Collective Punishment is a War Crime.
This has little to do with rockets, except that when Israel first imposed Collective Punishment, in order to "suffocate Hamas", its own defence staff warned that it would provoke a violent response.
Israel is directly responsible for provoking the violence it now uses to justify aggression it planned long before Annapolis. Sadly, much of the media is so cowed that they're getting away with it.
In directing the failed coup attempt in Gaza, Israel is also responsible for the crisis which it now says it is "reacting to" ...
This has little to do with rockets, except that when Israel first imposed Collective Punishment, in order to "suffocate Hamas", its own defence staff warned that it would provoke a violent response.
Israel is directly responsible for provoking the violence it now uses to justify aggression it planned long before Annapolis. Sadly, much of the media is so cowed that they're getting away with it.
In directing the failed coup attempt in Gaza, Israel is also responsible for the crisis which it now says it is "reacting to" ...
Israeli fuel blockade may halt food handouts, UN warns
Mark Tran and agencies
Monday January 21, 2008
Guardian Unlimited
Palestinians try to buy bread from a bakery in Gaza City during Israel's fuel blockade. Photograph: Mahmud Hams/AFP/Getty
Food aid to residents in Gaza could be suspended unless Israel reopens the border, a UN agency said today.
The warning came amid a resurgence of violence between Israel and Hamas Islamists, and the halting by Israel of crucial fuel supplies to the coastal strip.
(Meaning increased attacks on Gaza by Israel. The attacks, which were planned long before the Annapolis Conference, have doubled since the meetings, killing a great number of Palestinians, a report by Ha'Aretz saying at least of the victims are civilians.)
"Because of a shortage of nylon for plastic bags and fuel for vehicles and generators, on Wednesday or Thursday we are going to have to suspend our food distribution programme to 860,000 people in Gaza if the present situation continues," said Christopher Gunness, a spokesman for the UN Relief Works Agency, which distributes food aid to 860,000 Palestinians in Gaza.
Unwra distributes basic food parcels in Gaza consisting of items such as pulses, flour and packaged milk. The situation in the territory, which has been under a western economic embargo since Hamas took power last June, is already bleak.
(The embargo was imposed in an illegal move to punish the Palestinians for electing Hamas to power.)
"We are already seeing signs of malnutrition and there have been cases or rickets [a cause of weak bones through a lack of vitamin D]," Gunness said.
Israel, however, showed little signs of easing what is effectively an economic blockade of Gaza in response to a barrage of rocket fire aimed at its southern towns.
(This is not about the rockets. The rockets are a response to the imposition of these illegal measures of Collective Punishment. Israel's own defence staff warned that this would result from these measures. It appears now that this is exactly what Israel had hoped to provoke, and sadly, much of the media is allowing them to 'justify' their premeditated aggression based on the reaction to their illegal provocations.)
The Israeli prime minister, Ehud Olmert, said Palestinians in Gaza might have to go without Israeli-supplied petrol for their cars as long as militants continue to fire rockets across the border.
(It's not about cars. It's about hospitals and aid/food. And in making such a statement, he is acknowledging that this is Collective Punishment, which is a War Crime.)
"As far as I'm concerned, all the residents of Gaza can walk and have no fuel for their cars, because they have a murderous terrorist regime that doesn't allow people in the south of Israel to live in peace," Olmert said in a broadcast.
(No doubt the Palestinians can see the irony in such a statement.)
The UN and the EU have urged Israel to restore the flow of fuel amid fears of a humanitarian disaster. Lebanon and Syria called for an emergency Arab summit to discuss the Israeli blockade.
The Syrian foreign ministry demanded "an immediate end to the collective punishment and Israeli crimes", saying Israel was violating "the simplest rules of human rights".
(The UN, EU, and aid organizations agree.)
The pro-western Lebanese prime minister, Fouad Siniora, described developments in Gaza as a serious escalation of Israel's "racial discrimination and blatant human rights violations against Palestinians, under the pretext of confronting Hamas".
Palestinian officials warned of a catastrophe in health services in Gaza because of Israel's decision to halt fuel shipments, which has forced the shutdown of Gaza's sole only power plant.
"We have the choice to either cut electricity on babies in the maternity ward or heart surgery patients or stop operating rooms," said a health ministry official, Moaiya Hassanain.
Israel last night refused to reopen crossings or allow fuel supplies in after the most intense fighting between Israel and the Palestinians in Gaza for more than a year. Nearly 40 Palestinians have been killed in the past week, at least 10 of them civilians.
Electricity officials shut Gaza's only power plant just before 8pm (6pm GMT) yesterday. Gaza bakeries stopped operating because of the blockade, bakers said, because they had neither power nor flour. Fresh pitta bread is a staple food for Gazans.
Israel denied its economic measures would cause widespread suffering.
"We will do everything to prevent a humanitarian crisis in Gaza and I can guarantee to you that there will not be a humanitarian crisis in Gaza," said Shlomo Dror, an Israeli defence spokesman.
Arye Mekel, an Israeli foreign ministry spokesman, accused Hamas of creating an artificial emergency, calling the blackout a "ploy ... to attract international sympathy".
(Israeli policy is all that's needed to build international sympathy. No stunts are necessary.)
Hamas said five hospital patients had died because of the power cut. But health officials, speaking on condition of anonymity, denied this.
Israel imposed the fuel blockade in response to rocket fire that has virtually paralysed life in southern Israeli towns. The upsurge of fighting last week followed an Israeli anti-rocket operation in Gaza.
(Destroying the Interior Ministry had nothing to do with the rockets Israel's Collective Punishment have provoked.)
The Israeli deputy prime minister, Haim Ramon, said there were signs the blockade was working, as the number of rockets fired dropped sharply today. The army said five were fired yesterday, down from 53 over the previous two days.
As well as fuel from Israel to power its electricity plant, Gaza receives about 70% of its electricity direct from Israel. That energy supply had not been stopped, Israel said. The Gaza power plant supplies most of the remaining electricity. Israeli officials acknowledge its fuel supply has been stopped.
The EU criticised Israel for punishing all of Gaza's 1.5 million inhabitants and urged it to restart fuel supplies and open border crossings.
"I have made clear that I am against this collective punishment of the people of Gaza," the EU external relations commissioner, Benita Ferrero-Waldner, said in a statement.
"I urge the Israeli authorities to restart fuel supplies and open the crossings for the passage of humanitarian and commercial supplies."
Ferrero-Waldner said the decision to close border crossings and stop fuel provision "will exacerbate an already dire humanitarian situation in the Gaza Strip and risks escalating an already difficult situation on the ground".
Israel withdrew from Gaza in 2005 after 38 years of occupation but still controls the borders and shipment of supplies.
Hamas seized power in Gaza from the rival Fatah faction, which is based in the West Bank and led by the Palestinian president, Mahmoud Abbas.
(This after the US and Israel used corrupt elements of Fatah in a failed Coup attempt against Hamas.)
http://www.guardian.co.uk/israel/Story/0,,2244363,00.html
UN says Gaza facing food shortage
Most of Gaza's 1.4m people depend on humanitarian aid
UN food aid to about 860,000 people in the Gaza Strip will have to be suspended within days if Israel's blockade continues, the UN has warned.
Spokesman Christopher Gunness said the UN relief agency UNWRA was running short of nylon for plastic bags and fuel for vehicles and generators.
Israel closed Gaza's borders last Thursday in response to rocket attacks by Gaza-based militants.
(The rockets are a response to Israel's imposition of Collective Punishment!)
The EU says Israel is "collectively punishing" the Hamas-run territory.
Egypt has urged Israel to lift its border closure and the crisis is being discussed by the Arab League.
With fuel supplies hit by the blockade, Gaza's only power plant, which produces 27% of the territory's electricity needs according to a recent UN report, was shut down on Sunday night.
I have made clear that I am against this collective punishment of the people of Gaza
Benita Ferrero-Waldner,
EU External Relations Commissioner
Israel says it is still providing power to Gaza, putting its current contribution at nearly 70%, while Egyptian power stations account for the remainder.
Prime Minister Ehud Olmert says that while Israel does not want to provoke a humanitarian crisis, it does want to make people's lives "uncomfortable".
(Which is illegal ... That's all the rockets are about.)
In another development, overnight Israeli air strikes in the Gaza City area killed one Palestinian and injured several others. Israel said it had been targeting militants transporting rockets.
On Monday morning residents awoke to closed petrol stations and shuttered bakeries unable to bake bread - a staple food in Gaza.
Generators are supplying critical power to hospitals
Generators are being used to maintain critical power supplies to hospitals but there are fears that supplies of diesel could soon run out.
Mr Olmert insists the Israeli action is limited to cutting fuel supplies for vehicles.
(But that is contradicted by the facts.)
"As far as I'm concerned, all the residents of Gaza can walk and have no fuel for their cars, because they have a murderous terrorist regime that doesn't allow people in the south of Israel to live in peace," he said.
Israeli foreign ministry spokesman Ary Mekell told the BBC on Monday that the energy crisis in Gaza was a "a fabrication and a stage production by Hamas".
"There is no shortage of electricity - we provide 70% of the electricity for Gaza through electric cables and this is nothing to do with the fuel supplies," he said.
GAZA'S ELECTRICITY SOURCES
Gaza uses 187 megawatts of electricity
Israel supplies 64% of this, and Egypt 9%
The remaining 27% is produced by Gaza's power station
Israel supplies the fuel oil for the Gaza power station
Source: UN report, May 2007
A report by the UN humanitarian affairs agency Ocha in May 2007 estimated that Israel supplied 64% of Gaza electricity, the local power station - 27%, and Egypt - 9%.
After decades of occupation, Israel withdrew from the Gaza Strip in 2005, but it still controls the territory's borders and supplies.
Hamas - branded a terrorist organisation by the Israel, the US and the EU - has been in charge of Gaza since June, when it drove out rivals Fatah.
More than 200 rockets and mortars have hit Israel from Gaza since an Israeli operation against militants on Tuesday that left 18 Palestinians dead, the Israeli military says.
Foreign concern
Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak telephoned Mr Olmert to warn him of the humanitarian effects of the blockade, and urged him to "stop the Israeli aggression".
Israel says border closures will stop if the rocket attacks end
He also raised the possibility of reopening the Rafah crossing between Gaza and Egypt, which Israel insists should remain closed.
Arab League officials gathered in Cairo for an emergency meeting but it is unclear what action it can take other than pushing for humanitarian relief.
The most significant action would be to reopen Gaza's crossing into Egypt but this would probably prove too controversial a step for the Egyptian government, the BBC's Ian Pannell reports.
In other reaction:
The UK said it did not support the Israeli blockade and called for all parties to work for the reopening of the crossings. Reports that electricity has been cut because of fuel shortages are particularly alarming, it said
International aid agency Oxfam said Gaza's water and sanitation system was "running on empty" with most pumps due to shut down by Tuesday
EU external relations commissioner Benita Ferrero-Waldner spoke out against "this collective punishment of the people of Gaza" and called for an end to the blockade
Iran called on foreign ministers of Islamic states to convene on the crisis
Jordan said it was "deeply concerned" about Israeli "military violations" and Lebanese PM Fouad Siniora said Israel was escalating "racial discrimination... under the pretext of confronting Hamas"
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/middle_east/7200037.stm
As Predicted: Gaza Reoccupation Planned
http://www.indymedia.org.uk/en/2008/01/388658.html
As Predicted: Israel Attacks Gaza
http://alaanasnews.blogspot.com/2007/12/as-predicted-israel-attacks-gaza.html
Gaza Food Supplies 'Getting Worse by the Day'
http://winnipeg.indymedia.org/item.php?10015S
Israel Destroys Gaza Interior Ministry, Blocks UN Aid
http://today.reuters.com/news/articlenews.aspx?type=topNews&storyid=2008-01-18T144241Z_01_L17306267_RTRUKOC_0_US-PALESTINIANS-ISRAEL.xml
Probe: At Least Half of Palestinians Killed by IDF Were Civilians
http://www.haaretz.com/hasen/spages/944276.html
Israeli Attacks on Palestinians, Killings, Doubled Since Annapolis
http://www.uruknet.de/?p=m40008&hd=&size=1&l=e
UN Condemns Collective Punishment of Gaza
http://www.indymedia.org.uk/en/2008/01/389757.html?c=on#c187937
UN Condemns 'Cowardly Israeli War Crime'
http://www.indymedia.org.uk/en/2008/01/389828.html
Mark Tran and agencies
Monday January 21, 2008
Guardian Unlimited
Palestinians try to buy bread from a bakery in Gaza City during Israel's fuel blockade. Photograph: Mahmud Hams/AFP/Getty
Food aid to residents in Gaza could be suspended unless Israel reopens the border, a UN agency said today.
The warning came amid a resurgence of violence between Israel and Hamas Islamists, and the halting by Israel of crucial fuel supplies to the coastal strip.
(Meaning increased attacks on Gaza by Israel. The attacks, which were planned long before the Annapolis Conference, have doubled since the meetings, killing a great number of Palestinians, a report by Ha'Aretz saying at least of the victims are civilians.)
"Because of a shortage of nylon for plastic bags and fuel for vehicles and generators, on Wednesday or Thursday we are going to have to suspend our food distribution programme to 860,000 people in Gaza if the present situation continues," said Christopher Gunness, a spokesman for the UN Relief Works Agency, which distributes food aid to 860,000 Palestinians in Gaza.
Unwra distributes basic food parcels in Gaza consisting of items such as pulses, flour and packaged milk. The situation in the territory, which has been under a western economic embargo since Hamas took power last June, is already bleak.
(The embargo was imposed in an illegal move to punish the Palestinians for electing Hamas to power.)
"We are already seeing signs of malnutrition and there have been cases or rickets [a cause of weak bones through a lack of vitamin D]," Gunness said.
Israel, however, showed little signs of easing what is effectively an economic blockade of Gaza in response to a barrage of rocket fire aimed at its southern towns.
(This is not about the rockets. The rockets are a response to the imposition of these illegal measures of Collective Punishment. Israel's own defence staff warned that this would result from these measures. It appears now that this is exactly what Israel had hoped to provoke, and sadly, much of the media is allowing them to 'justify' their premeditated aggression based on the reaction to their illegal provocations.)
The Israeli prime minister, Ehud Olmert, said Palestinians in Gaza might have to go without Israeli-supplied petrol for their cars as long as militants continue to fire rockets across the border.
(It's not about cars. It's about hospitals and aid/food. And in making such a statement, he is acknowledging that this is Collective Punishment, which is a War Crime.)
"As far as I'm concerned, all the residents of Gaza can walk and have no fuel for their cars, because they have a murderous terrorist regime that doesn't allow people in the south of Israel to live in peace," Olmert said in a broadcast.
(No doubt the Palestinians can see the irony in such a statement.)
The UN and the EU have urged Israel to restore the flow of fuel amid fears of a humanitarian disaster. Lebanon and Syria called for an emergency Arab summit to discuss the Israeli blockade.
The Syrian foreign ministry demanded "an immediate end to the collective punishment and Israeli crimes", saying Israel was violating "the simplest rules of human rights".
(The UN, EU, and aid organizations agree.)
The pro-western Lebanese prime minister, Fouad Siniora, described developments in Gaza as a serious escalation of Israel's "racial discrimination and blatant human rights violations against Palestinians, under the pretext of confronting Hamas".
Palestinian officials warned of a catastrophe in health services in Gaza because of Israel's decision to halt fuel shipments, which has forced the shutdown of Gaza's sole only power plant.
"We have the choice to either cut electricity on babies in the maternity ward or heart surgery patients or stop operating rooms," said a health ministry official, Moaiya Hassanain.
Israel last night refused to reopen crossings or allow fuel supplies in after the most intense fighting between Israel and the Palestinians in Gaza for more than a year. Nearly 40 Palestinians have been killed in the past week, at least 10 of them civilians.
Electricity officials shut Gaza's only power plant just before 8pm (6pm GMT) yesterday. Gaza bakeries stopped operating because of the blockade, bakers said, because they had neither power nor flour. Fresh pitta bread is a staple food for Gazans.
Israel denied its economic measures would cause widespread suffering.
"We will do everything to prevent a humanitarian crisis in Gaza and I can guarantee to you that there will not be a humanitarian crisis in Gaza," said Shlomo Dror, an Israeli defence spokesman.
Arye Mekel, an Israeli foreign ministry spokesman, accused Hamas of creating an artificial emergency, calling the blackout a "ploy ... to attract international sympathy".
(Israeli policy is all that's needed to build international sympathy. No stunts are necessary.)
Hamas said five hospital patients had died because of the power cut. But health officials, speaking on condition of anonymity, denied this.
Israel imposed the fuel blockade in response to rocket fire that has virtually paralysed life in southern Israeli towns. The upsurge of fighting last week followed an Israeli anti-rocket operation in Gaza.
(Destroying the Interior Ministry had nothing to do with the rockets Israel's Collective Punishment have provoked.)
The Israeli deputy prime minister, Haim Ramon, said there were signs the blockade was working, as the number of rockets fired dropped sharply today. The army said five were fired yesterday, down from 53 over the previous two days.
As well as fuel from Israel to power its electricity plant, Gaza receives about 70% of its electricity direct from Israel. That energy supply had not been stopped, Israel said. The Gaza power plant supplies most of the remaining electricity. Israeli officials acknowledge its fuel supply has been stopped.
The EU criticised Israel for punishing all of Gaza's 1.5 million inhabitants and urged it to restart fuel supplies and open border crossings.
"I have made clear that I am against this collective punishment of the people of Gaza," the EU external relations commissioner, Benita Ferrero-Waldner, said in a statement.
"I urge the Israeli authorities to restart fuel supplies and open the crossings for the passage of humanitarian and commercial supplies."
Ferrero-Waldner said the decision to close border crossings and stop fuel provision "will exacerbate an already dire humanitarian situation in the Gaza Strip and risks escalating an already difficult situation on the ground".
Israel withdrew from Gaza in 2005 after 38 years of occupation but still controls the borders and shipment of supplies.
Hamas seized power in Gaza from the rival Fatah faction, which is based in the West Bank and led by the Palestinian president, Mahmoud Abbas.
(This after the US and Israel used corrupt elements of Fatah in a failed Coup attempt against Hamas.)
http://www.guardian.co.uk/israel/Story/0,,2244363,00.html UN says Gaza facing food shortage
Most of Gaza's 1.4m people depend on humanitarian aid
UN food aid to about 860,000 people in the Gaza Strip will have to be suspended within days if Israel's blockade continues, the UN has warned.
Spokesman Christopher Gunness said the UN relief agency UNWRA was running short of nylon for plastic bags and fuel for vehicles and generators.
Israel closed Gaza's borders last Thursday in response to rocket attacks by Gaza-based militants.
(The rockets are a response to Israel's imposition of Collective Punishment!)
The EU says Israel is "collectively punishing" the Hamas-run territory.
Egypt has urged Israel to lift its border closure and the crisis is being discussed by the Arab League.
With fuel supplies hit by the blockade, Gaza's only power plant, which produces 27% of the territory's electricity needs according to a recent UN report, was shut down on Sunday night.
I have made clear that I am against this collective punishment of the people of Gaza
Benita Ferrero-Waldner,
EU External Relations Commissioner
Israel says it is still providing power to Gaza, putting its current contribution at nearly 70%, while Egyptian power stations account for the remainder.
Prime Minister Ehud Olmert says that while Israel does not want to provoke a humanitarian crisis, it does want to make people's lives "uncomfortable".
(Which is illegal ... That's all the rockets are about.)
In another development, overnight Israeli air strikes in the Gaza City area killed one Palestinian and injured several others. Israel said it had been targeting militants transporting rockets.
On Monday morning residents awoke to closed petrol stations and shuttered bakeries unable to bake bread - a staple food in Gaza.
Generators are supplying critical power to hospitals
Generators are being used to maintain critical power supplies to hospitals but there are fears that supplies of diesel could soon run out.
Mr Olmert insists the Israeli action is limited to cutting fuel supplies for vehicles.
(But that is contradicted by the facts.)
"As far as I'm concerned, all the residents of Gaza can walk and have no fuel for their cars, because they have a murderous terrorist regime that doesn't allow people in the south of Israel to live in peace," he said.
Israeli foreign ministry spokesman Ary Mekell told the BBC on Monday that the energy crisis in Gaza was a "a fabrication and a stage production by Hamas".
"There is no shortage of electricity - we provide 70% of the electricity for Gaza through electric cables and this is nothing to do with the fuel supplies," he said.
GAZA'S ELECTRICITY SOURCES
Gaza uses 187 megawatts of electricity
Israel supplies 64% of this, and Egypt 9%
The remaining 27% is produced by Gaza's power station
Israel supplies the fuel oil for the Gaza power station
Source: UN report, May 2007
A report by the UN humanitarian affairs agency Ocha in May 2007 estimated that Israel supplied 64% of Gaza electricity, the local power station - 27%, and Egypt - 9%.
After decades of occupation, Israel withdrew from the Gaza Strip in 2005, but it still controls the territory's borders and supplies.
Hamas - branded a terrorist organisation by the Israel, the US and the EU - has been in charge of Gaza since June, when it drove out rivals Fatah.
More than 200 rockets and mortars have hit Israel from Gaza since an Israeli operation against militants on Tuesday that left 18 Palestinians dead, the Israeli military says.
Foreign concern
Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak telephoned Mr Olmert to warn him of the humanitarian effects of the blockade, and urged him to "stop the Israeli aggression".
Israel says border closures will stop if the rocket attacks end
He also raised the possibility of reopening the Rafah crossing between Gaza and Egypt, which Israel insists should remain closed.
Arab League officials gathered in Cairo for an emergency meeting but it is unclear what action it can take other than pushing for humanitarian relief.
The most significant action would be to reopen Gaza's crossing into Egypt but this would probably prove too controversial a step for the Egyptian government, the BBC's Ian Pannell reports.
In other reaction:
The UK said it did not support the Israeli blockade and called for all parties to work for the reopening of the crossings. Reports that electricity has been cut because of fuel shortages are particularly alarming, it said
International aid agency Oxfam said Gaza's water and sanitation system was "running on empty" with most pumps due to shut down by Tuesday
EU external relations commissioner Benita Ferrero-Waldner spoke out against "this collective punishment of the people of Gaza" and called for an end to the blockade
Iran called on foreign ministers of Islamic states to convene on the crisis
Jordan said it was "deeply concerned" about Israeli "military violations" and Lebanese PM Fouad Siniora said Israel was escalating "racial discrimination... under the pretext of confronting Hamas"
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/middle_east/7200037.stm As Predicted: Gaza Reoccupation Planned
http://www.indymedia.org.uk/en/2008/01/388658.html As Predicted: Israel Attacks Gaza
http://alaanasnews.blogspot.com/2007/12/as-predicted-israel-attacks-gaza.html Gaza Food Supplies 'Getting Worse by the Day'
http://winnipeg.indymedia.org/item.php?10015S Israel Destroys Gaza Interior Ministry, Blocks UN Aid
http://today.reuters.com/news/articlenews.aspx?type=topNews&storyid=2008-01-18T144241Z_01_L17306267_RTRUKOC_0_US-PALESTINIANS-ISRAEL.xml Probe: At Least Half of Palestinians Killed by IDF Were Civilians
http://www.haaretz.com/hasen/spages/944276.html Israeli Attacks on Palestinians, Killings, Doubled Since Annapolis
http://www.uruknet.de/?p=m40008&hd=&size=1&l=e UN Condemns Collective Punishment of Gaza
http://www.indymedia.org.uk/en/2008/01/389757.html?c=on#c187937 UN Condemns 'Cowardly Israeli War Crime'
http://www.indymedia.org.uk/en/2008/01/389828.html
