Gaza's Humanitarian Crisis - All thanks to the Neocons - BBC Report

Gaza's humanitarian crisis​

A group of UK-based human rights and development organisations have called for fundamental policy changes towards the Gaza Strip by Israel, the international community and the West Bank-based Palestinian leadership.

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/middle_east/7191359.stm

Gaza holds 1.5m inhabitants, more than half of them children
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Their report details what are calling the worst humanitarian crisis in the strip since Israel occupied it in the 1967 war, and describe it as a man-made disaster resulting from the isolation and blockade of Gaza after its take-over by Hamas militants last June.

The following are the main points in the report, sponsored by Amnesty International, Care International UK, Cafod, Christian Aid, Medecins du Monde UK, Oxfam, Save the Children UK and Trocaire.


DOWNLOAD THE REPORT HERE (pdf)



POVERTY LEVELS
More than 80% of Palestinians in Gaza rely on humanitarian assistance, with UN food aid going to about 1.1 million people - three quarters of the population.​

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The number of families dependant on the UN agency for Palestinian refugees (Unrwa) has increased tenfold since 1999.
Household monthly incomes dropped by 22% in less than four months (June-September 2007). The number of households earning less than $1.20 per person per day went from 55% to 70%.
The UN appeal for humanitarian aid in 2008 is $462m, more than twice the 2006 appeal and the third largest UN request after Sudan and Congo.


RESTRICTIONS ON MOVEMENT
Israel prevents the import of a list of specific essential humanitarian goods requested by aid agencies, including some fuel supplies, spare parts, cement, technical assistance and cotton for hygiene items. Travel in and out of Gaza is all but impossible and supplies of food and water, as well as sewage treatment and basic healthcare can no longer be taken for granted.

Food prices are rising and wheat flour, baby milk and cooking oil are increasingly scarce.

A joint Israeli-Palestinian agreement in November 2005 has not succeeded in allowing cross-border access and movement to bolster the Gazan economy.

On average 12 export trucks a day passed through Karni goods crossing during 2006 - a fraction of the intended number.
Supplies to Gaza, intended to be 250 trucks a day, are limited to 45 trucks a day.


ECONOMIC COLLAPSE
Most private businesses have shut down in the last six months and 95% of Gaza's industrial operations are suspended as a result of import and export restrictions. Unemployment is close to 40%.

Gaza businesses are about subsistence not wealth creation

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Construction and agriculture have ground to a halt, 3,500 factories out of 3,900 have closed, causing 75,000 private sector job losses.

Gaza's agricultural sector has suffered from repeated Israeli incursions destroying fields and greenhouses. Israel insists that no crop is allowed to grow over 40cm high, limiting farmers to cash crops which are costly to produce and heavily reliant on accessible export markets.

The numbers of people working in Israel, 24,000 Gazans in 2000, has been reduced to zero.

UTILITIES
Israeli allows 2.2 million litres of EU-supplied industrial diesel per week, which is not enough to keep Gaza's main power plant operating at full capacity.

There is a 20% shortfall in electricity with implications for hospitals, sewage works, water supply and other public institutions.

Between 25-30% of the population of the Gaza Strip does not receive running water at home because electricity is not available for pumping. About 30-40 million litres of sewage flows untreated into the sea every day.

HEALTHCARE CRISIS
Hospitals experience power cuts for 8-12 hours a day and depend on generators to run basic facilities, although there is a shortage of diesel. Spare parts for generators are almost impossible to obtain.

Access to lifesaving treatment outside Gaza has become more necessary, but in December 2007 only 64% of applicants were given permits to leave the strip by Israel, leading to dozens of patient deaths.

CHILDREN
More than 56% of Gaza's population are children. Almost 2,000 pupils have dropped out of school this academic year.

School has been disrupted by electricity cuts; classes with high energy consumption such as IT have been cancelled; there is a shortage of textbooks and other resources.

A UN survey indicated 80% failure rates in most years and up to 90% failure rates in mathematics.

Director of the UN relief agency for Palestinian Refugees in Gaza, John Ging, said: "What we are seeing is the collapse of education standards due to the cumulative effects of the occupation, closures, poverty and violence."

SECURITY
Israel retains effective control of Gaza's land and sea borders and air space, and the movement of people and goods. As such it has obligations as an occupying power to ensure the welfare of the Palestinian population, the humanitarian agencies say.

They acknowledge Israel has an obligation to protect its citizens from rocket attacks from Gaza, but argue that the current strategy of isolating and blockading Gaza has not stopped rocket attacks.

Gazans' lives are mostly characterised by insecurity according to the agencies: military presence and attacks, extra-judicial assassinations, loss of land, restrictions on movement, lack of drinking water, unemployment, and barriers to healthcare and education.

DOWNLOAD THE REPORT HERE (pdf)

 

It is very sad situation for many Palestinians. Hopefully we can move to end their misery.

It is too bad the terrorist group Hamas is running Gaza as that seems to be a keystone to the problem. It seems there is a direct correlation as the problems are so much worse in Gaza than in the West Bank.

I guess it goes to to show that electing and allowing a terrorist group to run your country has consequences. One is that your neighbor isn't as inclined to help you when you lob missiles and rockets daily at them.

 

Lemme guess, by completing the genocide?

Don't you endorse the government which was trying to start a Palestinian civil-war?

 

Maybe the money given to suicide bombers and to pay for weapons could be used for food? Now that would probably help in two ways: 1. to feed those in need and 2. to stop the attacks that have caused this probably in the first place.

 

Again, with the over the top statement. No, I do not want genocide. How you read that from my desire to end Palestinian misery is no surprise anymore. (And your statement "completing the genocide" is another absurd statement by you that Israel is committing genocide. When it is Hamas that openly calls for the end of Israel.)

The Palestinians don't need any help starting a civil war. However, the government of ours makes many poor decisions. From what I read in that Vanity Fair article is sounds like another fuck-up by the Bush admin. Unlike you, I don't think it was some grand conspiracy to kill all Palestinians.

 

Here is a better idea. How about we stop sending Israel foreign aid, until they stop impeding the flow of foreign aid to Gaza?

The problem isn't a shortage of money necessarily, it's the Israel is intentionally blockading the goods from getting to the people.

Are they making any friends by starving them out?

 

I was just using your own tactic against you. The one where you claim I hate Jews because I disagree with Israel's tactics of terror against civilians.

Does it feel good?

Hamas wants genocide too. Which goes back to my point. There is little difference between these two factions, so it is irrational for you to present Israel as somehow more moral in this crisis.

Well, they don't all have to die for it to be genocide. Right?

I bet there were people with the same line about the Jews while the holocaust was going on. "Gee, I don't think they are trying to kill all of the Jews, they are just taking them to safe camps on those trains..."

 

Guaharjk:

your posts that represent problems in Gaza show an unending one sided view of the situation which clearly won't settle the issue and clearly doesn't represent a reasonable person's view of the problems in Gaza.

The above headline attacks all the typical one-sided views on the issue and incidentally blames Fatah for the responsability of the problems in Gaza.

From international news reports from June 14, 2007, this is why Fatah in the West Bank has no responsability for this sad state of affairs....

Of course the murdering Hamas gunmen wore masks over their heads so they could not be individually identified.


The blame on Israel is always one sided. Few of the Israel haters ever take the following into account in terms of its dealings with the middle east.

1. Israel has had a treaty with Egypt since 1979. (probably before you were born). Immediately after that treaty Israel removed all elements of its population and construction in the Sinai and returned it to Egypt.

Sincee that time....29 years...the two nations have not fought. In 1989 this article described Egyptian reactions to the treaty...http://query.nytimes.com/gst/fullpa...AA25750C0A96F948260&sec=&spon=&pagewanted=all

Note that Egypt wanted and allowed no mention of an Israeli diplomatic corps in Egypt, no mention of flights from Egypt to Israel, no mention that Israeli experts were helping Egyptians with a greening of the desert project to help the lives of ordinary Egyptians.

Political sway in the Moslem world wouldn't stand for that. Its more important to publish reports about Arabs who suffer rather than stories about the Progress that can happen when Arabs make peace.

In 1994, Israel signed a peace pact with Jordan. That pact has also not been violated. In early 1995 Israel returned land to Jordan.

All the parties that like to scream about injustice and poverty in the Arab world seem to ignore these hard facts with regard to making peace.

If the emotionally charged crybabies are so concerned with the state of the lives of people in Gaza they ought to include holding Hamas responsable.

Its interesting. When Israel kept settlements in Gaza, conditions weren't so bad. When Fatah was in charge, conditions weren't so bad. When Fatah and Hamas were co-operating in charge of Gaza conditions weren't so bad.

Now Hamas is totally in charge, Hamas continues to send missiles into Israel, Hamas is undetectable......and conditions are worse.

The facts are that conditions became worse once hamas took total charge.

yet you, the bleeding hearts who published this report and blame everyone except hamas and your blame pointing friends, absolutely refuse to acknowledge Hamas' role.

I guess you like murderers who hide behind hoods and strip and shoot their own people. Why would these cowards care about children?

Why would these murderers want peace, or progress? Its too bad that one sided people like you, Guerilla and the bleeding heart one sided people who published that report can't really take a look at hard facts.

Instead of trying to solve a problem you only exacerbate it.

Meanwhile I wonder how the Egyptians who live near the desert greening project that Israeli expertise helped develop in 1989 are faring?

 

Right.... so I'm not looking at hard facts and I'm only one-sided when I condemn both sides.

Great stuff Earl.

 

Oh, you are quite clear where you stand morally on the intentional acts of Hamas directed at Muslims, Jews, Palestinians, Israel, Fatah, etc.

You describe acts of Palestinian terrorism, such as suicide bombing against civilians, on one hand, and the retaliatory acts of the Israeli Defense Forces, on the other, as equally reprehensible.

 

Fixed that for you.

Now your homework for this evening, is to craft a well-written explanation for how forced starvation is not terrorism (political violence against civilians).

 

I don't believe anyone is trying to force starvation. I do not think Israel needs to feed the Palestinians who are trying to kill them. I do think the responsibility is on Hamas. If they stop the attacks there would be no concern about food supplies.

How about Hamas stop sending rockets so that Israel has no concerns re-opening borders?

How about Hamas stop paying for arms and starts feeding its own people?

But of course, you think Israel should be feeding Hamas, supplying them with oil so that they can turn around and attack Israel unfettered.

 

@ browntwn, how about you try reading the OP. Israel is blockading humanitarian aid. No one is asking for Israel to feed Hamas or Palestinians.

In case you didn't know, sanctions (blockades) are an act of war, AND this is exactly how people died under Food for Oil.

So again, please rationalize how it is ok for Israel to withhold access to food and other humanitarian goods to civilians.

And this time, READ THE OP!

 

As I said originally. If Hamas stops attacking Israel daily, Israel will have no reason to stop supplies from reaching Gaza.

Why do you continue to absolve Hamas of any responsibility for the situation they foster?

 

No aid allowed from Egypt or by sea?

hmmm.... who isn't helping here?

 

here is a very interesting press release from some famous human right groups.
it was released in january

 

The genocide that is part of hamas' doctrine? The doctrine that says their goal is the destruction of Israel and Jews? Or the hadiths that say muslims will get to heaven by killing Jews?

Need to do a better job of masking (just pointed this out in another thread).

Makes me wonder if the OP actually believes all these pity party threads for terrorists is really working? To his credit though, he's making an excellent attempt at propaganda. That's gotta be worth a few virgins

 

Guerilla: your condemnations of both sides come in relatively bland statements. Your comments about Israel reveal a serious hatred. For instance, from the other thread started by Gauharjk...and I quote you....

lets see. he has nothing to do with this situation. he had a stroke and went into a vegetative state long before Hamas took over sole control of Gaza.

While some call it self defense...you call Israel's actions a crime against humanity.

When you blithely state your opinion that Israel doesn't care about babies, starvation etc......consider this article about an Israeli defense pilot/doctor/pediatrician that cared for a Gazan child in a situation that defies description by anyone that doesn't live in a nation that is always under siege

Your attitude about Israel not caring about Gazans implies he would have killed the child in the hospital rather than caring for the child. On the other hand the mother of this Gazan child described this doctor/pilot as "you are the savior of our children"

And the child's mother knew that.

Israel's situation is intolerable with no easy solutions. It is threatened by Hezbollah and Hamas.

The mainstream of the Arab world supports endless battles against Israel. It is so easy for the tyrannical govts in Saudi Arabia, Syria, Egypt, and Iran to blame Israel for everything while they treat their own populations with such low regard. For decades Arab leaders have fostered this hatred to keep their own populations from focusing on a lack of rights and modern treatment that most of the world expects. There is some awareness of this within the Arab world but it is mostly crushed by tyrannical governments that like to foster this hatred.

Despite this, Israel has made and maintained two peace pacts, as I referenced above.

Guerilla: if you really wanted to be even handed about this you might post things like Pizzaman. Pizzaman invariably emphasizes a need for all to emphasize peace over war, and similarly takes both Israel and groups like Hamas to task in an even handed way. You on the other hand, as I've pointed out above, hold your vitriol for Israel.

Or alternatively you might consider the perspective of this Palestinian, who posts at DP, Vivaspots....who said

 

Palestinian militant group Hamas has set out for the first time conditions for a truce with Israel to end violence that has cost 125 lives in a week.
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/middle_east/7292083.stm
can some one tell me what is wrong with this.

 

I will try to point out some of the concerns using this article, but I think it is, at the very least, a positive step:

JERUSALEM (AP) — When is a truce not quite a truce?

Hamas is once again offering Israel a cease-fire, but the language that the Islamic movement has chosen reveals a deep reluctance to talk about any real peace with the Jewish state.

Ismail Haniyeh, Gaza's Hamas prime minister, on Wednesday proposed a "tahdia" — which in Arabic means a loosely defined period of calm that falls short of a formal cease-fire.

Still, this semantic nuance could well determine the success of Mideast peacemaking. As long as Israelis and the Islamic militants are killing each other in Gaza and southern Israel, a U.S.-sponsored drive to forge an Israeli-Palestinian peace deal by year's end stands little chance.

Israel is formally rejecting the truce talk, and on Wednesday its army killed four militants in the West Bank town of Bethlehem after opening fire on their car. Israel sees a broad Iranian-driven effort to besiege it from the north through Hezbollah in Lebanon and from the south through Hamas, and fears a truce will simply give Hamas time to regroup and strengthen its fighting forces.

But other signs on the ground indicate that Israel and Hamas are moving closer toward an Egyptian-brokered deal to end weeks of cross-border fighting that has killed more than 120 Palestinians and five Israelis.

In a speech Wednesday at Gaza City's Islamic University, Haniyeh demanded an end to Israeli military activity in Hamas-ruled Gaza, a lifting of Israeli economic sanctions, and the opening of Gaza's borders, which have been sealed since Hamas violently seized control of the area in June 2007.

"We are talking about a mutual comprehensive tahdia, which means that the enemy must fulfill its obligations," Haniyeh said. "The Israelis must stop the aggression ... including assassinations and invasions, end the sanctions and open the borders."

Palestinian militants have adopted the term tahdia (pronounced TAH-dee-ah) as an alternative to "hudna" — a legal concept dating to the birth of Islam. It refers to a truce of a fixed duration, usually between Muslims and non-Muslims.

Prophet Muhammad first negotiated a hudna (pronounced HOOD-nah) with rivals in Mecca in 628.

The concept of hudna could allow Islamic fundamentalists to negotiate without losing face. Some Hamas officials proposed a hudna with Israel after their group won Palestinian parliamentary elections in 2006. But Israel, as it did with the late Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat some 15 years earlier, demanded full recognition as a condition for doing business.

In Hamas' eyes, hudna does imply recognition of the enemy to some degree — which helps explain why the militants have backed away from the term. A tahdia is more open to interpretation, and presumably can be broken off at any time — as happened when Hamas unilaterally declared two of them in 2003 and 2005.

Israeli officials have repeatedly warned that the militants would use any lull to rearm. A formal truce with Hamas is not needed, the officials say, as long as the militants refrain from launching rockets and other violence.

"If Hamas ceases its war against Israel, then there will be quiet," said Mark Regev, spokesman for the Israeli prime minister.

It wouldn't be the first time the subtleties of language have complicated the region's politics.

Israel has said it would honor its obligations under various international peace plans not to expand West Bank settlements but, unlike most of the international community, doesn't view Jewish neighborhoods in disputed east Jerusalem as settlements.

Palestinians and Israelis have differed over the meaning of U.N. Security Council Resolution 242, calling for evacuation of lands captured by Israel in the 1967 Mideast war. The French version of the resolution referred to "the territories" while the English version cited mere "territories" — leading to an impassioned dispute lasting decades over whether Israel is obligated to cede everything.

Arafat famously sent Western diplomats racing to their dictionaries when in a 1989 interview with a French TV station he described the PLO charter, which called for the destruction of Israel, as "caduque" (pronounced kah-DUKE) — a 17th century French legal term meaning "null and void." Still another translation can be "has lapsed." While the French welcomed his characterization as a positive gesture, Israel said it fell far short of a formal revocation of the charter, with then-Prime Minister Yitzhak Rabin describing Arafat's statement as "pathetic acrobatics."

Only in 1998, in the presence of then-President Bill Clinton, did the PLO's ruling body formally revoke the relevant clauses of the charter.

Despite Israel's insistence on real peace rather than vague truces, there is a growing realization that the current policy of blockade and military action has failed to weaken Hamas, which has proven its ability to disrupt fledgling peace talks between Israel and the moderate West Bank-based government of Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas.

The U.S., too, now appears to have thrown its support behind a broad deal that would include an end to the fighting and an easing of the international blockade of Gaza. At the center of the arrangement would be the deployment of officers loyal to Abbas at Gaza's crossings.

Hamas officials said Wednesday they accept such a deployment in principle, even though it means giving up some control, and that they have given Egypt names of pro-Abbas officers who would be acceptable to Hamas.

"There are efforts by the Egyptian brothers who are working on this issue. We as Palestinians are waiting for the Israeli answers," Haniyeh said. "The ball is in Israel's court."

Haniyeh also said "all of the factions are involved," signaling that Hamas has the support of smaller militant groups that have often scuttled cease-fire attempts in the past.

While Haniyeh's demands were not new, the timing and location of the speech were significant. Haniyeh had been in hiding for several weeks during heavy fighting with Israel, and only has felt safe enough to appear in public in recent days.

Israeli officials have said privately that they're open to the idea of letting Abbas' men oversee Gaza's borders, despite the likelihood that it would imply international acceptance of Islamic militant rule in Gaza, possibly solidifying Hamas' hold.

Israeli political analyst Efraim Inbar said the benefit of a tahdia is that "they're no longer firing on us." In the long run, however, he said "it is very problematic to leave a terror group like that in place without taking care of it militarily."​