UNRWA halts its operations in Gaza in protest to Israeli terrorist attacks on its convoys

Thursday January 08, 2009 20:02 by Gaza office - IMEMC News

The United Nations Relief and Works Agency UNRWA announced on Thursday evening that the agency will halt all of its operations in Gaza.

UNRWA, which is the only agency left that manages aid to the attacked Gaza Strip, said in a press statement that the decision to halt the work comes as a protest to the Israeli terrorist attacks on the agency staff and institutions.

Adnan Abu Hassnah, the spokesman of UNRWA in Gaza, said in the statement that the agency trucks convoy was attacked today by the Israeli terrorist army, he added that one UNRWA staff member was killed and one injured, the convey was bring in aid supplies into Gaza from the Israeli-Gaza borders, the army was informed of the convey and gave the permission, Abu Hassnah said.

On Tuesday January 3, 2009, the Israeli terrorist troops launched an attack on a school run by the United Nations Relief and Works Agency UNRWA in the northern Gaza town of Jabaliya. The attack left 43 Palestinians dead and around 100 wounded. Doctors said all the dead were either people seeking shelter in the school or residents of the nearby Jabaliya refugee camp.

With the halt of the UNRWA aid work the 1.5 million Palestinians living in the Gaza Strip will be left with no sources of food or any other aid supply, local sources reported.

Doctors working in Gaza’s hospitals say they’ve been swamped by casualties but lack essential drugs, medicines, medical equipment, and spare parts. Several paramedics have also been killed after coming under tank and artillery fire.

A number of clinics have been forced to close because of clashes nearby, said Oxfam Great Britain’s Country Director in Jerusalem, John Prideaux-Brune. Additionally, hospitals are struggling to function because of round-the-clock power cuts. Fuel for back-up generators is now dangerously low. Scores of patients in intensive care face certain death if those generators stop.

On Tuesday, generators at Ministry of Health ambulance stations, vaccine stores, labs and warehouses shut down temporarily after running out of fuel, he said. The UN has managed to deliver food to some hospitals and southern areas in the past few days but has had to cancel distributions elsewhere. Similarly, a small amount of fuel has been trucked into the Strip recently but clashes have prevented distribution to most of those who need it.

The death toll in Gaza by Thursday evening stands at 765; half of them are children and women, in addition to 3,200 injured, among them 500 in critical condition. The Israeli terrorist army embarked on its military offensive on Saturday December 27, 2008. Israeli warplanes started by shelling all the Palestinian security posts there. In the following days the shelling was expanded.

Hospitals, homes, blacksmith workshops, schools, and mosques where targeted. Day and night all the Palestinian coastal region was under attack. On Saturday January 3, 2009 Israeli ground forces entered the Gaza strip and divided it into two sections.

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