Jan. 10, 2008 (World News Trust) -- The
United Nations Relief and Works Agency (UNRWA) has suspended operations
in Gaza since coming under attack by Israeli military forces on Friday.
A
statement from the UNRWA said its temporary suspension “was compelled
by incidents in which UNRWA staff, convoys and installations have come
under attack.”
The
statement said, “On numerous occasions in recent days, humanitarian
convoys have come under Israeli fire even though their safe passage
through clearly designated routes at specifically agreed times, had
been confirmed by the Israeli liaison office.”
The suspension of operations was necessary due to “the nature, severity and frequency of these incidents.”
The
suspension includes movement of staff throughout the Gaza Strip and
vehicle movement, such as the delivery of aid into the territory. The
agency said its presence in Gaza would continue, and that it would
“continue to serve displace civilians who seek safety in UNRWA schools.
UNRWA’s clinics will also remain open.”
The
inability of the UNRWA to deliver relief to the residents of Gaza
exacerbates an already critical humanitarian emergency situation. The
Gaza Strip has been under siege by Israel since it withdrew military
forces and dismantled settlements in 2005. Since that time, Israel has
implemented a blockade of the territory, controlling the land, air, and
sea, and allowed only minimal amounts of humanitarian supplies into
Gaza. It has also engaged in military incursions into Gaza at will.
This situation has led some to argue that Israel is still, by any
practical interpretation, the occupying power in Gaza under
international law, and therefore responsible for the welfare of its
civilian population.
Israel’s
bombardment of Gaza beginning Dec. 27 and its subsequent
invasion of the territory have greatly worsened the already critical
situation. Much of the population in Gaza has no food, water, or
electricity. Gaza’s overflowing hospitals are running on generators and
have little or no spare fuel, or medical supplies.
“There
is no doubt in my mind that we are dealing with a full-blown and major
crisis in humanitarian terms,” said Pierre Kraehenbuehl, the director
of operations in Geneva for the International Committee of the Red
Cross (ICRC). “The situation for the people in Gaza is extreme and
traumatic.”
John
Ging, the head of the UNRWA in Gaza, said, “There are very real
shortages of medicine. This hospital has not had electricity for four
days. If the generators go down, those in intensive care will die. This
is a horrific tragedy here, and it is getting worse by the moment.”
The
Israeli attacks on UN aid convoys are in addition to numerous other
attacks on UN sites in Gaza. Four UN sites have also come under Israeli
attack over the course of the week. Four UN-run schools and a medical
center were hit.
On
Tuesday, a school run by UNRWA in the Jabaliya refugee camp was shelled
by the Israeli Defense Force (IDF) in the fourth attack on a UN site,
killing more than 40 and wounding dozens more Palestinians who had
taken refuge there in an attempt to escape Israel’s bombardment.
The
IDF claimed that Hamas militants had fired rockets from the school.
Mark Regev, spokesman for Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert, said,
“Unfortunately, this is not the first time that Hamas has deliberately
abused a UN installation.”
But UN officials denied the claim.
John
Ging said that Hamas had not violated the sanctity of any UN sites in
Gaza. He said he was “very confident now that there was no militant
activity inside the school nor militants in the school.”
“We are completely devastated,” Ging also said. “There is nowhere safe in Gaza. Everyone here is terrorized and traumatized.”
In
a press statement, he emphasized that all UN schools in Gaza were
clearly marked and the coordinates of their exact locations had been
provided to Israel. He said that “the Israelis have to end their
disproportionate and inappropriate use of force in densely populated
areas.”
Another
UNRWA official, Christopher Gunness, said that the agency was “99.9
percent certain there were no militants or military activity in its
school.”
UN
Secretary General Ban Ki-moon called the attacks “totally
unacceptable.” He added, “After earlier strikes, the Israeli government
was warned that its operations were endangering UN compounds. I am
deeply dismayed that despite these repeated efforts, today’s tragedies
have ensued.”
Adnan
Abu Hasna, a UNRWA spokesman in Gaza, said that the agency had “several
times noted to the Israeli sides to avoid targeting our schools that
shelter civilians.” Yet, “In spite of rising the blue flag of UNRWA on
our schools, the Israeli army has been targeting those schools by
missiles and tanks shells.”
“Neither homes nor UN shelters are safe,” said Maxwell Gaylard, the UN Humanitarian Coordinator for the Palestinian territories.
UNRWA
spokesman Christopher Gunness said Friday, “In briefings, senior IDF
officers conducted for foreign diplomats, they admitted the shelling to
which IDF forces in Jabaliya were responding did not originate from the
school.”
The
ICRC issued a press release Thursday saying when Israel finally granted
safe passage for ambulances on Jan. 7, their team “found four small
children next to their dead mothers in one of the houses. They were too
weak to stand up on their own. One man was also found alive, too weak
to stand up. In all there were at least 12 corpses lying on mattresses.”
While
the ICRC rescue team was assisting other survivors in other houses,
Israeli soldiers “ordered the rescue team to leave the area” but
refused to do so. “Large earth walls erected by the Israeli army had
made it impossible to bring ambulances into the neighbourhood,” the
ICRC statement added, noting that “the Israeli military failed to meet
its obligation under international humanitarian law to care for and
evacuate the wounded” and calling the situation “unacceptable.”
“This
is a shocking incident,” said ICRC official Pierre Wettach. “The
Israeli military must have been aware of the situation but did not
assist the wounded. Neither did they make it possible for us or the
Palestine Red Crescent to assist the wounded.”
More
than 700 Palestinians have been killed in the war, according to the
most recent estimates. The UN has estimated that 25 percent of
Palestinian deaths have been women and children, with an addition
unknown number of men who were also civilians.
Mads
Gilbert, a Norwegian doctor working in the Gaza Strip, when asked by a
reporter whether Hamas militants were included amongst those arriving
at his hospital for treatment, replied, “I’ve seen one military person
among the tens of … I mean, hundreds we have seen and treated. So anybody
who tries to claim this is sort of a clean war against another army are
lying. This is an all out war against the civilian Palestinian
population in Gaza.”
Jeremy R. Hammond is the editor of Foreign Policy Journal,
a website dedicated to providing news, critical analysis, and opinion
commentary on U.S. foreign policy from outside of the standard
framework offered by government officials and the mainstream corporate
media, particularly with regard to the "war on terrorism" and events in
the Middle East. He has also written for numerous other online
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