Suburban Guerrilla

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Inhuman

Mar 6th, 2008 at 2:52 pm by Susie

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.

Michael Bailey of the Jerusalem OXFAM office says life in Gaza has always been a struggle, but after Israel closed Gaza’s borders last year following the Hamas takeover of the territory, things got dramatically worse.

“In four weeks, 65,000 jobs were lost. Ninety percent of the manufacturing industry was shut down,” Bailey said. “Forty thousand people in the agricultural industry are finding it very hard to maintain their jobs and eight out of ten families in Gaza are dependent on food aid.”

Bailey says 300,000 people in Gaza do not have regular supplies of water and 60 tons of raw sewage is discharged into the ocean every day because sewage treatment plants no longer work. He says many schools also do not have power. As a result he says Gaza’s educational system has broken down, and children there fail basic tests in rudimentary subjects. Bailey and the other groups behind the report say they blame Israel for the situation because it controls Gaza’s borders.

Posted in Politics As Usual, The Regime, War Crimes

One Response to “Inhuman”

on 06 Mar 2008 at 10:27 pm1Lionel

Except for the border with Egypt, which was closed by Egypt. Why did Egypt close it? Because they have the same security concerns as Israel does. (Egypt just built a 10-foot concrete wall to mark the border, incidentally. When Israel does it, it’s a war crime. When Egypt does it…the press gives it one paragraph. That paragraph is here )

After Hamas’ little stunt in Jerusalem today, they’re going to be lucky if the humanitarian situation doesn’t get worse. I feel bad for the people of Gaza, but if I were stuck in Gaza, starving and awaiting retaliation for what my ostensible government did, I think I’d prefer to die on my feet and try to overthrow that government.

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Inhuman

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