Editorial Note: The following news reports are summaries from original sources. They may also include corrections of Arabic names and political terminology. Comments are in parentheses.

 
Gaza in Darkness, Cold Because of Israeli Blockade, Palestinian Women and Children Demonstrate Against Zionist Savagery, UN Security Council Discusses Deteriorating Situation

Emergency meeting of UN Security Council to discuss deteriorating situation in Gaza

Date: 22 / 01 / 2008  Time:  10:56

Gaza – Ma'an –

The UN Security Council is to hold an emergency meeting on Tuesday to discuss the deteriorating situation in the Gaza Strip.

The Permanent Observer of Palestine to the United Nations, Riyad Mansour, said that the Arab League had called for the urgent meeting.

"We want Israel to immediately cease its attacks on our people especially in the Gaza Strip and reopen the border to transfer food and fuel for more than a million and a half million people living in Gaza," he said.

He added that the Palestinian Authority is sending weekly letters to the Security Council and General Assembly of the United Nations, urging them to lift the siege on Gaza.

The UN has warned that food aid to around 860,000 people in the impoverished Gaza Strip could be halted within days because of the blockade.

After months of increasingly harsh sanctions, Israel imposed a total closure on the Strip's border crossings, even preventing the delivery of humanitarian aid. The Israeli government says the closure is punishment for an ongoing barrage of Palestinian homemade projectiles fired from the Gaza Strip.

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

Both the Palestinian Authority and the Palestine Liberation Organization reject any kind of military operation against Israel and are calling for the continuation of peace negotiations, Mansour added.

The Gaza Strip's only power plant shut down on Sunday due to a shortage of fuel. Most of the Strip's 1.5 million citizens have been without electricity for more than 36 hours.

Supplies of food are running out, and the water and sewage systems are on the brink of collapse.

Meanwhile, Israel permitted four lorry-loads of fuel for Gaza's power plant, as well as cooking oil to be transported into the Gaza Strip on Tuesday morning, through the Nahel 'Oz crossing.

It is the first shipment since Israel stepped up its embargo on the coastal strip on Friday. Israel imposed a lockdown on the Strip in response to a barrage of Palestinian homemade projectiles that continue to be fired into Israeli towns bordering the Gaza Strip. All movement in and out of the Strip, including shipments of food, fuel, and medicine, had been stopped.

It is not clear how much this will alleviate the humanitarian disaster that is looming in the Strip.

As yet no gasoline supplies have been allowed to enter, in accordance with the directive from Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert, who said people in the sector should walk instead of using their cars.

This has caused further outrage among Gazan citizens. The vice president of the Federation of fuel stations in Gaza, Mahmoud Al-Khaznadar, said that failure to allow gasoline constitutes "a manipulation of international law."

Palestinians begin sit-in at Rafah crossing calling for end to Israeli-imposed blockade

Date: 21 / 01 / 2008  Time:  14:30

Gaza – Ma'an –

Crowds of Palestinians joined lawmakers, clerics, scholars and even medical patients in ambulances to being an open-ended sit-in at the Rafah border crossing between the Gaza Strip and Egypt on Monday, calling for the border to be opened.

Hamas lawmaker Yahya Mousa appealed to Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak and other Arab leaders to intervene immediately help lift the embargo on the Gaza Strip has resulted in the deaths of more than 70 patients since June.

Egypt sent 300 riot police to the Rafah border, fearing that Palestinians would force their way to the Egyptian side.

After months of sanctions, Israel imposed a total closure on the Gaza Strip's border crossings since Friday. Apparently under pressure from Israel, Egypt has also kept the Rafah crossing closed since June. With Monday's demonstration, the Hamas leadership in the Gaza Strip is seeking to put pressure on Egypt and the Arab world generally to aid Palestinians in the Gaza Strip.

More than half the Gaza Strip's 1.5 million residents went without electricity on Sunday night after the Gaza Strip's power plant ran out of fuel.

Hamas lawmaker Salah Bardawil said that the Palestinian people have the right to lift the siege "by any means." He also called upon the Egyptian authorities to open the Rafah crossing.

Bardawil said that the sit-in will continue until the crossing is opened and the siege is over.

Furthermore, Bardawil called on the Arab donor countries to offer direct financial assistance to the Gaza Strip, without transferring it through the West Bank-based Palestinian Authority because, "that government deprives thousands of Gaza Strip families of that aid."

Some Palestinian leaders called on Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas to withdraw from peace negotiations with the government of Israel until the sanctions have been lifted.

"We ask the Palestinian Authority to halt negotiations, and demand that
[Israel] lift the embargo on Gaza as a condition of returning to negotiations," Palestinian lawmaker Mustafa Barghouti told reporters in the West Bank city of Ramallah.

Israel blocking postal deliveries in 'second stage' of blockade

Date: 21 / 01 / 2008  Time:  14:06

Bethlehem – Ma'an –

Israeli occupation government defense minister Ehud Barak orders on Monday to tighten the siege on the Gaza Strip in a "second stage" of sanctions.

The Israeli newspaper of Ma'ariv said that the first stage began on Friday when Barak ordered closure of all of Gaza's border crossings and prevention of fuel supplies. The second stage, the second stage includes forbidding entry of electronics such as cell phones, laptop computers, and MP3 players.

Ma'ariv reported that an international postal agreement signed by Israel and the Palestinian Authority allowed the transfer of electronics through the mail into the Gaza Strip. Israeli authorities believe that groups like Hamas and Islamic Jihad use these devices in their fight against the Israeli military.

Israeli authorities are also blocking postal deliveries of any package weighing more than 20 kilograms.

 

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