Newsgroup: it.politica.internazionale
Titolo: On Top of Humanitarian Disaster, A News Blackout

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MIDEAST:  On Top of Humanitarian Disaster, A News Blackout
By Cherrie Heywood
Credit:Cherrie Heywood
RAMALLAH, West Bank, Nov 18 (IPS) - Israel has imposed a virtual news 
blackout on the Gaza Strip. For the last ten days no foreign journalists 
have been able to enter the besieged territory to report on the 
escalating humanitarian crisis caused by Israel's complete closure of 
Gaza's borders for the last two weeks.
Steve Gutkin, the AP bureau chief in Jerusalem and head of Israel's 
Foreign Press Association, said that he personally "knows of no foreign 
journalist that has been allowed into Gaza in the last week."
Gutkin said that "while Israel has barred foreign press from entering 
Gaza in the past, the length of the current ban makes it unprecedented." 
He added that he has received no "plausible or acceptable" explanation 
for the ban from the Israeli government.
AP has relied on reports from two of its journalists who were able to 
enter Gaza days before the closure began and are currently stuck there.
A delegation of European Union parliamentarians was also prevented from 
entering Gaza to assess the situation on the ground and to hold talks 
with Hamas leaders. They subsequently broke the naval siege of Gaza by 
entering the coast's territorial waters from Cyprus by boat, defying the 
Israeli navy.
During talks held with Hamas, the EU parliamentarians were able to get a 
historic commitment from the Islamic organisation to recognise Israel's 
right to exist within the internationally recognised 1967 borders. Hamas 
further offered a long-term ceasefire in return for Israel legitimising 
Palestinian rights.
Israel also prevented 20 European Union consul-generals from entering 
Gaza on Thursday. On Sunday Israeli border police prevented 15 trucks 
loaded with medication from entering the Gaza Strip.
EU commissioner for external relations and European neighbourhood 
policy, Bentita Ferrero-Waldner, has expressed strong reservations. "I 
am profoundly concerned about the consequences for the Gazan population 
of the complete closure of all Gaza crossings for deliveries of fuel and 
basic humanitarian assistance," Ferrero-Waldner said in a statement Friday.
Karen AbuZayd, head of the UN Relief and Welfare Agency (UNRWA) which 
cares for Palestinian refugees, added that it was unusual for Israel not 
to let basic food and medicines in. "This has alarmed us more than usual 
because it's never been quite so long and so bad, and there has never 
been so much negative response on what we need," she said.
Israel closed the borders following a barrage of rockets fired by 
Palestinian resistance fighters at Israeli towns bordering the Gaza Strip.
The tit-for-tat violence began on Nov. 4 when the Israeli Defence Forces 
(IDF) launched a cross-border raid into Gaza, breaking a shaky 
five-month ceasefire with Hamas. The purpose was ostensibly to destroy a 
tunnel built by Palestinians allegedly to smuggle captured Israeli soldiers.
More than 20 Palestinians were killed in Israeli raids. Two Israelis 
were lightly injured in the subsequent rocket attacks.
The timing of Israel's breach of the ceasefire is curious in that 
hundreds of these smuggling tunnels have existed ever since Hamas took 
over the strip in June last year. They have been used to smuggle 
everyday necessities as well as arms because the territory is 
hermetically sealed by Israel.
John Ging, director of UNRWA in Gaza, who has lived there for the past 
three years, questioned the alleged security reasoning behind the 
closure. Since the ceasefire went into place this summer, Ging said, 
fewer supplies have passed through the crossing than in the beginning of 
2006, when the western Negev in Israel suffered incessant rocket fire 
from Gaza.
At that time the Palestinian Authority (PA), which is supported by 
Israel and the international community, was ruling Gaza in a unity 
government with Hamas.
"Last week we were unable to feed 60,000 of Gaza's neediest refugees due 
to our warehouses running out of food. UNRWA supplies half of Gaza's 
population of 1.5 million people with emergency rations, and 20,000 
people are fed per day when there are adequate supplies," Ging told IPS.
Seventy percent of Gaza experienced electricity blackouts after Israel 
prevented deliveries of diesel fuel, forcing Gaza's main power plant to 
close down.
"The Israelis were only allowing 2.2 to 2.5 million litres of fuel in 
per week prior to the closure, which was the minimum required to operate 
the power plant. The plant has a capacity for 20 million litres and this 
would last two months under normal circumstances and tide over emergency 
periods. But this has all run out," Ging said.
Kan'an Ubeid, deputy chief of the Palestinian Energy Authority, said at 
a press conference in Gaza that in addition to the shutdown of the 
diesel-fuelled power plant, the electric network bringing in power from 
Israel collapsed due to increased pressure on the system.
Gazans also ran out of cooking gas while Gaza's Coastal Municipalities 
Water Utility (CMWU) was forced to pump tonnes of untreated sewage into 
the ocean due to fuel shortages and the lack of spare parts for 
equipment in need of repairs and new parts.
Much of this will flow back into Gaza's underground water table, and the 
threat of contaminated drinking water spreading diseases has increased.
Meanwhile, the emergency and ambulance services director-general, 
Mu'awiyya Hassanein, says Gaza's health ministry is short of more than 
300 types of necessary medication.
Sammy Hassan, a spokesman from Gaza city's main Shifa hospital said only 
urgent surgery was being carried out. "We have delayed all non-urgent 
surgery as our small generator has stopped working, as we can't import a 
vital spare part.
"We are down to 30,000 litres of fuel left to run the larger generator 
which is used when electricity is cut. Under the current circumstances 
with no electricity we require 10,000 litres per day," Hassan told IPS.
Philip Luther, deputy director of Amnesty International's Middle East 
programme, said that Israel's latest tightening of the blockade had 
"made an already dire humanitarian situation markedly worse. This is 
nothing short of collective punishment on Gaza's civilian population, 
and it must stop immediately."
Following international pressure and protests from the EU, Israel 
allowed 30 trucks of humanitarian aid to enter the strip Monday. "It 
will last a matter of days," said UNRWA spokesman Christopher Gunness. 
"But then what?"
Oxfam's spokesman in Jerusalem Michael Bailey, who coordinates a number 
of humanitarian projects in Gaza, said this response was entirely 
inadequate.
"Thirty trucks of aid after a closure of 10 days is insufficient. What 
we need is a complete revision of the embargo on Gaza. Dialogue with the 
relevant political leaders is the only way forward," Bailey told IPS.
"Both Israel and Gaza's other neighbours need to put the human rights 
and essential needs of Gazans above all considerations if there is to be 
a way out of this quagmire." (END/2008)
http://www.ipsnews.net/news.asp?idnews=44745


Direi che fa parte della propensione al ghetto delle genti di quei posti.
Gli Israeliani si sono autoghettizzati col muro.
Adesso si sentono realizzati, costante storica.
Gli arabi non sono da meno.
Saluti
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Inviato via 
http://arianna.libero.it/usenet/

 Palestinian resistance fighters at Israeli towns bordering the Gaza Strip.
Cioe' si e' difeso da una aggressione armata proveniente da Gaza.
-Stefano