By Judith Sudilovsky

Gaza's humanitarian crisis at 'point of agony'

Food insecurity and unemployment worsen as Israeli blockade persists, new report finds

The humanitarian crisis in Gaza is worse now than it's been at any time since 1967, when Israel took control of the Strip from Egypt, said British aid groups in a report published last month.

According to the report, the blockade of Gaza that Israel imposed in 2007 after the hard-line Muslim organization Hamas came to power has dramatically worsened levels of poverty and unemployment and has led to deterioration in education and health services.

The report was published by a coalition of eight British humanitarian and human-rights organizations, including Amnesty International and Christian Aid.

Short supplies

The statistics presented in the report are staggering. Some 80 percent of families in Gaza, or about 1.1 million people, currently rely on food aid compared with 63 percent in 2006. Also, the number of households in Gaza earning less than $1.20 per person per day rose from 55 percent to 70 percent during the period June-September 2007, just after Hamas took over the territory. Of the 110,000 workers previously employed in the private sector, 75,000 workers have lost their jobs. Unemployment now stands at 40 percent and may soon reach 50 percent.

Currently only 45 trucks are able to enter Gaza daily compared with an average of 250 in the months before the blockade began, according to the report. An Israeli ban on the transfer of raw materials has put a stop to 95 percent of industrial projects, resulting in the bankruptcy and closure of most factories in Gaza, it said. Israel charges that raw materials are diverted and used to make explosives against Israeli targets.

According to the report there has also been a sharp increase in food prices. While three years ago Gazans used only 37 percent of their income for food, in 2007 that number increased to 62 percent.

As a result of the limited fuel and electricity supply, hospitals in Gaza experience long power cuts lasting up to 12 hours a day, charged the report. In addition, the number of Palestinians who were approved medical treatment outside Gaza dropped by 25 percent.

Fear on all sides

The situation in Gaza began its downward spiral after the 2006 election of the Hamas government. At that time, Israel and the international community implemented a boycott until Hamas denounced the use of violence against Israel, agreed to honor previous agreements made with Israel and accepted the existence of Israel.

In August 2005, Israel withdrew 8,000 of its citizens from 17 Jewish settlements in the Gaza Strip, maintaining control over the passages into the area. Since the withdrawal, Palestinian gunmen have periodically launched missiles and rockets into Israeli towns along the border. Starting at the end of February 2008, almost 200 missiles were launched into Israel, killing two people and seriously injuring dozens more.

In Sderot and other border towns, Israeli schoolchildren were instructed on how to protect themselves during a missile attack, parents were afraid to send their children to school and many families fled north to escape the missiles.

Sderot resident Avital Shimonov, 10, whose classmate lost his legs in a recent missile attack, said she has had nightmares for the past four years because of the missile attacks and is always on the alert for the sound of the sirens warning of incoming missiles.

Israel reacted harshly, sealing the passages for several days, causing a power and fuel outage as well as supply shortages in Gaza. The missiles continued and Israel undertook military action, killing more than 120 people and injuring hundreds more.

Overwhelming poverty

The situation is "getting worse and worse each day," said Gaza Holy Family Parish priest Msgr. Manuel Musallam.

The restrictions on the border closings have since been eased, but supplies are still low, he said. The parish school has no paper left on which to print the semester exams, he said.

"This is the most difficult time and perhaps now we are entering the time of death. Many families are now suffering to the point of agony," said the priest, who has been in Gaza since 1995. He has not been able to leave Gaza for 10 years because the Israelis will not issue him a travel permit for security reasons, despite the intervention of the Latin Patriarchate. "Before, at least, there was work, but this siege is digging into the heart of all people."

In mid-March a cease-fire agreement was mediated by Egypt and while there was a decrease in the exchanges of fire along the border, CRS Gaza Project Manager Omar Shaban said the economic situation remained "very difficult."

"There is no food, no work. There is a lot of poverty," he said.

Shaban noted that food distribution is complicated for aid organizations by the bureaucratic and procedural coordination needed to bring food from outside Gaza because there is no food available within Gaza for large-scale distribution.

"The only way to change the situation is politically," he said. "The Egyptian-mediated cease-fire is good, but if there is no follow-through it will come to nothing."

Israeli response

The thrust of the international aid report came as no surprise to Israel, which was prepared with its own response. As with everything in the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, complexities abound and each side presents a separate set of "facts."

The former chairman of Amnesty International's Israel chapter, Michael Ehrlich, said the report was based on false data, noting that Amnesty's only researcher in the region is based in Europe and relies on information given to her by Palestinians. He said the nongovernmental organizations issuing the report have a history of political and ideological anti-Israel bias.

Furthermore, the report fails "to face the reality and sequence of events" leading to the deteriorating situation, said an Israeli Foreign Ministry statement.

"If only the Palestinians chose to cease their pointless and indiscriminate firing of rockets and missiles . . .  the entire region would return to a normal routine in which Palestinians and Israelis could once again enjoy their daily lives," the statement said.

The coordinator of Government Activities in the Territories said despite Hamas' persistent attacks on the humanitarian crossings, transport of humanitarian aid continues. The transport of medical supplies has taken priority and no transport has been denied, said the statement. During 2007, 14,000 Palestinian patients and their escorts entered Israel for medical treatment, said the statement, amounting to 90 percent of all requests, each of which are individually considered.

The statement accused Hamas of taking medical supplies sent into Gaza and transferring them to their own institutions and of exploiting requests for medical treatment abroad in order to smuggle Hamas members into Israel and carry out terrorist attacks.

The statement asserted that the amount of fuel entering the Strip is sufficient for all humanitarian needs. In addition, it noted, the transfer of fuel has been done under fire, with a fuel truck targeted most recently by Palestinian snipers on March 3.

The coordinator accused Hamas of taking materials transferred by Israel to rehabilitate and develop the sewage system in Gaza and using them instead to manufacture weapons.

"Primary responsibility for all occurrences inside the Gaza Strip since the Israeli withdrawal and dismantling of all settlements there is (on) the Hamas terror organization, which should answer to criticism," said the statement.

Judith Sudilovsky writes from Jerusalem.