MIDDLE EAST:HUMANITARIAN GROUPS yesterday urged the international community to end the isolation and siege of Gaza, where conditions are at their worst since the 1967 occupation.
Eight charities, including Care, Oxfam and the Irish agency Trócaire, called on Britain to initiate a major change in EU policy by engaging with "all elements of the Palestinian leadership" and promoting reconciliation between Fatah and Hamas. Since Hamas won the parliamentary election in 2006, the US and EU have isolated and boycotted Gaza, while Israel has imposed a tight siege and blockade on the strip.
"The international policy of isolating Hamas has not reaped any benefits . . . it has led to increasing polarisation across the occupied Palestinian territories and resulted in a stalemate with Israel," the agencies noted.
In their 15-page report, A Humanitarian Implosion, the charities condemn Palestinian rocket attacks into Israel but say that "the policy of blockade is a disproportionate response." They argue that the deepening humanitarian crisis is "a direct result of ongoing collective punishment of ordinary men, woman and children and is illegal under international law".
The authors note that the effect of Israeli, US and EU policy has "dismantled the economy and impoverished the population". Eighty per cent of Gazans are dependent on food aid, 40 per cent are unemployed with the number expected to rise to 50 per cent.
"Over the last six months, the majority of private businesses have closed and 95 per cent of Gaza's industrial activity has stopped due to restrictions on imported raw materials and the embargo on exports . . . 3,500 factories out of 3,900 have closed, resulting in some 75,000 job losses. In June 2007, there were 748 truckloads of exports . . . A month later there were none."
The report notes: "Damage inflicted over the past six months will take years to repair." A 20 per cent electricity deficit is crippling hospitals, sewage works and other public institutions. This is set to "get much worse as Israel started to cut electricity supplies to Gaza as well as fuel in February 2008."
Due to a shortage of fuel for generators, 40-50 million litres of untreated sewage pour into the Mediterranean daily.
"Peace will not be achieved by locking 1½ million people into a prison of . . . misery. Failure to end the policy of isolation will only continue the cycle of increasing poverty and extremism in Gaza rather than bring an end to it," the report states.
