Situation in Gaza Still Catastrophic, Says UN Official John Ging

UN: Situation in Gaza still catastrophic

[ 02/12/2010 - 12:23 PM ]

NEW YORK, (PIC)--

The UN has underlined that the situation in Gaza Strip was still catastrophic and that one and a half million people including 800,000 children were living as captives in the Strip due to the siege imposed on it.

John Ging, the UNRWA director of operations, said in a press statement in New York on Wednesday that 80% of Gaza population depends on relief assistance while 70% of the population before the siege used to depend on themselves.

"There is no economy, anyone wishing to make something does not find the necessary (raw) material to do so," he added.

Ging said the Strip urgently needs 100 new schools, but restrictions by Israel dictated the building of only six schools.

Thousands of houses are still destroyed while they were previously crammed with inhabitants prior to the devastating Israeli air raids in the last war on Gaza, the UNRWA official said, adding that 90% of Gaza water is not suitable for human consumption.

Ging asked senior world decision makers to visit Gaza to get acquainted with the disastrous conditions there as a result of the four-year-old Israeli siege.

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