UN: Majority Gaza crossings remain closed

Date: 23 / 12 / 2008  Time:  10:16
Bethlehem - Ma'an -

No humanitarian aid, fuel or other commodities were able to get into Gaza on Monday, as the border crossings into the area remained closed by the Israeli occupation government, the United Nations reported.

The Office of the UN Special Coordinator for the Middle East Peace Process (UNSCO) also reported that Gaza’s power plant is still not operating owing to lack of fuel.

In addition, due to the shortage of wheat grain, all Gaza mills have been shut down, and more than half of Gaza’s 47 bread bakeries have had to close.

At the same time, the UN Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees in the Near East (UNRWA) reported that shortages of drugs and pharmaceuticals in Gaza are continuing to rise, with some 105 essential drugs now out of stock.

The Israeli occupation government has kept the border crossings into Gaza closed for almost two months now, citing rocket and other attacks by militants as the reason.

Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon has repeatedly called on Israel to urgently permit the delivery of humanitarian aid to Gaza’s 1.5 million civilians, who are suffering from severe shortages of many basic commodities, while at the same time condemning the rocket attacks.

Most Gaza bakeries closed as flour, gas supplies depleted

Date: 23 / 12 / 2008  Time:  12:01
Gaza – Ma’an –

Twenty-seven out of 47 bakeries in Gaza City have closed due to depletion of gas and flour, which the  Israeli occupation government recently added to the list of banned goods in the Gaza Strip, says Abdoun-Nasser Al-Ajrami, head of the union of bakery owners in the Strip.

Ma’an quoted Al-Ajrami as saying that the crisis is worsening more and more after the seven Gazan mills almost ran out of gas and flour. All they have is 400 tons, which will be distributed for four more days.

The  Israeli occupation government  has imposed a complete siege on the Strip since 5 November, prohibiting shipments of fuel and food products, including flour. The Gaza Strip usually consumes 430 tons of flour per day.

As a result of the tightened siege, all aspects of life are paralyzed and 75% of the Gaza Strip is dark due to stoppage of the only electricity generating station, which ran out of fuel long ago.

A senior Palestinian official in Gaza said on Thursday that “one million and a half are still under siege.” His comments came in response to a Ma’an investigation of banned and permitted goods during the Israeli blockade.

“In addition of the items that the Israeli occupation government has banned today are around 9900 items since Hamas took control over Gaza in June 2007,” said Raed Fattuh, of the Gaza Coordination Office, confirming that the blockade is nothing new.

Fattuh added that after declaring the truce on June 2008, the Israeli army allowed 40-50 items into Gaza including seven basic items; frozen meat, rice, flour, sugar, cooking oil and dairy products that cannot be brought through the tunnels because they are heavy.

Concerning medications, he said that “these are only allowed through aid coming from the Ministry of Health in Ramallah or through humanitarian organizations and are distributed in hospitals; pharmacies are not allowed to receive any of these medications.”

He noted that a well-known medication, Panadol Extra, is widely available in Gaza but manufactured in Egypt with illicit additives. Many Palestinians in Gaza were hospitalized from taking the common painkiller, he said.

Fattah added that 20-30 schoolchildren were poised due to expired cookies and cakes.

He concluded by saying that the food items and some of the medications smuggled from Egypt are either expired or not fir for human consumption.

Israeli peace activist arrested while attempting to leave Gaza

Date: 22 / 12 / 2008  Time:  18:02
Bethlehem – Ma’an –

An Israeli citizen who sailed to the Gaza Strip in defiance of an Israeli blockade was arrested on Monday while attempting to leave Gaza through the land border with Israel.

Neta Golan, International Solidarity Movement (ISM) will appear in court in the city of Kiryat Gat tomorrow. Golan arrived in Gaza on 20 December along with 17 others on the SS Dignity, on the fifth voyage to break the blockade since August.

Neta Golan's lawyer, Adnan Aladdin, condemned the arrest;

"Ms Golan's actions in no way constitute a crime. Her actions in entering Gaza were acts of necessity based on international law and a rejection of the policies of collective punishment pursued by the Israeli government"

"Humanitarian needs, such as those faced by the Palestinian people of Gaza due to the Israeli siege, make nonviolent acts that are clearly a response to this act of collective punishment necessary. This is common sense and has precedent,” added Aladdin.

Two other Israelis, Israeli Committee Against House Demolition (ICAHD) founder Jeff Halper, and Haaretz journalists Amira Hass were also arrested after sailing to Gaza and leaving through the Erez crossing.

An Israeli military order bars all Israeli citizens from entering Gaza, which Israel has branded an “enemy entity.”

Gaza bakeries: Wheat stores empty by end of current week

[ 23/12/2008 - 10:37 AM ]

GAZA, (PIC)--

Abdul Nasser Al-Ajrami, the head of the Gaza society for bakers, has said that his society was coordinating with the PA economy ministry the distribution of the remaining stock of wheat.

Ajrami told PIC that the remaining quantities of wheat would run out by end of this week at the most.

He noted that no wheat shipments had entered the Strip for more than a week, and added that less than 20 bakeries are still working while the majority stopped functioning due to the lack of wheat, electricity and gas.

Ajrami warned of a "food disaster", if the Israeli occupation authority did not allow entry of wheat and flour consignments within the few coming days.

Meanwhile, the European campaign to lift the siege on Gaza lashed out at the Egyptian foreign ministry spokesman Husam Zaki who said that his country is not responsible for the Gaza crisis.

Dr. Arafat Madi, the head of the campaign in a statement in Brussels on Monday, said that Egypt's insistence on retaining the Rafah border terminal with Gaza closed despite international warnings of its catastrophic consequences meant that the Egyptian government was an accomplice to the siege on Gaza.

He said that the Rafah border agreement, which the Egyptian government finds as an excuse to keep the terminal closed, expired more than a year ago and there is no justification for retaining the border closed in the light of the escalating suffering of the Gaza people.