European campaign condemns IOF troops' practices at Gaza borders

[ 23/03/2009 - 08:42 AM ]

BRUSSELS, (PIC)--

The European campaign to lift the siege on Gaza on Sunday strongly denounced the practices of Israeli occupation forces at the Gaza commercial crossings which are intended for humiliating the Palestinian citizens through expectorating in food transported into the Gaza Strip.

Israel's TV channel 10 revealed Friday that IOF troops confessed to spitting in food at the Karam Abu Salem crossing before it was allowed into Gaza.

In a press statement received by the PIC, the European campaign said that such behavior reflects the criminal mentality of the Israeli occupation and its use of all ways to humiliate the besieged Gaza people after it failed to make them yield through blockade and military operations.

The Brussels-based campaign underlined that the ongoing Israeli siege and the intermittent opening of crossings for allowing small amounts of humanitarian aid into war-torn Gaza make the international community obliged to end the unjust blockade on Gaza.

The campaign noted that the massive destruction caused by Israel's war is still as it is and the Israeli occupation authority is still insistent not to allow in international reconstruction aid.

The campaign stressed that such Israeli practices are a flagrant violation of international law, considering the international community's silence towards attempts to blackmail the Palestinians through starvation and blockade as a shame on humanity.

It called on the European parliamentary delegations that witnessed the suffering of Gaza people on the ground, to swiftly intervene to urge the EU to take a clear and decisive stance on the lifting of the siege on Gaza and not to link this humanitarian issue to any political issues.

In another context, Dr. Mohamed Oglu, the general coordinator of doctors worldwide society, said that the society makes considerable efforts to extend a helping hand to the Gaza people in the aftermath of the Israeli war which inflicted heavy casualties and destroyed wide infrastructure.

In an exclusive statement to the PIC, Oglu explained that the society sent in the first batch two truckloads of medicines and medical equipment in the framework of the Turkish logistic support for Gaza health institutions crippled by successive Israeli attacks.

The society's coordinator also pointed out that the society in cooperation with other Turkish organizations sent over the past few months other batches of medical supplies and 12 ambulances to Gaza.

He added that the society delegated a medical team composed of nine doctors to perform surgical operations in Gaza hospitals and intends to send another team to check the health and humanitarian situation there and to train and qualify Palestinian doctors in addition to establishing special medical centers.