Israeli policies bring humanitarian disaster to Gaza
4/4/2006 1:00:00 PM GMT

(REUTERS PHOTO) A creeping humanitarian disaster is overwhelming the Palestinian people

Poverty in Gaza seldom makes the headlines but it is blighting the future of the Palestinians.

Gaza Strip is on the verge of major humanitarian disaster as a result of shortage of money and food, UN aid organizations warn according, to an article published by Ha’aretz.

There’s a sharp rise in poverty levels in Gaza, and a creeping humanitarian disaster is overwhelming the Palestinian people.

Decades of Israeli curfews, checkpoints, and road closures have robbed the Palestinians of self-sufficiency and fostered a culture of dependence and powerlessness, according to waronwant.org.

A report by the UN Relief and Works Agency (UNRWA), which states a significant increase in the number of hungry people since the cut of foreign aid, also warns of a lack of basic food supplies as a result of Israel’s frequent closures of the Karni crossing which prevented many goods and basic supplies from reaching Gazans.

Unless immediate action is taken, Palestinians living in Gaza will face a humanitarian crisis as bad as the one in Kosovo, David Shearer, head of the UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA), told Foreign Ministry officials.

The chief cause of this crisis in Gaza is the Israeli policy of systematic closures, blockades, and curfews which have created shortages of medicine and food, including infant formula and powdered milk.

Israeli policies are also making it difficult for workers to get to their jobs. And the result is a surge in unemployment rates, which means that, even when store shelves are stuffed with goods, Palestinian families can’t afford to feed their children adequately.

The closure policy is also denying Palestinian children a regular education.

According to World Bank statistics, unless a dramatic change is made, 75 percent of Palestinians will be below the poverty line in less than two years. The current rate is 56 percent, compared to 22 percent in 2000.

Punishing Hamas movement, now the ruling government, Israel has decided to withhold the transfer of some NIS 200 million a month in tax funds to the Palestinian Authority, ignoring the negative impact that would have on the Palestinian nation.

Also Washington and many European allies followed Israel’s footsteps and froze monthly financial aid payments coming to some $45 million, Ha’aretz article added.

There are over 120 Israeli checkpoints in the West Bank and Gaza Strip, which when added to roadblocks, divide the West Bank into 300 enclaves and Gaza Strip into three separate sections.

The denial of freedom of movement for Palestinians has made any semblance of normal life almost impossible. Even children can't get to their schools or to hospital while arbitrary and random nature of curfews is designed to make it impossible for people and civil institutions to make any plans.

UNRWA officials have voiced concern over the fact that PA workers have not received their salaries this month, as a result of Israel’s decision to withhold the tax money.

37 percent of employed people in the Gaza Strip, about 73,000 people, work for the PA, according to the United Nations estimates.

Another issue highlighted in UNRWA report is the fact that 850,000 fowl are suspected of having contracted bird flu, money from donor nations is badly needed to fight the virus.

World Bank said it plans to transfer more than US$2 million in aid to Palestinian poultry farmers whose chickens were infected with the bird flu virus.

The decision came after a request by Foreign Minister Tzipi Livni, who spoke with the Bank's President Paul Wolfowitz, following talks between senior bank officials and Foreign Ministry Director General Ron Prushor.

Livni demanded that the Bank gives incentives to the Palestinian farmers to exterminate the infected birds.

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