Gaza demonstrators carry empty coffins in protest against the Israeli siege

Date: 08 / 01 / 2008 Time: 16:44

Gaza – Ma'an –

On the eve of the US President George W. Bush's visit to the Palestinian territories, hundreds of residents of the Gaza Strip rallied in Gaza City in protest against the crippling Israeli siege on the coastal area.

The demonstrators carried 62 empty coffins, bearing the names of victims who have died since the siege began in June, after they were denied permission to leave the Gaza Strip for medical treatment.

They chanted slogans, demanding the US president and the world rally to bring an end to the ever-increasing humanitarian disaster afflicting the impoverished coastal enclave.

"We ask President Bush and the world to pay attention to the suffering of medical patients in the Gaza Strip. We want to get medical treatment and to live like the other children of the world in peace and freedom," one young girl said.

The rally started at Al-Wihda Street in Gaza City, before heading to the Egyptian embassy and the headquarters of the World Health Organization, and on to the French centre and to the offices of UNESCO.

Chief of the Union of Palestinian Intellectuals, Marwan Abu Ras, handed two letters to Majdi Shaqura, the Charge d'Affairs of the French consul in the Gaza Strip, and another to the director of the UNESCO office in the Gaza Strip.

He also appealed to Egypt and Jordan to host patients from Gaza Strip in their hospitals.

Khudari calls on EU officials to pressure Israel to supply Gaza with fuel

[ 08/01/2008 - 09:06 AM ]

GAZA, (PIC)--

MP Jamal Al-Khudari, the head of the popular committee against the siege, called on European officials to pressure the Israeli occupation to re-provide the Gaza power station with the necessary fuel supplies to operate the generators properly after the fuel allocations to the Gaza Strip was sharply slashed.

Khudari sent letters to a number of European officials, namely, Louis Michel, the EU development commissioner, Jacques Barot, the deputy head of the European Commission, and finally Louise Arbour, the UN high commissioner for human rights, in which he explained the difficult conditions the Gaza people are experiencing in light of the frequent power outages in the Strip.

The lawmaker pointed out in his letters that since Israel decided to start reducing the fuel allocations, the Gaza power station had been covering the shortage from its fuel reserves, but they have depleted leading to a tangible catastrophe in all aspects of life in Gaza.

The lawmaker added that the Gaza need of electricity was 240 megawatts, but the power capacity produced by the station now does not exceed 45 megawatts, pointing out that Egypt supplies the Strip with 17 megawatts.

He underlined that that the increasing power outages disrupted the work of hospitals and medical centers in general in addition to the work of power generators that provide drinking water to homes and pump sewage away from residential areas.

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