By Meredith Lee-Clark
Impunity Watch Reporter, Middle East
GAZA CITY, Gaza – The United Nations released a report on February 17 saying that Israel has tightened its blockade on the Gaza Strip, and reiterated its call for Israel to immediately open the territory to allow much-needed humanitarian supplies into Gaza. The U.N. document was the latest in a string of calls from humanitarian groups both in and outside of Gaza, claiming that conditions in the Gaza Strip are worsening as the cost of shipping supplies into Gaza has skyrocketed.
Israel began its blockade on Gaza three years ago, after the Islamist party Hamas was voted into office in the Gaza legislature, ousting Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas’ Fatah Party. Israel has refused to recognize the Hamas government or any official contact with the government in Gaza. The blockade became noticeably tighter after the Israeli military’s Operation Cast Lead during the winter of 2008-2009. Since the end of open hostilities in January 2009, Israel has allowed minimal shipments into Gaza for food, medicines, and other basic necessities.
But critics have claimed that the trickle of supplies is insufficient to meet the needs of those living in Gaza. Operation Cast Lead destroyed or damaged fifteen of Gaza’s twenty-seven hospitals, as well as forty-three of Gaza’s one hundred-ten health-care facilities. The offensive flattened much of the Gaza infrastructure, and Gazans have been unable to get construction supplies through the blockade. The blockade also extends out to sea, as Gazan fishermen have been limited to only a few square miles of their once-expansive fishing grounds, leaving that portion of the Mediterranean Sea almost completely empty of fish.
Additionally, the Gaza Energy Authority, the sole energy supplier in Gaza, announced on February 13 that it was unable to get ample fuel through the blockade and was uncertain whether it would be able to continue supplying energy for more than the next twenty-four hours. As it released its statement, it had already shut down a generator and its output was at fifty percent.
Gazan health organizations also reported that 386 Gazans have died as a result of the blockade so far. The assembly of health unions in Gaza told journalists on February 18 that several Palestinian children have died of suffocation because of malfunctioning power generators.
For more information, please see:
Al-Jazeerah – Health Unions Warn of Israeli Blockade Impacts on Lives of Gaza Patients – 18 February 2010
Zee News – Israel Blocks Gaza Strip Further: United Nations – 18 February 2010
UN News Centre – Israel Tightens Vice on Gaza Strip, UN Reports – 17 February 2010
Digital Journal – Gaza Pleads for an End to the Israeli Blockade of Fuel Supplies – 13 February 2010
