Saturday, November 15, 2008

Israel punishes Gaza with UN food aid ban

RINF.COM, Nov 13, 2008

CRUEL: A UN aid agency said on Tuesday that it will have to halt food aid distribution to 750,000 Gazans by Friday if Israel keeps the territory sealed.

ISRAEL barred UN humanitarian aid shipments from entering the Gaza Strip on Thursday, in its latest act of collective punishment for Hamas rocket attacks.

Israel had planned to let in 30 trucks of food aid to replenish empty warehouses. It had also agreed to let in fuel to power Gaza’s only electrical plant, which was facing shutdown and a power blackout.

But Israeli army officials closed all border crossings into the besieged Palestinian territory after militants had fired five rockets and two mortars into southern Israel.

John Ging, who heads Gaza operations for the United Nations relief and works agency said that, without the shipments, the UN will be forced to suspend food aid to 750,000 impoverished Gazans from Saturday.

A UN flour warehouse in Gaza, that was full early last week, stood empty, while another warehouse held just a few crates of luncheon meat.

“We’ve been working here from hand to mouth for quite a long time, so these interruptions on the crossing points affect us immediately,” Mr Ging said.

“International law requires that civilian populations have access to the goods and services that they need to survive.”

Electrical plant officials said that they expected to run out of fuel yesterday evening, causing widespread blackouts throughout the territory of 1.4 million people.

Israeli jet fighters flew at supersonic speed low over Gaza on Thursday, setting off sonic booms - a well-practised form of harassment against the population.

Israel also continued to block diplomats and journalists from entering the territory, including a group of some 20 European officials. The Israeli military said that crossings were closed to all but humanitarian operations.

Israel agreed to allow some shipments into Gaza in June, following an Egyptian-brokered ceasefire by Palestine’s elected-Hamas government.

The agreement will expire in December, although both sides claim that they want it to continue.

The truce began eroding last week when Israeli forces invaded Gaza to try to destroy a smuggling tunnel. Eleven Palestinians have been killed in more than a week of fighting, with more than 130 rockets and mortars fired from Gaza at Israel.

Hamas spokesman Fawzi Barhoum said: “The rockets are a natural response to Israel’s aggression.”

Continued . . .


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