Red Cross: Situation in Gaza worsening

[ 13/02/2008 - 05:03 PM ]

GAZA, (PIC)--

The director of the Red Cross office in Gaza on Wednesday warned that the situation in the Gaza Strip was worsening as a result of long hours of power outage, reduction in fuel supplies and shortage of basic materials.

He said that the ICRC was facing great difficulty in sending medicine and relief material into the besieged Strip.

The infrastructure in the Strip is greatly damaged, he said and doubted the possibility of revitalizing it. The Red Cross official said that the only solution is building it anew.

MP Jamal Al-Khudari, who received the Red Cross director in his office, said that the international institutions should exert more efforts to help the Gaza population.

Khudari, who is also heading the popular anti siege committee, said that those institutions should work on pressuring the Zionist occupation to end the siege on Gaza and to expose the Zionist practices against the Palestine populace.

The siege is a kind of mass punishment and in violation of international law, norms and agreements, the lawmaker asserted, adding that the world should pressure for lifting that siege.

Khudari explained to the Red Cross delegation the "destructive impacts" of the siege on all aspects of life in Gaza.

Meanwhile, a higher coordination committee was declared in Gaza city on Wednesday grouping government and non-government organizations to discuss means of lifting the "oppressive siege" on Gaza, a statement issued after the meeting in the council of ministers said.

It added that the committee would soon lay out a plan of action in a bid to revive the question of the siege and to win Arab and international support against that siege.

The committee is to organize a series of activities in harmony with Arab and international ones to break "the unjust siege, which heralds a human and health disaster", the statement underlined.

Fair Use Notice

This site contains copyrighted material the use of which has not always been specifically authorized by the copyright owner. We are making such material available in our efforts to advance understanding of environmental, political, human rights, economic, democracy, scientific, and social justice issues, etc. We believe this constitutes a 'fair use' of any such copyrighted material as provided for in section 107 of the US Copyright Law. In accordance with Title 17 U.S.C. Section 107, the material on this site is distributed without profit to those who have expressed a prior interest in receiving the included information for research and educational purposes. For more information go to: http://www.law.cornell.edu/uscode/17/107.shtml. If you wish to use copyrighted material from this site for purposes of your own that go beyond 'fair use', you must obtain permission from the copyright owner.