Life gets harder for isolated Gaza
rc...@mailinator.com
06 Jul 2007 15:40:00 GMT
Blogged by: Peter Apps
While the release of BBC correspondent Alan Johnston and the ongoing
power struggle between Hamas and Fatah takes the headlines, life is
gradually getting harder for the people of Gaza.
Some essential supplies - particularly food - are making it in through
the main Karni cargo checkpoint between Israel and the coastal Gaza
Strip. But, as this story shows, it is a tortuous process.
Aid deliveries were practically suspended during fighting between
Hamas Islamists and their secular Fatah rivals in June. That left
Hamas in control of Gaza and the separate Palestinian West Bank under
President Mahmoud Abbas's Fatah government, backed by the
international community.
Before the fighting, Fatah officials had controlled the Palestinian
side of the crossing points to Israel. Now the situation is much more
complex. Israel and much of the rest of the international community
refuse to deal directly with Hamas but Israeli officials and aid
workers have managed to find ways to feed aid across the border.
Trucks are not allowed across the border for security reasons so aid
is unloaded and processed in the neutral area between the two sides.
When the main cargo checkpoint was shut, the United Nations World Food
Programme unloaded food in no-man's land at smaller checkpoints,
ferrying it from one side to the other with forklift trucks.
Last week, the United Nations estimated that enough food was shipped
into Gaza to meet 70 percent of the minimum needs of the population -
crucial with more than three-quarters of the population dependent on
aid.
But while Gazans may not physically starve, normal economic life on
the strip is practically collapsing. While essential aid may be
getting through normal commercial shipments vital to everyday commerce
are not.
Israeli human rights group Gisha says 75 percent of factories in Gaza
have closed, threatening the jobs of a tenth of Gaza's working
population. Supplies of cement and other commercial essentials have
dried up.
Aid workers say public sector employees have not been paid for months
as a result of an international blockade on aid to Hamas - which
blocked much international funding from reaching the joint Fatah-Hamas
Palestinian government that collapsed in June due to the Gaza
fighting.
Last month, Oxfam warned of rapidly spiralling personal debts for many
of those in the strip and West Bank. For the West Bank under Fatah,
international aid has resumed and things are seen getting better. But
in Gaza, the opposite is true.
Britain's Independent newspaper cites "politically unaffiliated
businessman" as blaming the Fatah government in the West Bank for
scuppering efforts to reopen the crossing points into Gaza as they try
to isolate Hamas still further.
Israel's Jerusalem Post newspaper suggests that as Hamas remains
dedicated to the destruction of Israel, Israel is still being too
supportive of its regime in Gaza and should further cut back support.
Meanwhile, as observers differ over what should be done about Hamas-
controlled Gaza, the problems get worse and worse.
Oxfam now say they had to provide emergency fuel supplies to stop
drastic cuts in water availability in a refugee camp. The fuel needed
to keep pumps going is still available but as services collapse across
Gaza they say the authorities - officials who used to work for the
Palestinian Authority and in reality may or may not now work for Hamas
or the Fatah government in the West Bank - are simply unable to cope.
"This is yet another blow to already desperate people," said Oxfam
spokeswoman Jennifer Abrahamson. "We would like to see the
administration immediately take action and provide fuel so hundreds of
thousands of people can get back on regular supplies of water."
http://www.alertnet.org/db/blogs/36072/2007/06/6-154013-1.htm