UN calls on Israel to allow supplying Gaza with fuel, aid

[ 15/11/2008 - 10:25 AM ]

NEW YORK, (PIC)--

The UN Secretary General Ban Ki-Moon has called on the Israeli occupation government to allow supplying the Gaza Strip with fuel and humanitarian aid especially after the electricity blackout and the closure of many bakeries.

The UN top official refused the IOA policy of "collective punishment" against the besieged Gaza Strip, asking the IOA to immediately allow the entry of badly needed supplies into the Strip.

In a statement issued in New York last night Ban Ki-Moon expressed concern at the worsening humanitarian conditions in the Gaza Strip and in the Negev, urging all parties to respect the international laws.

He also asked the Israeli officials to resume facilitating UNRWA and other humanitarian agencies' work and allowing freedom of movement for international employees.

UNRWA was forced to halt its distribution of food assistance to almost half the population of Gaza because its stores ran out of stock due to the closure of crossings.

Meanwhile, the Yemeni president, Ali Abdullah Saleh, called on the UN and its secretary general to immediately intervene to unblock the siege on Gaza and to end the suffering of the Strip's populace.

The UN should apply its charter and use force to break the siege instead of just appealing to all parties concerned to end the siege, he added.

"It is a shame on the world to watch idly the suffering of the Palestinian people in the Gaza Strip," Saleh said, describing the situation in Gaza as "tragic".

UNRWA: Gaza Strip ran out of food supplies amidst catastrophic human condition

[ 14/11/2008 - 05:18 PM ]

GAZA, (PIC)--

The UNRWA, the UN agency that caters for Palestinian refugees, has announced Thursday that food supplies and basic needs in Gaza Strip had ran out due to the Israeli rejection to allow the agency trucks into the populated Strip.

John Ging, the operations manager of the UNRWA in the Strip said in a press statement that the agency won't be able to bring food supplies into Gaza Strip as a result of the Israeli refusal to open the border-crossings with Gaza, describing the situation there as "catastrophic".

He added that UNRWA ran out of supplies on Thursday evening and will not be able to distribute more unless the crossings are opened and food aid is allowed in. The Israeli occupation authorities had earlier promised to allow the agency bring around 30 trucks of food and basic needs into the Strip to enable the agency attend to the needs of the 750,000 Palestinian refugees it serves in the Strip alone, but it reneged on those promises and furthermore banned the entry of the EU-financed fuel supplies to the Strip's main electricity plant.

The plant produces only one-third of the needs of the Strip's 1.5 million people of energy.

For her part, UNRWA Commissioner Karin Abu Zaid, in a press statement in Brussels, expressed concern at the Israeli tightening the criteria of materials allowed in as humanitarian aid to the Palestinians. She explained that a number of goods, including school materials among other important goods won't be allowed into the Strip in future shipments.

The Gaza-based popular committee against the siege had announced Thursday that the Gaza electricity plant would stop operating starting 6:30 p.m. local time due shortage in the fuel needed to run the plant's generators.

According to officials in the committee, the suspension of the plant would affect hospitals and health centers where hundreds of Palestinian patients were lying in, in addition to derailing basic services. Many bakeries in the Strip had stopped operation due to the sharp shortage of gas.

EU commissioner calls on Israeli occupation to reopen Gaza crossings

[ 14/11/2008 - 07:31 PM ]

BRUSSELS, (PIC) --

The European Union (EU) commissioner for External Relations and European Neighborhood Policy, Bentita Ferrero-Waldner, expressed profound concern about the continued closure of Gaza's border-crossings calling on the Israeli occupation to reopen them and allow fuel and essential goods into Gaza.

"I am profoundly concerned about the consequences for the Gazan population of the complete closure of all Gaza crossings for deliveries of fuel and basic humanitarian assistance," Ferrero-Waldner said in a statement on Friday.

"I call on Israel to re-open the crossings for humanitarian and commercial flows, in particular food and medicines. Facilitation of fuel deliveries for the Gaza Power Plant should be resumed immediately," the commissioner said.

The commissioner also reminded the Israeli occupation of its obligations under international law to the population of the Gaza Strip; "International law requires the provision of access to essential services such as electricity and clean water to the civilian population."

She also expressed concern over the recent infringements of the truce; "Recent infringements of the calm agreed in June must not lead to a renewed cycle of violence. I call on all parties to exercise restraint."