Posted on 04/24/2008 9:04:02 PM PDT by blam
UN forced to halt Gaza food aid to a million
By Tim Butcher in Jerusalem
Last Updated: 2:38am BST 25/04/2008
The United Nations says it is being forced to stop delivering food aid to Gaza because of the fuel shortages caused by Israel's response to militant attacks.
Palestinian refugees carry UN food aid at a Rafah refugee camp
Almost a million Palestinians will go hungry if the UN stops deliveries, compounding an already dire humanitarian situation.
The fuel blockade means pumps have already been turned off, causing water shortages and sewage problems, while the vaccination stocks at Gaza's main hospital were spoiled after it had to turn off its refrigerators.
John Ging, director of the main UN aid agency in Gaza, said there were plenty of food supplies in the warehouses but no way of getting them safely to the people in need.
"No fuel means that vital humanitarian aid and public services are grinding to a halt," he said, adding that it was likely all UN deliveries would stop today.
Gaza depends on Israel for all its fuel. However, Israel reduced supplies to pressure the Hamas authorities into stopping militants firing rockets across the border.
The flow was turned off completely a fortnight ago after militants attacked an oil terminal on the Gaza border, killing two Israeli civilians.
Mr Ging criticised the militants but said that Israel was wrong to retaliate with sanctions.
"Irresponsible acts of one side do not lift the clear legal responsibilities from the other side," he said. "Under international humanitarian law Israel has a responsibility to provide supplies for the civilian population of Gaza."
Israel responded by saying that the crisis was being engineered by Hamas for propaganda purposes and that it was allowing in some humanitarian supplies.
However, Gazan truck drivers have gone on strike, claiming that the piecemeal distribution of these modest fuel supplies was not cost effective. Their action was described by a senior British aid worker as "an industrial hunger strike".
Louis Michel, the European Union Humanitarian Aid Commissioner, said. "It is unacceptable that public services, such as garbage collection, sewage treatment or hospitals, are at the brink of collapse because of a lack of fuel."
Screw'em!!
***causing water shortages and sewage problems,***
Sounds and smells like a normal Arabian area.
Too bad! Screw’em!
Let Abbas and Hamas and Hezbollah feed them.
Agreed
...Gazan truck drivers have gone on strike, claiming that the piecemeal distribution of these modest fuel supplies was not cost effective.
Oddly enough, these paragraphs are at the end of the article. Kind of changes the flavor of the article.
Gaza has no export but terror and violence. It depends primarily on the United Nations (i.e., the United States) for food assistance and Israel for fuel, and then it dares to bite the hand that feeds it.
The Palestinians made their own bed. Now, let them lie in it. So what if they go hungry! Let them eat Qurans and Kalashnikovs!
I don’t, for the life of me, see why Israel has any obligation to supply them with anything.
These arrogant jackasses, demanding Israel provide food and fuel to gaza citizens...tell me you idiots...would you provide food and fuel to a neighboring country bombarding you with missiles.....UN jackasses
Don't bite the hand that feeds you!
Nonsense. there is over a million liters of fuel waiting at the border to be delivered, but HAMAS is using it's on people as hostages to make Israel look like the bully. Hamas is both blocking that delivery and has attacked and destroyed the fuel depot which normaly delivered that fuel. It certainly isn't Israels fault in the least. Perhaps if the UN would stop supporting Islamic terrorism in Jerusalem (and everywhere else in the world for that matter) and worked to put an end to Islamic extremism, Islamic brainwashing of youths inciting hatred against Israel, and the whole Palestinian LIE, we'd see progress. As long as this palestinian LIE is used as a foundation for peace, there will never be peace, because peace was and never will be the goal of the fundamental hatred of Islam towards Jews and Israel. It Koran inspired hatred, and that won't change until the Koran is changed.
You’re exactly right. This is pure propaganda at it’s worst.
Gaza has sea ports. It connects with Egypt. There are Arab countries in the area awash in oil. Why don’t they help?
Even worse than that, Hamas has been attacking the fuel trucks at the crossing. If I were an Israeli fuel truck driver, I would tell them “SCREW YOU.” I am not getting killed to provide fuel to people who want to kill me. If the UN is so humanitarian, let them supply the drivers (fat chance.)
www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/2006566/posts
(IsraelNN.com) Gaza farmers blocked delivery of 50,000 liters (13,200 gallons) of diesel fuel to the United Nations Relief and Works Agency (UNRWA) because it wanted the fuel to be distributed openly, Reuters News Agency reported. UNRWA announced that distribution of food in Gaza was suspended because of the fuel shortage.
Israel has suspended large-scale fuel deliveries because of constant terrorist attacks but has allowed enough fuel to enter in order to satisfy humanitarian needs. Colonel Nir Press, head of Israel's Coordination and Liaison Administration for Gaza, pointed out that Gaza storage tanks contain approximate one million liters (264,999 gallons) of diesel fuel but that Hamas is preventing distributing in order to create a false impression that Israel is causing a crisis.
The refusal of Gaza fuel distributors to pick up the fuel was cited by The Associated Press, but UNRWA director John Ging, while admitting the fuel situation is "complicated," charged that Israel "must provide enough fuel for daily needs."
So this Tim Butcher guy is right there in Jerusalem, according to his byline, but he can’t report both sides of the situation to The Telegraph? You all had no trouble finding out the truth from the other side of the world in about five minutes. Funny he couldn’t do it (/extreme sarcasm). I just hope Condi Rice isn’t over there pressuring Israel to give in per our usual tactic. And BTW, if the Palestinians are so ready to govern themselves how come their still completely dependent on Israel for everything? There’s a question for ole Jimmah. (guess the /sarc was premature) Before I found FR I would probably have read that headline and believed it. Sure glad I can count on you guys for the rest of the story!
Exactly, and that was just normal activity for these savages.
The Palestinians have been worthless scum leaches wherever they have gone.
Thrown out of Arab countries throughout the mid east.
Let them starve, they’ve brought it on themselves.
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