MIDDLE EAST:THE FRAGILE three-week-old truce between Israel and Hamas in the Gaza Strip has so far had little impact on the everyday lives of Gazans, with the rise of global food and fuel prices biting hard in the impoverished coastal territory, the head of the UN's Relief and Works Agency (UNRWA) has said. MARY FITZGERALD, Foreign Affairs Correspondent reports.
The Egyptian-brokered agreement between Israel and Hamas, under which Israeli authorities agreed to ease a blockade imposed last year if Hamas halted rocket attacks, came into force on June 19th. Since then, however, Israel has closed the enclave's crossing points a number of times in response to rocket attacks by Gaza-based militants.
Karen Koning AbuZayd, commissioner-general of UNRWA, said the humanitarian situation in Gaza, home to more than 1.4 million Palestinians, remains grim.
"The situation hasn't changed a lot except there are more goods in the grocery stores for those who can afford them, which isn't many," she told The Irish Times in Jerusalem. "So many people are destitute . . . without any kinds of salary. It's still a sad situation.
"I think people are still hesitant to be optimistic, they're just used to it, and used to being used to it."
Yesterday John Ging, UNRWA's director of operations in Gaza, called on both Israel and Egypt to fully reopen border crossing points, saying the closures "contradict. . . international laws on human rights".
Ms Koning AbuZayd said rising food and fuel prices had hit Gaza hard, and presented significant challenges for UNRWA, which provides food, clothing, education and healthcare to about 4.5 million Palestinian refugees in the Middle East.
Last month UNRWA joined with two other UN agencies - the Food and Agriculture Organisation and the World Food Programme - to warn of deteriorating Palestinian living standards following the publication of a report showing how escalating food prices and falling incomes were forcing families to live on less food and food of poor nutritional content. The report revealed that in the past 12 months, the price of basic foodstuffs for an average household had increased by almost 70 per cent in the West Bank and 32 per cent in Gaza, in accordance with global trends.
In the West Bank people now spend 56 per cent of the average daily wage on food and in Gaza 66 per cent, according to the report. A third of Palestinians say they have experienced a drop in income this year, with the poor suffering a 40 per cent reduction.