Death and Darkness in Gaza,
People are dying, Help us!
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A humanitarian crisis is underway as the Gaza Source: Maan
Strip's only power plant began to shut down on
Sunday, and the tiny coastal territory entered
its third full day without shipments of vital food
and fuel supplies due to Israel's punitive sanctions.
The Gaza Strip's power plant has completely
shut down on Sunday because it no longer
has the fuel needed to keep running. One of
the plant's two electricity-generating turbines
had already shut down by noon.
This will drastically reduce output to 25 or 30
megawatts, down from the 65 megawatts the
plant produces under normal conditions. By
Sunday evening the plant will shut down
completely, leaving large swaths of the
Gaza Strip in darkness.
Omar Kittaneh, the head of the Palestine
Energy Authority in Ramallah, confirmed that
by tonight, the one remaining operating turbine
will be powered down, and the Gaza power plant
will no longer be generating any electricity at all.
"We have asked the Israeli government to
reverse its decision and to supply fuel to operate
the power plant", Dr. Kittaneh said. "We have
talked to the Israeli humanitarian coordination in
their Ministry of Energy [National Infrastructure].
We say this is totally Israel's responsibility, and
that reducing the fuel supplies until the plant had
to shut down will affect not only the electrical
system but the water supply, and the entire
infrastructure in Gaza – everything."
After months of increasingly harsh sanctions,
Israel imposed a total closure on the Strip's border
crossings, even preventing the delivery of
humanitarian aid. The Israeli government says the
closure is punishment for an ongoing barrage of
Palestinian homemade projectiles fired from
the Gaza Strip.
"Famine"
180 fuel stations have shut down after
Gaza residents to buy gas for cooking.
A Palestinian economist Hasan Abu Ramadan said
the current humanitarian disaster in the Gaza Strip
will be deepened by the blockade on fuel and food
supplies. He warned that Gaza Strip could go from
a situation of deep poverty to all out famine, disease,
and malnutrition.
Abu Ramadan said that more than 80% of the
Strip's 1.5 million residents have been surviving
with the help of food aid from international
organizations such as UNRWA for Palestinian refugees.
International condemnation
Most international actors in the region believe
there already is a humanitarian crisis in Gaza,
including the UN's Emergency Relief Coordinator, the Undersecretary-general for humanitarian affairs
John Holmes, who said at a press conference at
UNHQ in New York on Friday that "This kind of
action against the people in Gaza cannot be
justified, even by those rocket attacks".
UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-Moon
expressed particular concern, in a statement
issued later on Friday through his spokesperson,
about the "decision by Israel to close the crossing
points in between Gaza and Israel used for the
delivery of humanitarian assistance. Such action
cuts off the population from much-needed fuel
supplies used to pump water and generate
electricity to homes and hospitals".
The UN Human Rights Council's Special Rapporteur
on the situation of human rights in the occupied
territories, John Dugard, also issued a much
sharper statement on Friday, saying that Israel
must have foreseen the loss of life and injury to
many nearby civilians when it targeted the Ministry
of Interior building in Gaza City.
This, and the killings of other Palestinians during
the week, plus the closures, "raise very serious
questions about Israel's respect for international law
and its Commitment to the peace process", Dugard
said. He said it violates the strict prohibition on
collective punishment contained in the Fourth Geneva
Convention, and one of the basic principles of
international humanitarian law: that military action
must distinguish between military targets
and civilian targets.
--
Popular Committee Against Siege(PCAS),
PCAS Manager,
Sam AK
Gaza - Palestine
Mob:00972598873055
Freegaza.ps@gmail.com
Website: www.freegaza.ps
اللجنة الشعبية لمواجهة الحصار
غزة- فلسطين
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