Despite the humanitarian aid that Israel allows into Gaza, the blockade is causing a crisis that is “only going to get even worse,” according to a new report by the International Committee of the Red Cross:
“Gazans continue to suffer from unemployment, poverty and warfare, while the quality of Gaza’s health care system has reached an all-time low,” the report says.
It specifically cites hardships faced by Gaza farmers whose land has been turned into battle zones, and fishermen who risk arrest by fishing in restricted waters.
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The report also describes an “acute electricity crisis” that leaves hospitals relying on generators amid daily blackouts, and a shortage of medical supplies that is putting patients’ lives at risk.“The state of the health-care system in Gaza has never been worse,” Eileen Daly, the ICRC’s health coordinator in the territory, is quoted as saying in the report. “Health is being politicized — that is the main reason the system is failing. Unless something changes, things are only going to get even worse. Thousands of patients could go without treatment and the longterm outlook will be increasingly worrisome.”
In the report, the ICRC stated that the blockade violated international law — something the organization had never explicitly said before:
“The whole of Gaza’s civilian population is being punished for acts for which they bear no responsibility. The closure therefore constitutes a collective punishment imposed in clear violation of Israel’s obligations under international humanitarian law,” the ICRC said in a five-page statement. It was the first time the ICRC has said explicitly that Israel’s blockade constitutes a violation of international humanitarian law embodied in the Geneva Conventions, an ICRC spokeswoman said. The Fourth Geneva Convention of 1949, ratified by Israel, bans collective punishment of a civilian population.
Israel is entitled to impose restrictions on military material for legitimate security reasons, but the scope of the closure is disproportionate, covering items of basic necessity, according to the ICRC.
“We are urging Israel to put an end to this closure and call upon all those who have an influence on the situation, including Hamas, to do their utmost to help Gaza’s civilian population,” said Beatrice Megevand-Roggo, head of ICRC operations for the Middle East.
The Jerusalem Post has a long, extremely detailed article by Tovah Lazaroff about a report just come out from B’tselem (an Israeli human rights organization) which leaves no doubt at all about the seriousness of the crisis facing the Gazan population. This article needs to be read in full, despite the annoying text ad links (I hate those things). It’s hard even to pick out parts to quote, but I’ll do my best here:
Most of Gaza’s factories have closed and its water is polluted as a result of Israel’s policy of closing land crossings to all but humanitarian aid, according to a new report being released Monday by the human rights group B’tselem.
The closure policy has “led to economic collapse in Gaza,” B’tselem charged in a 44-page report that looked at Gaza, the West Bank and east Jerusalem during the period from January 2009 to the end of April 2010.
According to the report, the prohibition on bringing in raw materials and exports into Gaza, which has been in place since Hamas’s takeover of the Strip in June 2007, forced 95 percent of the factories and workshops in the area to close.
Before 2007, 4,000 types of goods were let into Gaza, compared with 150 that come in now. Among the restricted items are building materials such as iron and cement, which, according to the report, are needed to rebuild the 3,500 homes destroyed during Operation Cast Lead.
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Electricity is a problem in Gaza, according to the report, which states that 98% of the residents suffer from blackouts ranging from eight to 10 hours a day, while the remaining 2% do not receive any electricity at all.The power outages and the lack of spare parts have prevented the proper operation of wells and desalination plants, said B’tselem.
At the end of 2009, studies showed that 93% percent of the Gaza Strip’s water was polluted, with high quantities of chloride and nitrates, said B’tselem.
“The water supply is defective and thousands of residents are not even connected to the water grid. Waste treatment has also been affected. Every day, some 100,000 cubic meters of untreated or partially untreated waste-water flow into the sea,” the organization wrote in the report.
That’s it. If I go on, I’m going to end up quoting the entire article, because there is not one sentence in this piece that does not substantively describe the horrifying conditions Gazans are living in. Please, please, please, read the whole thing.
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