A UN agency said on
Monday it would have
to suspend food distribution
to 860,000 Palestinians in
the Gaza Strip as early as
Wednesday unless Israel
eased the border blockade
it imposed on the Hamas-controlled territory.
Other international groups said that Gaza hospitals
would run out of drugs and generator fuel in a few
days unless Israel allowed goods through border
crossings closed on Friday in what Israel said was
a bid to make militants stop rocket attacks.
"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, spokesman for the
United Nations Relief and Works Agency
(UNRWA).
The European Union, which funds fuel for Gaza's
now-idle main power plant, said it understood
Israel's need to defend itself against cross-border
rockets but called the closure "collective punishment"
and said it should be lifted.
"There is no fuel, meaning there is no work," said
Abu Mahmoud, a fisherman. "We have seen bad
times before, but never worse than these days."
Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert, reporting to
his party on a telephone conversation with a
concerned Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak,
said he assured him that "we will not allow a
humanitarian crisis in Gaza".
But in broadcast remarks, Olmert said that with
rockets continuing to hit towns in southern Israel,
he had no intention of letting Gazans
"live comfortable and pleasant lives".
"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.
He promised humanitarian aid would reach
"hospitals, clinics, young children and helpless
people" but did not say when.
Residents of the impoverished territory awoke
to nearly traffic-free streets and shuttered shops
because of the petrol shortage. The main power
plant shut down on Sunday after Israel blocked
fuel supplies, plunging much of Gaza City into darkness.
Gaza militants have vowed to continue
their rocket fire. The West Bank-based
Palestinian government called in a statement
for international pressure on Israel to stop its
"inhuman and unjust siege policy" in the
Gaza Strip.
"Israel is rendering (peace) negotiations a
useless process," the statement said, but
stopped short of any threat to suspend
Israeli-Palestinian talks renewed after a
US-sponsored international peace conference
in Annapolis in November.
European Union and United Nations officials
said both organisations were pressing Israel
to allow immediate supplies of fuel and medicine
to the Gaza Strip, where 1.5 million live
.-Reuters
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