Candle-lit march denounces closure of crossings

GAZA, (PIC)-- The Popular Committee Afgainst the Siege organized on Monday evening a candle-lit march to protest the continued Israeli occupation authority's closure of crossings and stoppage of fuel supplies necessary to operate Gaza's sole electricity generation station. Hundreds of citizens including children gathered in central Gaza city carrying candles and posters protesting the siege and demanding an immediate end to it to allow regular supply of fuel and other basic needs. MP Jamal Al-Khudari, the head of the committee, warned of a human tragedy that would befall the Strip within hours if the fuel supplies were not resumed. He pointed out that a simultaneous march was being organized in Cyprus while other events were planned in other capitals and major cities around the world. For his part, Dr. Arafat Madi, the chairman of the European campaign to lift the siege on Gaza who was on board the dignity boat that arrived in Gaza last Saturday and departed on Monday afternoon, denounced the IOA fuel stoppage. He said that electricity blackout could result in "mass deaths" of patients in Gaza hospitals especially those in the intensive care units, incubators and those undergoing dialysis. The lives of a long list of chronically ill patients are threatened due to the siege, Madi said, noting that 257 patients have died so far due to absence of necessary medication in Gaza and inability to travel abroad for treatment. The campaign chairman and the European parliamentary delegation that visited Gaza urged the international medical institutions to supply Gaza with its needs of various medicines and medical equipment by sea. They said, "There is no longer an excuse for those who do not extend assistance to the besieged Palestinian people in Gaza in light of the opening of the sea route between Cyprus and Gaza". The visiting delegates called on the Rafah border terminal and asked the Egyptian president to personally intervene and quickly open the terminal, the continued closure of which entails actual participation in the siege imposed on one and a half million Palestinians.