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UN stops food distribution as Israel disallows
Gaza City—Israel’s reluctance to allow emergency
supplies into the sealed off Gaza Strip forced the UN Relief and
Works Agency (UNRWA) to halt distribution of food to 750,000 people
on Thursday.
“We have run out (of food aid) this evening,” UNRWA Gaza chief John
Ging told. “Unless the crossing points open... we won’t be able to
get that food into Gaza”, IINA reported.
Israel had promised to allow 30 trucks to deliver supplies to Gaza
Thursday but backtracked on its decision. The International
Committee for the Red Cross (ICRC) said a truck loaded with aid was
turned back from Kerem Shalom crossing. Israel has not allowed the
UN and other aid agencies to bring supplies into the impoverished
costal territory since November 4.
It has also kept its commercial crossings with Gaza closed for the
tenth day, cutting off EU-funded fuel supplies to Gaza’s sole power
plant. “It is completely shut down,” Palestinian Energy Authority
official Qanaan Obeid said. The plant provides between a quarter and
a third of Gaza’s power while the rest come from Egyptian grids.
A group of senior European diplomats and Western journalists have
been prevented by Israeli forces from entering Gaza earlier
yesterday. Israel has been closing the Gaza Strip’s exits to the
outside world since June of last year.
International aid agencies slammed Israel,s oppressive measures.
“Every day the situation is getting more and more precarious for
Gazans,” regretted Katharina Ritz, the International Committee for
the Red Cross (ICRC) mission chief. Gunness, the UNRWA Gaza chief,
echoed the same concerns. “Pushing people to the brink of
desperation every few months and forcing UNRWA into yet another
cycle of crisis management is not in the interest of anyone who
believes in peace, moderation and stability.”
Earlier this month, European lawmakers denounced the West’s shameful
silence over the chocking, months-long Israeli siege. “Our
governments are shameful in that they don’t hold up international
law and say to Israel the siege is illegal and must be broken,”
British MP Clare Short said. “The whole of the EU is colluding to
what is taking place in Gaza to our shame.—APP
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