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| Israel-Palestine-Jordan |
| Israel blocks Gaza aid, UN suspends food delivery |
| 2008-11-14 |
| Israel blocked humanitarian supplies from entering the Hamas-controlled Gaza Strip and the United Nations said it would be forced to suspend food distribution on Thursday. In addition to preventing aid agencies from delivering food to 1.5 million Gaza residents, Israel held up shipments of European Union-funded fuel to the territory's sole power plant. Palestinian officials said the plant would be shut down later in the day. "They have told us the crossings are closed today. At the end of today we will suspend our food distribution," said UN Relief and Works Agency spokesman Chris Gunness. "Our warehouses are effectively empty," he told AFP. " The International Committee for the Red Cross (ICRC) said a truck it sent to the Kerem Shalom crossing was turned back. Israel usually allows some humanitarian supplies into Gaza, but even this has stopped over the past week, leading to harsh criticism from aid agencies and human rights organizations. "Pushing people to the brink of desperation every few months and forcing UNRWA into yet another cycle of crisis management is not in the interest of anyone who believes in peace, moderation and stability," said Gunness. Rocketry is, of course... "The imposition of the blockade on Gaza by Israel with the cooperation of Egypt is a clear violation of international law and constitutes collective punishment," Joe Stork, deputy director of Human Right Watch's Middle East division, told AlArabiya.net. "The Israelis have been careful calibrating what they let in so there is no death by starvation," though he added that Gazans do not have a healthy diet or get enough to eat. ICRC mission chief Katharina Ritz said that "every day the situation is getting more and more precarious for Gazans," adding that there was a desperate need for medical supplies. Israel held up shipments of fuel to the only power plant in Gaza Israel had initially said it would allow the delivery of fuel and some 30 truckloads of food and other humanitarian supplies into the enclave, where a flare-up in cross-border fighting threatens a 5-month-old truce. Several rockets were fired at southern Israel earlier on Thursday, causing no casualties, the Israeli army said, a day after soldiers killed four Hamas forces during a raid into the Gaza Strip. UNRWA usually distributes emergency food rations to about 750,000 people in the impoverished, overcrowded sliver of land whose economy has been crippled by a tight blockade Israel says is aimed at forcing militants to stop firing rockets and mortar rounds at the Jewish state. The Israeli military confirmed the closure of Gaza continued on Thursday. "The crossings will remain closed today for security reasons," defense ministry spokesman Peter Lerner said. Reopening the crossings "has been delayed because of the mortar shelling that impedes the proper functioning of the crossing points," he said. Gunness said Israeli officials were non-committal about allowing in supplies on Friday. The crossings are generally closed mid-day Friday through Sunday. |
| Posted by:Fred |
| #5 Rocketry is, of course... Bizarro world, of course, just as when the soviets pushed armed revolutions all over the world in the name of "peace", and all the useless idiots would fall for it, and have demonstrations to support "peace". |
| Posted by: anonymous5089 2008-11-14 07:50 |
| #4 Worth mentioning here once again, a look at the gaza strip, when it was under israeli administration : How the Palestinians Ruined Gaza In the economic sphere, most of this . . . was the result of access to the . . . Israeli economy: the number of Palestinians working in Israel rose from zero in 1967 to 66,000 in 1975 and 109,000 by 1986, accounting for 35 percent of the employed population of the West Bank and 45 percent in Gaza. Close to 2,000 industrial plants, employing almost half of the work force, were established in the territories under Israeli rule. During the 1970's, the West Bank and Gaza constituted the fourth fastest-growing economy in the world—ahead of such "wonders"as Singapore, Hong Kong, and Korea, and substantially ahead of Israel itself. . . . GNP per capita grew somewhat more slowly, [but] expand[ed] tenfold between 1968 and 1991 from $165 to $1,715. . . . By 1999, Palestinian per-capita income was nearly double Syria's, more than four times Yemen's, and 10 percent higher than Jordan's. . . . Only the oil-rich Gulf states and Lebanon were more affluent. Anyway, does anybody else here find very, very tiring that the paleos should feel entitled to live on welfare, mostly from the West's good will, whereas they not only are anti-israeli, but also plainly anti-westerners, claiming to be involved ina greater Jihad™, including the return of al andalous, the conquest of Europe, the conquest of the white house (ok, that one is partly done already),...? |
| Posted by: anonymous5089 2008-11-14 07:48 |
| #3 How many UN trucks lieutenant Goldstein? Thirty trucks sir. Ok, stop them all. Send them back. Stronger message to follow. |
| Posted by: Besoeker 2008-11-14 07:42 |
| #2 If the situation is so impossible, perhaps those Gazans not involved in amateur rocketry and similar pursuits ought to consider joining their cousins who long since moved to somewhere more congenial. |
| Posted by: trailing wife 2008-11-14 05:10 |
| #1 "The imposition of the blockade on Gaza by Israel with the cooperation of Egypt is a clear violation of international law and constitutes collective punishment," Joe Stork, deputy director of Human Right Watch's Middle East division, told AlArabiya.net. Wanna move to live in Shderot Joe? |
| Posted by: g(r)omgoru 2008-11-14 01:09 |