Interfaith Peace Initiative
Gaza Today
The humanitarian crisis in Gaza is intensifying, with hunger and malnutrition reaching alarming levels. In the wake of Israel’s bombing of their power plant, lack of energy to pump water and refrigerate food is causing enormous hardships. Recently the walls of open sewage lakes have burst, flooding nearby homes and towns. But the United States and western countries continue to withhold desperately needed funds from the people of Gaza. Israel is withholding millions of dollars in tax revenue that belong to Gazans. The frustration of unemployment, the inability to get goods to market through closed borders, and the rising tide of human misery have caused factional fighting among Palestinians. For a time this was used to bolster Israel’s claim that there is “no one to talk to” at the bargaining table.
Now Palestinians have formed a unity government and once again dedicated themselves to achieving a Palestinian state alongside Israel. Yet the people of Gaza continue to suffer in one of the worst humanitarian crises of our time. The articles below give some sense of the horrifying situation for Christians and Muslims in the Gaza Strip.
See The Chicago Chapter of Jewish Voice for Peace
Impact of Fuel Shortage on Gaza Sanitation – Polluting the Sea
GAZA HUMANITARIAN SITUATION REPORT - 29 April 2008
- Between 50 and 60 million litres of partially treated and untreated sewage from the Gaza Strip have been flowing daily into the Mediterranean Sea since 24 January.
- This sewage cannot be treated due to the lack of a steady electricity supply within the Gaza Strip, Israel’s restrictions on fuel imports, and prohibitions on the import of materials and necessary spare parts.
- Full sewage treatment requires 14 continuous days of uninterrupted power supply which cannot occur due to daily power cuts and insufficient fuel to operate power-supplying and back-up generators.
- The sewage discharge is contaminating Gaza sea waters and posing health risks for bathers and consumers of seafood. The sewage flows northward to Israeli coasts, including near the Ashkelon desalination plant. Urgent studies are needed to examine the extent of the impact.
- The ongoing fuel shortages are triggering a further deterioration in the situation, in which untreated sewage is now being pumped into heavily populated residential areas: three million litres of raw sewage were recently pumped into the storm water lagoon Jabaliya camp; a sewage pumping station near Zeitoun is likely to flood when its generator fuel runs out in the next 24-48 hours.
Fuel Crisis Paralyzes 85%
of the Transportation Sector and 50% of Education and Health Services
Palestinian Centre for Human Rights
14 April 2008
PCHR is extremely worried about the continued Israeli ban on fuel supplies required for civilian life in the Gaza Strip. The stoppage in fuel supplies has led to paralyzing 50% of the educational sector as half the students in all educational levels were unable to reach their schools and universities. In addition, educational sector employees have been unable to reach their work. Furthermore, the transportation sector has nearly stopped functioning throughout the Gaza Strip. As a result all basic functions of civilian life have come to a near standstill, including drinking water delivery, sewage water disposal, and garbage collection. In addition, healthcare facilities registered a 25% drop in clients due to the transportation crisis. Furthermore, hundreds of healthcare professionals were unable to reach their work places.
On 9 April 2008, Israeli Occupation Forces (IOF) stopped the flow of the heavily reduced fuel supplies to the Gaza Strip. As a result, the humanitarian situation hit hard by continuous collective punishment since 15 June 2006, deteriorated even further.PCHR’s monitoring indicates that the Gaza Strip has become a ghost town, especially in the morning and in the afternoon. Approximately 145 fuel stations shut down; and all suppliers of fuel and gas shut down due to the total lack of supplies. Local sources indicate that the transportation sector is operating at 15% capacity, including public and private transportation. The civilian population is finding it extremely difficult to reach places of work, study, and even healthcare facilities.
The educational sector is the hardest hit by the fuel crisis. Absenteeism in schools and universities varied from 20-50% since last Saturday, especially inApproximately 50% of the 6000 students in
The Ministry of Health announced that most ambulances have stopped due to lack of fuel. In addition, the Ministry announced that it has started using its limited fuel reserve to operate health centers and important equipment. The Ministry warned that the expiry of this small reserve will paralyze the health sector and the remaining operational ambulances; thus depriving civilians of minimum healthcare services. In addition, hospitals and medical centers in the Gaza Strip are suffering from the absence of staff due to their inability to reach their workplaces. As a result, the operation of these institutions is threatened at a time of escalated Israeli military activity inside the Gaza Strip.
In Light of this situation, PCHR affirms that the siege imposed on the Gaza Strip is a form of collective punishment and reprisal action by IOF against Palestinian civilians. These crimes are a violation of International Humanitarian Law, including the Fourth Geneva Convention (1949), and International Human Rights Law, especially the Covenant on Economic, Social, and Cultural Rights and the Covenant on Civil and Political Rights.PCHR reiterates the call to
the international community, especially the High Contracting Parties of the
4th
Geneva Convention (1949), to break their silence and pressure
New Report Finds Gaza Humanitarian Situation is Worst in 40 years
Jerusalem
06 March 2008
"A new report by a consortium of British aid agencies says the humanitarian situation in the Gaza Strip is the worst in forty years. VOA's Jim Teeple reports the report blames Israel for the crisis, but Israeli officials say Hamas militants are to blame.
Eight British aid organizations say the humanitarian situation in Gaza has deteriorated to the worst point in 40 years and that it will likely get worse unless Israel eases its blockade of the territory.
According to the report, more than one million people or 80 percent of Gaza's population is now dependent on food aid and that Gaza's power, water and sewage systems have collapsed...." http://www.voanews.com/english/2008-03-06-voa24.cfm
Gaza's Christian community - serenity, solidarity and soulfulness
Mohammed Omer, The Washington Report on Middle East Affairs
Feb 9, 2008
"As the sun rises in the east on the first day of Advent, the bells of Gaza's churches fill the air, mixing amicably with the Muslim call to prayer. There is an air of quiet serenity spiced with excitement as the faithful walk to their churches and mosques, the doors swinging open, and Christians and Muslims bid each other good morning on yet another Sunday.
Gaza's oldest church, the Greek Orthodox St. Porphyrus, dates back to the 16th century. The majority of Gaza's Christians are served by the Roman Catholic Church on Al Zayotoun St. and the Gaza Baptist Church, which offer living room prayer groups, interfaith outreach, several schools, and humanitarian/medical Christian charities staffed by both locals and internationals. Today Gaza is home to approximately 3,000 Christians, the majority of whom live near these Gaza City churches....." http://imeu.net/news/article007836.shtml
This article was originally published by The Washington Report on Middle East Affairs
Gaza sewage, water
disaster looms
By MEL FRYKBERG (Middle East Times)
Published: January 02, 2008
"More than 1.4 million Gaza Palestinians are facing an impending health disaster from decaying sewage and water systems that lack vital spare parts, fuel, and maintenance work, due to an Israeli economic siege on the Gaza Strip.....
""We are a one-generator-failure away from disaster," Michael Bailey, an Oxfam spokesman, told the Middle East Times. The situation is verging on critical. There are 35 sewage pumping stations operational in Gaza. If one of the pumps breaks there is no way to replace it, because of a lack of spare parts," said Bailey, whose organization works with Gaza's Coastal Municipalities Water Utilities. "This would mean sewage backing into homes and onto the streets and the resulting health problems associated with it."
In March an earth embankment around a sewage reservoir in the northern Gaza Strip collapsed spewing a river of waste and mud that killed at least five people....The World Bank and UNICEF have reported that despite repeated requests Israel has forbidden the importation by any means -- sea, air, or by land across the Egyptian border -- of consignments of pumps, metal pipes, air and oil filters, and other goods that need to be obtained from outside Gaza; while allowing only a few basics to be trucked through the Erez crossing with Israel in the northern Gaza Strip...." http://www.metimes.com/International/2008/01/02/gaza_sewage_water_disaster_looms/5312/
Christians in Gaza: An Integral Part of Society
20/10/2007
"Gaza, Asharq Al-Awsat- Abu Saeed, a vendor selling
electrical appliances in Gaza City’s Rimal district says he that it only occurs
to him that the vendor selling foodstuffs next door, Abu Hana is Christian
during the Christian holidays. They have been working together in their
neighboring shops for over 30 years, exchanging greetings and pleasantries, as
well as praying in the nearby mosque and church respectively...."
Gaza: One and a Half Million People
Collectively Punished
By: Luisa Morgantini*,
International Middle East Monitoring Center, 23 September, 2007
http://www.australiansforpalestine.com/palestine/arch_art/oct07/MORGANTINI_one_half_and_a_half.php
Starving Gaza
Chris Hedges, Truthdig, Aug 22, 2007
Gaza has
become the Sarajevo of the Middle East. Israel, in an action similar to that of
the Serbs in Bosnia, has surrounded and cut off nearly a million and a half
Palestinians in the Gaza Strip since the Islamic militant group Hamas took
control in June. Electric fences and watch towers manned by Israeli soldiers
keep the Palestinians trapped inside the strip. The land and sea blockade, the
halting of all but minimal humanitarian aid and the refusal to allow Gaza to
receive financial support are crushing Gaza’s industry, farming and
infrastructure.
The tactic is clear: Israel and the United States will strangle Gaza by cutting
off all money and goods, including fuel and most food, to reduce one of the most
densely populated places on the planet to an impoverished ghetto.
This
article was originally published by
Truthdig and is
republished with the author's permission.
http://www.truthdig.com/report/item/20070820_starving_gaza/
Gaza Strip holds its breath
By Ken
Ellingwood, Times Staff Writer
June 22,
2007
|
"Hamas
forces dominate the Palestinian territory, and residents
await signs of what the future may hold....Many in Gaza
fear their isolation is about to get worse. Residents
have long described the coastal enclave as a big prison.
Now its borders with Israel and Egypt are sealed. "
http://www.latimes.com/news/nationworld/world/la-fg-gazamood22jun22,0,5959591,full.story?coll=la-home-center
|
Sewage Tsunami and Economic,
Physical and Political; Strangulation in Gaza
by Anna Baltzer, April 7, 2007
Anna Baltzer, a Jewish American Fulbright Scholar and Columbia University graduate, has written powerful eyewitness reports from Palestine available at www.annainthemiddleeast.com. This letter describes the current situation in Gaza and examines Israel's devastating actions against Gaza's people. It is important reading for anyone interested in the question of whether Israel's occupation there has actually ended (the article)
Environmental disaster in
Gaza,
Sewage
basin collapsesReport,
PCHR,
27 March
2007
http://electronicintifada.net/v2/article6740.shtml
Health care
and children in crisis in Gaza
by
Miriam Garfinkle, MD and Reem Abdul Qadir, MSW RSW
March
26, 2007
“Ultimately there can be no solution to this horrific situation until there is an end to the military occupation of Gaza and the West Bank, which continues and indeed escalates, despite the 2005 pull-out of Israeli settlements. There is both a public health and mental health crisis unfolding in Gaza at a breakneck pace. As human beings, as Canadians, as Jews and Palestinians, we all have a moral obligation and vital stake in protecting these children and giving them access to a viable future. The alternative is unthinkable.”
Occupied Gaza Like Apartheid South Afica, Says
U.N. Report
By Rory McCarthy
Guardian (UK)
February 23, 2007
"Jerusalem - A UN human rights
investigator has likened Israel's occupation of the Palestinian territories to
apartheid South Africa and says there should be "serious consideration" over
bringing the occupation to the international court of justice. The report by
John Dugard, a South African law professor who is the UN's special rapporteur on
human rights in the Palestinian territories, represents some of the most
forceful criticism yet of Israel's 40-year occupation."
http://www.guardian.co.uk/israel/Story/0,,2019547,00.html
For the full
report see:
http://www.ohchr.
org/english/ bodies/hrcouncil /docs/4session/ A.HRC.4.17. pdf
International aid agency: 80 percent of Gazans
now rely on food aid
Ha'aretz Newspaper 04/03/2007 - By Avi Issacharoff, Haaretz
Correspondent
"Eighty percent of Gazans
receive food aid from the World Food Program or from UNRWA, WFP spokesperson
Kirstie Campbell says, 'and without it they are liable to starve.' "
http://www.haaretz.com/hasen/objects/pages/PrintArticleEn.jhtml?itemNo=832936
Irish bishops: Israel has turned Gaza Strip into
a 'large prison'
By The Associated Press - February 27, 2007
A group of Irish Roman
Catholic bishops on Tuesday called into question Ireland's commercial ties with
Israel, saying Israel has made the Gaza Strip "little more than a large prison"
for Palestinians. "Where there is evidence of systematic abuse of human rights
on a large scale, as in the Occupied Territories, there are questions that must
be asked concerning the appropriateness of maintaining close business, cultural
and commercial links with Israel," said auxiliary Bishop of Dublin Raymond
Field....Ha'aretz
http://haaretz.com/hasen/spages/831315.html
Half of
Palestinians in West Bank and Gaza malnourished
By
Donald Macintyre in Jerusalem -
Published: 22 February 2007
“Around 46 per cent of Gaza and West Bank households are "food insecure" or in danger of becoming so, according to a UN report on the impact of conflict and the global boycott of the Hamas-led Palestinian Authority. …It says that the situation is "more grim" in Gaza where four out of five families have reduced their spending - including on food - in the first quarter of last year alone....." http://news.independent.co.uk/world/middle_east/article2293476.ece
Israel's
'invisible hand' in Gaza
By Alan Johnston
BBC News, Gaza
Wednesday, 17 January 2007,
12:05 GMT
“Although Israel withdrew from Gaza more than a year ago, its control over the lives of Palestinians there is in some ways even tighter than before, a new report by an Israeli human rights organisation says.” http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/middle_east/6270331.stm
Stop the Siege
of Gaza
By Rela Mazali - December 2, 2006 - Tel Aviv
http://www.jewishvoiceforpeace.org/publish/article_778.shtml
Translated from the Hebrew by Rela Mazali. (Rela is a Jewish Israeli who spoke in Providence, Boston and Newport during the New England tour of Jerusalem Women Speak. One of her talks was sponsored by the Interfaith Peace Initiative.)
Bring back Kfar Darom
by
Gideon Levy, November 21, 2006
Haaretz
Newspaper
“Soon Gaza will look like Darfur…”
In this article, Israeli author Gideon Levy argues that Gaza was better off under the settlement regime than in its aftermath, as closures and starvation make life almost impossible for its people. “Soon Gaza will look like Darfur, but while the world is giving some sort of assistance to Darfur, it still dares to play tough with Gaza. Instead of boycotting the one who is abusing the residents of Gaza, the world is boycotting the victim, blocking assistance that it so desperately needs.”
Al Mezan Center for Human Rights to EU: Israel is committing gross violations of international law in the Gaza Strip – November 21, 2006
“Ma'an - The
Al Mezan Center for Human Rights in the Gaza Strip delivered a letter to
distinguished representatives of the European Union on Thursday 16 November
calling for urgent intervention to bring a halt to Israel's continued violations
of international humanitarian and human rights law in the Gaza Strip.”
http://www.maannews.net/en/index.php?opr=ShowDetails&ID=17347
As Gazans Wait for Aid, Their
Situation Is Dire
May
11, 2006
By Steven Erlanger
This article - written before Israel destroyed the Gaza Strip’s main power plant, cutting off water pumps, refrigeration, and sewage processing - shows just how fragile the situation already was for Gazans due to the cutoff of Western aid after their democratic elections were held. http://www.nytimes.com/2006/05/11/world/middleeast/11gaza.html?ex=1305000000&en=5904551410644d05&ei=5088&partner=rssnyt&emc=rss
