- Traffic in the Gaza Strip slowed to a trickle
last week, and this week medical centres have scaled back treatment in
the medicines and sustenance-destitute Strip.
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- "Israel's decision is a death penalty: our reserve
of fuel is almost zero and it may very likely run out by the end of today,"
said Khaled Radi, Ministry of Health spokesman for the dismissed Hamas government.
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- Radi spoke in reference to the 30 November Israeli Supreme
Court decision to allow further fuel cutbacks, severe reductions which
are crippling Gaza's residents in all aspects of life. Prior to that ruling,
as early as October Israel decided to begin limiting fuel, with
Gaza soon after enduring serious cuts of over 50% of fuel needs, a dire
statistic confirmed by the UN body OCHA.
-
- At the Nahal Oz crossing, through which all fuel enters Gaza,
the Palestinian petrol authority reported that Israel has delivered
around only 190,000 litres of diesel a day since late October, falling
short of the 350,000 litres needed by the Gaza Strip. This number plummeted
on 29 November, with Israel delivering a scanty 60,000 litres,
only marginally improving three days later, 2 December, with a delivery
of 90,000 litres.
-
- This week's increased cutbacks resulted in a several
day closure of Gaza's petrol stations, owners striking in protest to the
pittance of fuel allowed injust one quarter of that normally received.
-
- Gaza's Association for Fuel Station Owners commented:
"Petrol firms considered the amount negligible and so, in protest
over the Israeli blockade, refused to accept the paltry offering which
does not come close to meeting the essential needs of Gaza's civilians."
-
- A Gaza taxi driver related his concern: "Cutting
off fuel means cutting off our lives. We use it for everything, in the
place of wood or coal. It's tragic not only that Israel is imposing
this siege on Gaza, but also that some Palestinians are supporting
this cruel embargo, with the naïve idea of causing the people turn
against Hamas in Gaza."
-
- Shortages of fuel have greatly affected the public transportation
system, leaving students from universities in Gaza City delayed
for hours standing in wait for transportation back to Khan Younies and
Rafah in the south.
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- Trickle Effect
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- The fuel cuts in turn impede water access: with diesel-run
pumps unable to function, leaving over 77,000 without fresh drinking water,
according to Gaza's water utility. Oxfam International has warned that
soon 225,000 Gazans could suffer from inadequate water supplies, raising
concerns for public health.
- Ambulances and clinics suffer too, a fact reiterated
by Khaled Radi, who related how fuel shortages have already brought some
ambulances to a standstill: "This has affected the mobility of ambulances
which are especially vital during on-going Israeli air strikes such as
that of this morning."
- He added that shortages further threatened to close essential
clinics, which rely on back-up generators during the frequent electricity
shortages in the Strip. Two first aidhealth centres have already been
forced to suspend treatment during electricity cuts. Those that remain
open suffer from want of medical supplies, with 91 of 416 essential medicines
depleted, according to the WHO.
-
- Even basic things are scarce. Residents are hard-pressed
to find a piece of glass to repair a broken window, imperative in December's
cold weather, particularly in a time when electricity and gas are scarce-to-absent.
-
- Eyad Yousef, a 31-year-old Palestinian teacher, has been
waiting for cement, unavailable for the last many months, to enter Gaza.
Concurrently, prices of building materials have skyrocketed, more than
tripled in the worst cases. Yousef waits for any sort of building material,
but he knows that will not find anything, as he has looked all over the
picked-clean area. "I have a floor of my home to finish, but can't
do so yet as no sort of building materials are available in Gaza,"
he said. "I'm using pieces of nylon to cover my windows at home, but
I can't go on like this for long," he added, saying he hopes that
the international community will put pressure on Israel to open
borders and let vital products into Gaza.
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- Death Penalty
-
- Yousef, at least, is luckier than the newly dead: since
last month at least 31 medical patients have died in Gaza, a result
of Israel's lockdown on borders and preventing of medical access to
Israeli, Egyptian and Jordanian hospitals, as well as West Bank hospitals.
-
- Since Hamas took over power in June, this subsequent
Israeli lockdown has made it virtually impossible for Palestinians to get
out of Gaza. The situation then deteriorated with the closing of Karni
crossing, Gaza's only commercial crossing, only opened for the most basic
food essentials. Coupled with Israel's ground and air attacks, the
situation for Palestinians worsened yet further still when Israel last
October announced Gaza as a "hostile entity", further allowing Israel to
justify its closed-borders policy to the international arena.
-
- In the densely-populated region starved of medical supplies,
and now facing the shutdown of clinics, Gazan citizens have been given
a death sentence with Israel's control over borders. Yahya Al Jamal
53, one case among hundreds of people, has cancer and is in serious need
of medical care at well-equipped hospitals. For more than two months now
he has been refused entry to Israel for treatment. His agonized
father reported that his son will die in the coming days if he does not
get the medication he needs, an outcome of Israel's mass denial of
the luxury of critical healthcare.
-
- Insult upon injuries, cement already scarce for
building is no longer available even for graves of the many recently
dead.
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- Empty Stocks
-
- Aid agencies like the World Food Program (WFP) reporting
that food imports are only enough to meet 41 per cent of demand in the Gaza
Strip.
-
- As winter progresses, resilient citizens desperately
seek to survive. In Rafah's Saturday market, Umm Mohammed Zourub scours
the stalls yet again: "I've been looking for new winter clothes for
my children, but I haven't been able to find any because no materials are
coming into Gaza with the closed borders," the 43 year old
mother lamented.
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- Indeed, the cold weather has fallen quickly on an internationally-isolated
and starved population. >From the intense heat of summer months, where
water was scarce and air conditioning a fantasy, Gazans now experience
the bitter cold in the same homes unprepared for extremes, and the bitter
realization that, once again, they have been left to the whims of imprisonment,
Israeli air and ground attacks, and a staggering invisibility in the international
realm.
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- "The world is not dangerous because of those who
do harm but because of those who look at it without doing anything."
- --Albert Einstein
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- www.rafahtoday.org
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