Blockade of Gaza halts food, fuel, refugee aid

The United Nations refugee agency protested on Mar. 21 that its vehicles had run out of fuel in the Gaza Strip because of Israeli border closures. The agency's fleet of 276 trucks, buses and cars is stranded, leaving UN staff unable to distribute aid to 735,000 refugees, while health and social services workers are already unable to visit refugee camps. John Ging, Gaza director of operations for the UN Relief and Works Agency, appealed for an immediate resolution to the crisis, which has led to increasing shortages of basic foods. Israel cites security reasons for keeping the main border crossing at Karni closed for more than 45 days this year. Palestinians believe that the crossing is being kept closed to punish them for electing Hamas, the militant Islamic fundamentalist group, to run the Palestinian Authority. Israel did open the Karni crossing on Mar. 21 to allow wheat into Gaza, but Ging protested that the limited move was completely inadequate. "We have shortages of all the essential commodities and... 10 percent of capacity is not going to meet the need," he said. Officials said that the UN had 15,000 gallons of fuel waiting to be brought in through the Karni crossing. "The politics of this situation is not relevant to us. What is relevant is the humanitarian impact on the street," Ging complained. "We flagged this up to the Israelis two months ago and we were assured and reassured that a solution would be found before we ran out. Now we have run out." Palestinian bakeries are rationing bread and humanitarian agencies have cancelled food handouts to Palestinian widows and orphans, giving warning of severe shortages in the Gaza Strip. William Hart, of the World Food Program (WFP), which feeds 160,000 of the poorest Palestinians, said: "The blockade has meant that the wheatflour mills in Gaza are unable to access the wheat they need to mill for the market, and for the WFP." At an empty storage depot in Gaza City, where the WFP administers its "hardship cases" program through the Palestinian Authority, officials said that the flour ran out last month. Of 8,521 needy families in the area, more than 1,600 did not get their 110-pound sacks. Jamil Hamoudi, a Palestinian civil servant at the depot, accused Israel of "collective punishment on all the Palestinian people for their democratic choice, although only 45 percent of them voted for Hamas." In addition, he and his colleagues fear that other aid projects–and their own jobs–will be under threat if the US and EU cut off aid delivered through a Hamas-controlled government. US officials have spent weeks searching for ways to bypass Hamas once it takes power. Tom Lantos, a Democrat congressman from California, has tabled new legislation banning all aid to the Palestinian Authority except food, water and medicine. The Palestinian Authority Interior Minister spoke of a fresh intifada were the blockade not lifted. "If the Israelis continue with the closures they have to live with the consequences when it comes to the point that our people find they have nothing to lose," explained Said Siyam. "The Israelis will pay the price for their anger, and there will be a new Intifada of the Palestinian people."