late on Monday. He gave permission for fuel deliveries for the power station on Tuesday.

“This will be enough for an unspecified period, depending on the needs of the Gaza Strip,” a defence ministry spokesman told AFP.

Medicine and “essential goods of a humanitarian nature” would be trucked in on Wednesday, the spokesman added.

Aryeh Mekel, the foreign ministry spokesman, said the fuel deliveries would total 2.2 million litres, which “should be enough for the power plant to run for a week”.

He said 50 truckloads of humanitarian aid would be allowed in, carrying basic food and medicines. Thirteen of the trucks would contain aid supplied by Jordan.

Wait and see

“We will continue to assess the situation and act according to what’s happening on the ground,” Mekel said, while stressing that supplies could be cut again if Palestinian fighters fired more rockets at Israel from Gaza.

Two rockets were fired at Israel early on Tuesday, without causing casualties, the army said. The number of rockets fired from Gaza has fallen markedly in recent days.

The easing of the blockade was welcomed by Khaled Meshaal, Hamas leader, from his base in exile in Damascus.

Meshaal stressed however that the movement, which took control of Gaza after a week of deadly clashes against rival faction Fatah last June, remained committed to the armed struggle against Israel.






Israel keeps up raids amid blackout

January 21st, 2008

Gaza City has been plunged into darkness after its only power plant was shut down on the third day of a crippling Israeli fuel blockade of the Palestinian territory.
But the blackout did not stop Israel from continuing its military offensive, launching air raids in northern Gaza that killed at least two Palestinians late on Sunday.

 

Sunday’s power plant shutdown has prompted fears of a humanitarian crisis in the Gaza Strip.
Palestinians said the worst affected could be the health sector, with hospitals failing to provide services in the absence of electricity.

 

“At least 800,000 people are now in darkness,” Derar Abu Sissi, general director of the plant, said.

“The catastrophe will affect hospitals, medical clinics, water wells, houses, factories - all aspects of life.”

Arabs urged to help

Following the blackout, Khaled Mashaal, Hamas’s political chief, called on Arab leaders and rival Mahmoud Abbas, the Palestinian president, for help to restore power in Gaza City.

“All Arab leaders, exercise real pressure to stop this Zionist crime … take up your role and responsibility,” he said in an interview with Al Jazeera.

“We are not asking you to wage a military war against Israel … but just stand with us in pride and honour,” he said from Syria where he lives in exile.

Abbas urged Israel to immediately lift the Gaza blockade and resume delivery of fuel supplies.

 

Nabil Abu Rudeina, his spokesman, said Abbas also called for a “special meeting” of foreign ministers of the Arab League to discuss the crisis.

 

This was in addition to a meeting of ambassadors scheduled for Monday in Cairo.

 

“If Israel does not lift the blockade in the next few hours, we are going to raise the issue with the UN Security Council,” Abu Rudeina added.

Israeli response
The Israeli foreign ministry said the diversion of fuel from domestic power generators to other uses was “wholly a Hamas decision”.
“Noteworthy is the fact that while the Gaza population remains in the dark, the fuel generating power to the Hamas rocket manufacturing industry continues to flow unabated,” it said in a statement to Al Jazeera.
In video


Jacky Rowland reports on the impact of the Gaza blockade

Nour Odeh reports on the pressure mounting on the Palestinian president

“The Hamas claim of humanitarian crisis in Gaza is also greatly exaggerated.”

Arye Mekel, an Israeli foreign ministry spokesman, said that the power plant shutdown was unnecessary. “They have an interest in exaggerating,” he said.
Israel says the blockade imposed on Gaza is in response to rockets being fired from the territory.
Mekel said that supplies of petrol used in cars, as well as diesel, had been halted but not fuel oil and cooking gas.

Referring to Hamas, he said: “The ball is in their court. If they stop the rockets today, everything would go back to normal.”

Power outages have become commonplace in the Gaza Strip in recent months after Israel declared the area a “hostile entity” and began restricting fuel supplies.

Ahead of the shutdown, residents bought up batteries and candles, as well as basic foods like rice, flour and cooking oil. Bakeries stopped operating because they did not have power or flour.

UNRWA, the UN organisation supporting Palestinian refugees, warned the shortages would drastically affect hospitals, sewage treatment plants and water facilities.

“The logic of this defies basic humanitarian standards,” Christopher Gunness, UNRWA spokesman, said.

Patients at risk

Palestinians fear the power cut could be
disastrous for the health sector [AFP]

Dr Medhat Abbas, head of the crisis management unit at the health ministry in Gaza, said that electricity from generators would only be available for a few more hours at the Al-Nasser children’s hospital.

“These patients and these children are facing their destiny and they will die soon,” he told Al Jazeera.

“They escaped from their poor houses were they have very cold weather … The families brought them here to be saved in the incubator. Now the incubator and the nursery will be out of electricity.
“What sort of humanitarian law is this?”
He said the blackout would also deprive cancer and intensive care patients of their treatment as well as spoiling blood and vaccines that were being stored.

Al Jazeera’s Jacky Rowland in Gaza said that it was not only power generation that would be affected.

“It also means no fuel for the generators that fuel the water pumps - a lot of the water in Gaza is deep beneath the surface, and it has to be pumped to the surface - so no fuel can also mean no water.”

‘Collective punishment’

The UN has said Israel should not collectively punish Gaza’s population while responding to security threats.

The organisation has criticised Israel’s decision to close border crossings into Gaza, preventing aid deliveries to the 1.5 million people living in the territory, saying on Saturday that the move could provoke a humanitarian crisis.
 
Ban Ki-moon, the UN secretary-general, also urged an immediate end to violence in Gaza and Palestinian sniper and rocket attacks into Israel.
Zeev Boim, an Israeli cabinet minister, said that rather than condemning Israel’s move, the UN should condemn Palestinian rocket attacks.

“I don’t hear the UN’s voice,” he said.
Israeli air raids
Israel has continued to push ahead with its military offensive against Palestinian fighters in both Gaza and the West Bank in recent days.

At least two Palestinians were killed and two
wounded in Israeli air raids on Sunday [AFP]

Late on Sunday, at least two Palestinians were killed and two critically wounded in Israeli air raids in the northern Gaza Strip.

Hamas officials said that the target was a group of fighters who launched makeshift rockets into southern Israel.
The Israeli army confirmed carrying out the two missile strikes.
Around 230 Palestinian rockets and mortars have been fired over the border since Tuesday, according to the Israeli military.
At least 36 Gazans have been killed by Israeli fire in the past week.

The Palestinian-International Campaign to End the Siege on Gaza

November 18th, 2007

November 2007

On 25 October, a Palestinian patient died at Erez crossing while awaiting being allowed to cross to Israeli hospital. A week ago, a woman died in Gaza hospital with her newly born baby, while awaiting permit to be transferred to Israel for medical treatment.

These are not the first victims, and will certainly not be the last should the current situation continue to prevail

Last week, the operations rooms in Gaza’s main hospital were shut down due to the lack of medical gases, which was not allowed by the Israelis. Today Israel does not allow except 12 basic items to enter Gaza, out of over 9,000 commodities. From soap to coffee, from water to soft drinks, from fuel to gas, from computers to spare parts, from cement to raw materials for industry, all and hundred other items are not allowed into Gaza today.

The Israeli cabinet declared Gaza as hostile entity, and has declared its intentions to further intensify the collective punishment by cutting the electricity power and fuel products. Banks in Israel are also threatening to cut off all financial cooperation with Palestinian banks in Gaza.

Given all this, we have adopted the initiative of the Gaza Community Mental Health Programme to launch the Palestinian-International campaign for breaking the siege on Gaza, which has been intensified lately by the strict siege imposed on the Gaza Strip since June 2007.

The aim of this humanitarian, non-partisan campaign is to put pressure on the Israeli government in order to lift the siege imposed on the population of Gaza. By raising the awareness of the international community on the deteriorating living conditions resulting from the siege, we aim at mobilizing the efforts of the various international community organizations and governments to stop the boycott of Gaza. We call for the implementation of the recent European Parliament resolution calling on the Israeli government to end the siege.

It is important to declare that “End the Siege” is a non- partisan campaign, initiated and managed by representatives of the civil society, business community, intellectuals, academics, women activists, and advocates for human rights and peace from the West Bank and Gaza. We are all guided by our commitment to peace and our respect to human dignity.

We believe that it is a moral and ethical duty to rescue the lives of human souls living under bitter circumstances that sabotage their right to exist. People in Gaza are deprived of the simplest requirements for a decent life. We are determined to move hand in hand and shoulder to shoulder with all people who believe in freedom, human dignity and peace.

We need the support of all people who believe in justice all over the world, to contribute to the success of this campaign. We also call upon all Palestinians, whether in Gaza, West Bank, inside the green-line, or anywhere else in the Diaspora to support our efforts and join our activities. It is a genuine call to rescue people not governments or political parties. It is time to put aside any partisan conflicts and unite people in the pursuit of freedom, justice, and peace. We particularly call upon Jews whose history of trauma, discrimination and suffering should guide them to stand up today against the suffering of others.

Planned activities of the campaign:

The campaign is planned to take place from November 2007 until the siege is broken. We will hold a press conference to announce the launching of the campaign.

Media and information technology methods will be our main tools to lobby supporters and contributors from around the world.

The first major event of the campaign will be organizing an international symposium entitled “Breaking the Siege on Gaza: Together for a United Front for Peace” in Gaza.

The campaign will also include inviting friends from around the world for an on-going individual or group visits to Gaza. The visitors will have first hand information on the Palestinian life in order to disseminate such information in their own country. Visitors will be hosted in Palestinian homes in order to closely get acquainted with the Palestinian hardship realities and their living conditions. Media coverage of the activities in Gaza will be documented.

We will rely on our Israeli friends to host and help our friends from abroad who, if not allowed to enter Gaza, are expected to stage non-violent protests.

We will arrange for a peaceful march to Erez checkpoint from both the Israeli and Palestinian sides of the checkpoint. It will include peace activists from all over the world.

Throughout the campaign, solidarity meetings, cultural activities, and discussion will take place not only in Gaza, but in Tel Aviv, Ramallah, and different cities in the world.

The campaign will include a major event in May, which is the arrival of 120 human rights activists including Noble Prize winners to Gaza on a boat coming from Cyprus. This event will be titled “Free Gaza Movement Day” and is planned by the “Free Gaza” solidarity group in USA.

The campaign will have special posters as well as a website where all relevant materials will be published. The site will give opportunity for people to exchange information, ask questions, and have their comments.

Throughout the campaign, close contact with the media will be maintained with regular feeding of information and news update.

The Impacts of the Siege on Gaza:
The Gaza Strip has two main crossings that connect it to the whole world, i.e. Rafah in the south (To Egypt) and Erez in the north (to Israel) . There are three other crossings that are used to exchange goods and bring in food to the Gaza Strip; Today all are closed partially or completely.

Since the winning of Hamas in the Palestinian Legislative Council elections in 2006, the Israeli government, with the support of the US administration, has imposed a siege on all the Palestinian occupied Territories, declared its boycott on the new Palestinian government, and refused to transfer customs revenues to the Palestinian government. After taking these measures, several donor countries including major donors like Europe have severely cut off their development assistance offered to the Palestinian people. The result of that form of collective punishment was a gradual deterioration of life in the Occupied Palestinian Territory (OPT).

Following Hamas military take-over of Gaza strip in June 2007, the siege imposed by Israel was tightened to an unprecedented level. Citing the continuing home-made rockets from inside Gaza, the Israeli government has recently declared Gaza as a hostile entity and threatened to cut electrical power, fuel supply to Gaza and to substantially decrease the number of people allowed in and out; as well as, the amounts of goods and food supplies, and money needed for the daily life of people of Gaza.

The Israeli policy of unlawful collective punishment has always had its serious impact on the lives of the Palestinian civilians. Collective punishment is expressly forbidden under international humanitarian law. According to this principle, persons cannot be punished for offenses that they have not personally committed. In its authoritative commentary on Article 33 of the Fourth Geneva Convention, the International Committee of the Red Cross has clarified that the prohibition on collective punishment does not just refer to criminal penalties, “but penalties of any kind inflicted on persons or entire groups of persons, in defiance of the most elementary principles of humanity, for acts that these persons have not committed.”

The siege that was imposed on the Gaza Strip has created excessive loss and damage in the different aspects of Palestinian life. The Gaza Strip has turned into a huge prison with no access to the outside world.

The health sector has been dramatically affected by the siege. According to the latest Humanitarian Situation Report of the Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA) released on October 9th, 2007, fewer than five patients crossed into Israel/West Bank each day for medical treatment compared to an average of 40 patients per day in July . World Health Organization has indicated, though, that an average of 1000 patients used to leave Gaza for treatment each month prior to the mid-June closures.

As a result of the continuous closures, the United Nations World Food Programme (WFP) has reported significant increases in the costs of some food items. The price of 1 KG of fresh meat has increased form NIS 32 to NIS 40 (20%) while the price of chicken rose from NIS 8 to NIS 12 (33%). According to OCHA’s report of October, 9th, during the month of September, a total of 1,508 truckloads of goods crossed into Gaza. This compares to 2,468 truckloads in the month of August and 3,190 in July. There are no food stocks anymore and that contributes to the rising of prices.

The educational system in Gaza has also been affected by the siege. With the start of the new school year, there has been a serious lack of books and a shortage of the raw materials needed for printing. According to the United Nations Relief and Works Agency (UNRWA), one third of the students started the school year without the needed text books. The closures also deprived thousands of students from reaching their universities outside the Gaza Strip. Thousands of students are not allowed to join their universities in the West Bank or abroad due to the siege.

On the industrial level, preventing the import of raw materials essential for Gaza businesses and industry, and the export of final goods, resulted in the shut down of many manufacturing businesses. According to Paltrade’s assessment on 12 September 2007, over 75,000 private sector employees (around 60% of the total private sector workforce) have been laid off in the latest three months, bearing in mind that private sector employees represent around 36% of the total work force in Gaza. According to the Palestinian Private Sector Coordination Council (PSCC), the current restrictions have led to the suspension of 90% of Gaza’s industrial operations.

The agricultural sector is also at risk. According to OCHA’s report, the export season for Gaza’s cash crops (strawberries, carnation flowers and cherry tomatoes) is expected to begin in mid-November. This year, 2,500 dunums of strawberries have been planted with an expected production of approximately 6,250 tons of strawberries including 2,500 destined for European markets. 490 tons of cherry tomatoes are also expected to be produced. If exports are not allowed by this time, farmers will be exposed to tremendous losses in terms of production cost and potential sales.

According to the World Bank, 67% of the Gaza population live under poverty line which is estimated by World bank to be $2.per day. Since human beings are the products of the environment in which they live, the Palestinian environment today is a combination of deprivation, poverty, anger, feelings of powerlessness and despair. Such feelings will inevitably lead to simmering anger which will eventually brew into more violence and defiance.

Palestinians have gone through repeated traumas of death and destruction of home and life over the past few decades. The current siege provokes the previous traumas making people re-experience the negative feelings that they have previously encountered and passed through.

It is only to be expected that in such an environment extremist ideologies will flourish. This will impact on the Palestinian society internally as well as the political environment in the whole region, destroying the possibilities of peace and security.

Putting all in a nutshell, with this immoral siege, Gaza is meant to be the city of death where everything is destroyed. It is our duty to rescue life.