Israel punishes Gaza with UN food aid ban

[Thinking Man's Idiot]

Israel punishes Gaza with UN food aid ban

(Thursday 13 November 2008)






CRUEL: A UN aid agency said on Tuesday that it will have to halt food aid distribution to 750,000 Gazans by Friday if Israel keeps the territory sealed.



ISRAEL barred UN humanitarian aid shipments from entering the Gaza Strip on Thursday, in its latest act of collective punishment for Hamas rocket attacks.

Israel had planned to let in 30 trucks of food aid to replenish empty warehouses. It had also agreed to let in fuel to power Gaza's only electrical plant, which was facing shutdown and a power blackout.


But Israeli army officials closed all border crossings into the besieged Palestinian territory after militants had fired five rockets and two mortars into southern Israel.


John Ging, who heads Gaza operations for the United Nations relief and works agency said that, without the shipments, the UN will be forced to suspend food aid to 750,000 impoverished Gazans from Saturday.


A UN flour warehouse in Gaza, that was full early last week, stood empty, while another warehouse held just a few crates of luncheon meat.


"We've been working here from hand to mouth for quite a long time, so these interruptions on the crossing points affect us immediately," Mr Ging said.


"International law requires that civilian populations have access to the goods and services that they need to survive."


Electrical plant officials said that they expected to run out of fuel yesterday evening, causing widespread blackouts throughout the territory of 1.4 million people.


Israeli jet fighters flew at supersonic speed low over Gaza on Thursday, setting off sonic booms - a well-practised form of harassment against the population.


Israel also continued to block diplomats and journalists from entering the territory, including a group of some 20 European officials. The Israeli military said that crossings were closed to all but humanitarian operations.


Israel agreed to allow some shipments into Gaza in June, following an Egyptian-brokered ceasefire by Palestine's elected-Hamas government.


The agreement will expire in December, although both sides claim that they want it to continue.


The truce began eroding last week when Israeli forces invaded Gaza to try to destroy a smuggling tunnel. Eleven Palestinians have been killed in more than a week of fighting, with more than 130 rockets and mortars fired from Gaza at Israel.


Hamas spokesman Fawzi Barhoum said: "The rockets are a natural response to Israel's aggression."

Israel stops press entering Gaza Strip

(Wednesday 12 November 2008)






GRIEF-STRICKEN: A Palestinian crying over the body of one of those killed by the Israeli military assault on Gaza.



ISRAEL banned journalists from entering the besieged Gaza Strip before launching a new military assault on the Palestinian territory on Wednesday.

The Israeli military banned foreign journalists from entering Gaza, which is suffering severe food shortages and power blackouts due to Israel's blockade, for a week.

Israeli military spokesman Peter Lerner said that the restrictions had been imposed because Palestinian militants had resumed their rocket fire from Gaza, in violation of a five-month-old truce.


Mr Lerner added that the only people allowed to enter and leave Gaza under the policy are international aid workers and Palestinian patients seeking medical treatment outside the territory.


Journalists dismissed that explanation as implausible and said that current hostilities did not justify the ban on access.


The Foreign Press Association, which represents international media covering Israel and the Palestinian territories, said: "It is absolutely essential that international journalists be allowed to enter the territory and deliver their news reports to Israel and the rest of the world."


Fresh fighting broke out near the southern Gaza town of Khan Younis early on Wednesday.


The Israeli army claimed that its forces had opened fire after spotting armed Palestinian men approaching the border fence and trying to lay an explosive charge.


It said that gunfire had been exchanged between Israeli troops and that the Palestinians had set off an explosive device and fired three mortars.
One Israeli soldier was slightly injured. The army added that Israeli aircraft had later fired two missiles at open fields.


But Palestinian forces said that the battle had begun when Israeli troops invaded Gaza.


The Palestinian said that they had spotted them and opened fire. The Israeli military would not say whether Israeli forces had entered Gaza.


Palestinian Health Ministry official Dr Moawiya Hassanain said that ambulances had retrieved the bodies of four ruling Hamas party members from the area of fighting. Hamas's military wing threatened retaliation.


Hamas leaders stopped short of declaring the truce over, but they said that Palestinians would fight any Israeli incursions into Gaza.


Hamas spokesman Fawzi Barhoum said: "This is a clear violation of the truce and the resistance has the right to respond to any attack."

Is what the Zionist Israeli Junta is doing not exactly the same thing Hitler and his crooks did to the Jews?

Why do the UN, the european officials, and the journalists enter Gaza through the zionist entity? Gaza has a seacoast, and even a sizeable harbor (check google maps). The last I heard boats still work. If you cant cross the border go a different way fools! Let the UN build Gaza its own harbor. Problem solved.

Originally Posted by Unregistered

Why do the UN, the european officials, and the journalists enter Gaza through the zionist entity? Gaza has a seacoast, and even a sizeable harbor (check google maps). The last I heard boats still work. If you cant cross the border go a different way fools! Let the UN build Gaza its own harbor. Problem solved.

You'd get blown out the water. Gaza is Israeli property in all but name. If it was that simple, any American could just sail the 90miles to Cuba..... fancy giving it a go? (!) ZZzzingPOW!

When the IRA were bombing London, if the British had gone to Ireland and started blocking food etc, and shelling beaches and blowing up police stations & doing what the Israeli Junta are doing to Palestinian Civilians, who would be the TERRORIST?


So can anybody else see this Fascism or is it only me?

[ZingPao]

Originally Posted by Unregistered

You'd get blown out the water. Gaza is Israeli property in all but name. If it was that simple, any American could just sail the 90miles to Cuba..... fancy giving it a go? (!) ZZzzingPOW!

I'm staying out of this one.

So Mr ZZZZZZZZzzzzzzzzZZZZZZZZz ingpo

When the IRA were bombing London, if the British had gone to Ireland and started blocking food etc, and shelling beaches and blowing up police stations & doing what the Israeli Junta are doing to Palestinian Civilians, who would be the TERRORIST?

[Thinking Man's Idiot]

Israeli air attacks add to Gaza siege

(Friday 14 November 2008)






LUCKY MISS: Israeli police officers remove the remains of a Hamas-launched Katyusha rocket.



THE humanitarian crisis deepened in the besieged Gaza Strip on Friday, as Israeli aircraft attacked the Hamas-controlled territory.

Israel kept the crossings into Gaza sealed for a 10th consecutive day, forcing the UN to suspend its food aid distribution to the 750,000 residents.


United Nations Relief and Works Agency head of Gaza operations John Ging warned that the 20,000 Palestinians who were due to pick up aid parcels on Saturday would be sent home empty-handed. "Until we are resupplied, we won't have food," Mr Ging added.


In Brussels, the European Commission urged Israel to reopen its border crossings.


EU External Relations Commissioner Benita Ferrero-Waldner said: "I call on Israel to reopen the crossings for humanitarian and commercial flows, in particular food and medicines."


On Friday, wide swathes of Gaza City suffered blackouts after Gaza's power plant was shut down due to the Israeli embargo on fuel.


Gaza City bakers reported high demand for bread because the blackouts meant that residents could not cook at home.


Poorer Gazan residents typically bake their own bread with UN-donated flour.


Dr. Moaiya Hassanain of Gaza's Health Ministry said that two gunmen had been injured in Friday's air raid.


Hamas fighters responded to the attacks by launching rockets at the Israeli city of Ashkelon, 11 miles north of Gaza.


The attack caused panic, but there were no casualties.


They also fired rockets at the nearby town of Sderot, also in Israel, where one person was lightly wounded by shrapnel.


Hamas MP Mushir al-Masri said: "The resistance is able to hit the zionist depth. Either there's full commitment to the truce and all its conditions or the resistance will have a position on every zionist crime."


An Egyptian-mediated ceasefire that had held since June began to disintegrate last week when Israeli forces entered Gaza to destroy what they claimed was a tunnel dug by militants to carry out a planned cross-border raid.


Eleven militants have been killed in more than a week of fighting and some 140 rockets and mortars have been fired from Gaza at Israel.


Senior Hamas member Mahmoud Zahar warned Israel in a sermon on Friday: "If you want to leave the truce, we are ready. And if you want to continue it, then abide by it."

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And Should stop the rockets because they are not target specific & totally inhuman.

Hamas are Israeli equivalent to the UKs IRA, the parallels are very close in some respects.

And any reasonable person would utterly condemn the rocket attacks on Israeli civilians outright, I know I definitely do, just like the IRA bombings in London and Manchester were Terrorist Atrocities.

BUT, who is supposed to be the Democratic State here?

Who is supposed to be the Good guy?

How is Israel the good guy if it shoots up civilian centres with copter gunships, spreads millions of cluster bombs in civilian areas and basically acts like a dirty FASCIST TYRANT?


I say start a dialogue, REMEMBER THIS, the state of Israel was formed using Terrorism and ethnic cleansing against the Arabs - FACT!

The Arabs are no worse terrorist than the Israelis - FACT!

Cut through the Bullshit Religious CRAP! Because NO- BODY BUYS IT!

Get thinking! Start talking! Keep talking! Compromise!


If it happens to mean a 2 state solution and the Israelis pay compensation to the Arabs who lost their land - do it, it will be far cheaper and much safer.

[Thinking Man's Idiot]

HAMAS ARE FIGHTING FOR THEIR LAND STOLEN BY THE U$ BACKED ZIONISTS. YOUR TERRORIST IS MY FREEDOM FIGHTER.

List of United Nations resolutions concerning Israel