Humanitarian Crisis Looming in Gaza Strip

Palestinian officials are warning that a humanitarian crisis is imminent in the besieged and war-torn Gaza Strip as the coastal sliver is wrestling with severe shortage of water and electricity, Press TV reports.

In a statement released on Saturday, the Palestinian Energy and Natural Resources Authority announced that the densely-populated territory is currently operating on six hours of electricity per day, and the authority will be able to continue supplying Gaza with that amount of power each day for another two months.

The Palestinian Energy and Natural Resources Authority further noted that damages done to generators, poles, high pressure cables, main power containers, and warehouses across Gaza Strip in the wake of recent Israeli military strikes will cost $35 million to repair.

Gaza’s sole power plant came under Israeli shelling on July 29, and stopped functioning. The damage is said to take up to a year to fix.

Meanwhile, there is the scarcity of clean water especially at UN-run schools, where nearly 22,000 Palestinian refugees are sheltering.

According to the Palestinian Health Ministry, various diseases are spreading among the refugee population due to the lack of water and hygiene.

The UN agency for Palestinian refugees, UNRWA, says water shortage is due to the Israeli bombardment of the Gaza infrastructure.

Nearly 2,000 Palestinians, including 470 children, have lost their lives and more than 10,200 have been wounded since the Israeli military unleashed fatal assaults on the Gaza Strip more than a month ago.

Human rights groups say Israeli forces are systematically killing Palestinian children and youth.

UN official calls for end to Gaza siege

A high-ranking humanitarian official has appealed for a new deal for the Gaza Strip to end the “collective punishment” of its inhabitants by Israel’s seven-year blockade of the Palestinian enclave.

“You cannot just return to the pre-existing conditions under the blockade,” Pierre Krähenbühl, the Commissioner General for the UN Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees in the Near East, UNRWA, warned on Saturday.

He added that the blockade is illegal under international humanitarian law and amounts in many ways to a form of collective punishment.

The top UN official also called for an extended ceasefire between Palestinians and Israelis, saying it is vitally important for both sides.

Krähenbühl called upon the Tel Aviv regime to conduct a comprehensive and transparent investigation into the strikes on UN schools used as shelters for displaced Palestinians in the cities of BeitHanoun, Jabalia and Rafah in the Gaza Strip.

He also expressed concern about the humanitarian situation in Gaza, adding that even before the conflict started, 65 percent of Palestinian youths were unemployed and the number of those receiving UNRWA food aid was significantly rising due to the Israeli siege.

The Israeli regime has blockaded the Gaza Strip since June 2007, as a result of which the standards of living there have deteriorated markedly. The siege has also led to unprecedented levels of unemployment, and unrelenting poverty in the Palestinian coastal enclave.

Meanwhile, nearly 2,000 Palestinians, including 470 children, have so far been killed and more than 10,200 injured in the Israeli military aggression against Gaza, which began on July 8.

Palestinian resistance movement stresses that any deal with the Israel regime to end its latest war on the impoverished territory must include Palestinians’ demand to end the Gaza blockade.

R.S