Article

2009-02-09 Israel-Palestine-Jordan

UNRWA suspends aid to Gaza after Hamas again seizes supplies

Archived material is restricted to Rantburg regulars and members. If you need access email fred.pruitt=at=gmail.com with your nick to be added to the members list. There is no charge to join Rantburg as a member.

Posted by Fred 2009-02-09 00:00|| || Front Page|| [1 views ] Top
File under: Hamas

#1 Aww, now what's got the UN's panties in a knot? I'm sure Hamas is just going to do the distribution work for them after all.

Posted by gorb 2009-02-09 02:05|| 2009-02-09 02:05|| Front Page Top

#2 But, but, but, but won't this cause a humanitarian crisis?

Posted by g(r)omgoru 2009-02-09 11:21|| 2009-02-09 11:21|| Front Page Top

#3 You know you're seriously messed up when even the UN won't help.

Posted by Ebbang Uluque6305 2009-02-09 11:54|| 2009-02-09 11:54|| Front Page Top

#4 I think Israel has a squadron of C-130 aircraft. Offer to supply Gaza by air. Just fly over and dump the stuff out. So what if it's still on the pallets - that'll just make the landing "softer".

Posted by Old Patriot">Old Patriot 2009-02-09 12:55|| http://oldpatriot.blogspot.com/]">[http://oldpatriot.blogspot.com/] 2009-02-09 12:55|| Front Page Top

#5 Looks like all is forgiven...

The United Nations Relief and Works Agency, UNRWA, has announced that it will resume its operations in the Gaza Strip. The announcement follows the return of aid supplies seized by Hamas militants last week. On 3 and 5 February, Hamas militants seized several hundred tonnes of food supplies and 3,500 blankets at gunpoint. Hamas says the supplies were taken 'by mistake'. UNRWA distributes food to 900,000 of the Gaza Strip's 1.5 million residents.

Yep, Ye Olde Mistaken Hyjacking at Gunpoint.

But now, let's get back to blaming the Jooos...

UN officials on Monday implored Israel anew to allow urgently needed aid supplies, including plastic bags and human rights textbooks, to enter the Gaza Strip.

Mmmmmmmmmm... a heaping helping of human rights textbooks.

"It is absolutely crucial that Israel allow the crossings to be opened and also expand the list of items that go in," Radhika Coomaraswamy, the UN special representative for children and armed conflict, told reporters following her recent, four-day visit to Gaza, the West Bank and southern Israel. "At the moment less than 200 (aid) trucks are going through (the crossing points into Gaza)," she said. "We need at least 400 just for the humanitarian needs and over 1,000 once reconstruction begins. "

Meanwhile, UN spokeswoman Michele Montas told a press briefing that food distribution to 900,000 Palestinians by the UN Relief and Works Agency (UNRWA) "continues to be jeopardized by Israel's refusal to let materials for plastic bags into Gaza."

"We run out of plastic bags to distribute the food," John Ging, the UNRWA director of operations in Gaza, said in a video link from the impoverished Palestinian enclave. He said UNRWA was now forced to get the plastic from the local market, a process which he described as "unreliable" and "very expensive."

"But we have to somehow keep going until sense prevails and they (the Israelis) allow to bring in the plastic pallets to make the plastic bags, with 900,000 people queueing up for food at UNRWA," Ging added.

The UNRWA official expressed exasperation over this closure policy, which he noted was also "obstructing the teaching of human rights" in UNRWA schools.

Yes, and you've done such a great job at that too...

Ging said that since Gaza students returned to school on January 24 in the wake of the 22-day Israeli military onslaught on Gaza, "we have as yet been unable to get in the paper we need to print the human rights textbooks and the other textbooks."

Oh, I'd just love to see one of those textbooks...

"These are practical consequences of these flawed, failing and failed policies and they have to be changed urgently," he fumed.

Oooooh, he's "fuming". Must be those UN beans...

"We continue to appeal for common sense to prevail and for priority to be given to the needs, first and foremost, of the children and then the rest of the population."

Yep, as always, it's "for the children"...

Posted by tu3031 2009-02-09 16:40|| 2009-02-09 16:40|| Front Page Top

#6 Can't plastic bags be recycled and used again?

Posted by Rambler in Virginia">Rambler in Virginia 2009-02-09 17:24|| 2009-02-09 17:24|| Front Page Top

23:56 JosephMendiola
23:53 Grolush Darling of the Hatfields3195
23:51 Verlaine
23:51 JosephMendiola
23:48 Thing From Snowy Mountain
23:46 CrazyFool
23:38 JosephMendiola
23:29 JosephMendiola
23:02 ex-lib
22:54 Ricky bin Ricardo (Abu Babaloo)
22:53 OldSpook
22:48 Ricky bin Ricardo (Abu Babaloo)
22:30 OldSpook
22:26 Alaska Paul
22:04 trailing wife
22:01 g(r)omgoru
21:59 trailing wife
21:59 g(r)omgoru
21:51 trailing wife
21:45 trailing wife
21:39 trailing wife
21:39 g(r)omgoru
21:37 g(r)omgoru
21:19 JosephMendiola