ISRAEL-OPT: Only 41 percent of Gaza's food import needs being met

JERUSALEM, 6 December 2007 (IRIN) - Food imports into the Gaza Strip are only enough to meet 41 percent of demand, the World Food Programme (WFP) has said, though critical UN humanitarian food supplies are being allowed in. The cost of many basic items, such as beef, wheat and some dairy products have increased significantly, while locally grown produce is fetching extremely low prices on the local market, as exports are banned, threatening the livelihood of farmers. "Unless all terminals are fully opened within the upcoming weeks, both for exports and imports, the agricultural sector in Gaza is facing a major catastrophe," said Santiago Rippoll, a FAO food security analyst. Since the Hamas takeover of Gaza in June, the commercial crossing points with Israel have been all but shut, except for the import of basic humanitarian goods. Israel said it could not operate the crossings with Hamas, which it deems a terrorist organisation, controlling the other side. Israel is imposing the restrictions in retaliation for the continued firing of missiles from Gaza into Israel. A spokesman for the Israeli Prime Minister's Office said there "cannot be business as usual" with the Gaza Strip as long as rocket attacks against southern Israel continue. "Israel is committed to the continued supply of the essential humanitarian support to the people of Gaza," said spokesman Mark Regev, who added that it was up to the ruling Hamas movement to stop the rockets. Rise in requests for charity Israeli travel and trade restrictions have led to a decline in purchasing power in Gaza. A recent WFP survey found that of the 62 percent of people who said they had reduced their expenditure in recent months, 97 percent reported a decrease in spending on clothing and 93 percent on food. "The number of people in need is increasing and the percentage of people we can help is low," said Nasser al-Sharqawi, from al-Falah, a local Islamic charity. Half of all non-refugees in Gaza receive WFP food aid, while UNRWA, the UN Palestinian refugee agency, helps over 80 percent of refugees. About 70 percent of Gaza's population are refugees from the 1948 Israeli-Arab war. Naheda Ghabaien, a mother of five in the Beach refugee camp in central Gaza, said her husband Yousef used to work three or four days a week bringing home about US$10 a day. Now, like tens of thousands of Gazans who have lost their jobs since June - when Hamas seized control and tight travel and trade restrictions were imposed on the territory - Yousef only works a few days a month. Every three months, Naheda said, the family receives from UNRWA amounts of rice, flour, oil and sugar that can last for four to six weeks. The family rarely eats meat anymore, relying mostly on vegetables. "When the agency food runs out, we buy the food we need on credit from the grocer. When my husband works, most of his daily earnings go to settling the debt," she told IRIN. Aid workers say these sorts of coping mechanisms are reaching their limits as the economy in Gaza continues its downward spiral. Agriculture hit The UN Food and Agriculture Organisation (FAO) has said farmers have so far lost $4.5 million due to the squeeze on imports and exports since June 2007. However, the main season for exporting cash crops began in November, and the Palestinian Ministry of Agriculture has estimated that farmers will lose another $50 million this season, if they cannot export to Israel and other foreign markets. According to the Palestinian Agricultural Relief Committees, about 25 percent of Gazans rely directly or indirectly on agriculture for their income. Farmers who used to export can only earn a fraction of their profits on the local market, which is now over-saturated, according to FAO. For example, last year strawberries were sold at $6 per kilogram, while now the price has dropped to 40 cents on the local market. Potatoes dropped from about $2.5 per kilo on the export market to only about 12 cents locally, according to aid workers and residents. "The potato business has been killed and the strawberry business is in the emergency room," said farmers recently in the northern Gaza town of Beit Lahiya. The significant drop in profit means some are working at a loss and many question if they will be able to replant next year. Israel recently allowed out several trucks of strawberries and carnations, but locals say this will hardly be enough. In addition, many goods, such as fertilizers and pesticides, are not making it into Gaza or in such small numbers that their cost is beyond the reach of most farmers. "Unless all terminals are fully opened within the upcoming weeks, both for exports and imports, the agricultural sector in Gaza is facing a major catastrophe," said Santiago Rippoll, a FAO food security analyst.

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This item comes to you via IRIN, the humanitarian news and analysis service of the UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs.

United Nations Office. OCHA Humanitarian Situation on Gaza 1 - 31 Oct. 2007

SUMMARY POINTS

1. Karni crossing, the main crossing for commercial goods, remains closed since 13 June. On 28 October, Israel announced the permanent closure of Sufa crossing. Kerem Shalom is now the only crossing open for the movement of goods into the Gaza Strip, and its limited capacity is likely to result in a further decrease in the import of goods and medicines into Gaza. The continuing closure of Gaza’s borders is leading to a continuing contraction of the local economy, with private sector losses now reaching $60 million in the last four months Source: Paltrade.

2. Rafah crossing, the principle entry/exit point for 1.48 million Gazans from/to the rest of the world, remains closed. Except for a limited number of medical cases, traders and aid workers, Gazans have been unable to leave for nearly five months.

3. The amount of goods entering Gaza has decreased by 71% since before the Karni closure, from an average of 253 truckloads per day in April to an average of 74 in October. Prices of commodities in the Gaza Strip continue to rise due to the limited quantity of imports and the associated decrease in the availability of certain goods.

4. An escalation in IDF activity in the Gaza Strip in the month of October resulted in an increase of conflict-related Palestinian casualties (28 deaths and 70 injuries).

5. The availability of drugs at central drug stores in the Gaza Strip has decreased. The number of drug items with zero stocks has increased in October to 91 drug items compared to 61 items in September. In local Primary Health Care (PHC) clinics, World Health Organization has reported zero stocks of pediatric drugs, including antibiotics and Vitamin A and D supplements, and a shortage of chronic disease drugs.

6. During the month of October, 27 Palestinian patients out of 789 who previously received a permit from Israeli authorities for treatment in Israel and/or the West Bank were denied access at the Erez crossing.

http://www.ochaopt.org/documents/Gaza_Sitrep_2007_11_05.pdf

For more information contact Khulood Badawi 054 44 84 632

United Nations Office for the
Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA)
Mac House
P.O.Box 38712
Jerusalem
Tel:++ 972-2-5829962/5853
Fax:++972-2-5825841
email:ochaopt@un.org
www.ochaopt.org

Activists: Israel pressuring ill Palestinians to be informers

Dion Nissenbaum | McClatchy Newspapers. 24.10.07. Israel gave Hiyya permission to leave the Gaza Strip last month and cross Israeli territory for immediate surgery in the Palestinian-controlled West Bank. But when he arrived at the Israeli border crossing, he learned that there was a catch. In a daylong interrogation, Hiyya said, Israeli intelligence offered him a deal: Tell us about your brother, a wanted militant, and we'll let you enter Israel for the operation you need. When Hiyya refused, they turned him away. Human rights groups charge that Hiyya's case is one of nearly a dozen they've documented in which Israelis allegedly have tried to recruit ailing Palestinians as informers in the low-intensity war with the militant Islamic group Hamas. Since June, at least five Palestinians have died after being denied permits to leave Gaza for emergency medical treatment, according to Physicians for Human Rights, an Israeli human-rights group that's working to help patients in Gaza. Human Rights Watch's Abrahams warned that the Israeli strategy could create risks for Palestinians who're allowed out of Gaza because militants will suspect them of being collaborators. "It casts a shadow of suspicion over those who succeed to leave Gaza," he said. "People will wonder what they did to be able to get out."

Palestinian cancer patient denied entry from Gaza into Israel for hospital care

Donald Macintyre in Jerusalem, The Independent, 26.10.07. A 21-year-old cancer patient in urgent need of specialist treatment was stopped from entering Israel from Gaza despite securing prior permission from the Israeli military to cross the border. The incident, the latest in a series which the Israeli group Physicians for Human Rights (PHR) claims is part of a tough new policy by the domestic intelligence agency Shin Bet towards seriously ill patients from Gaza seeking treatment in Israel, came as Israel separately stepped up its response to the firing of Qassam rockets by Gaza militants. The patient turned back from Erez on Monday. Mahmud Kamal Abu Taha, was sent back to hospital in Khan Yunis after waiting two-and-a-half hours in an ambulance at the Erez crossing while he was receiving oxygen and on an intravenous drip. Shin Bet agents also arrested his father at the crossing even though he had also been told he had permission to accompany his son to a hospital in Tel Aviv.

In testimony to the Israeli human rights group B'Tselem, the patient's brother Hani, 34, explained that his brother had lost about a quarter of his body weight, prompting fears for his life after 75 centimetres of his small intestine had been removed when doctors had found a cancerous growth.

He added that, unable to eat, his brother had been fed with four to six doses a day of vitamin solution but that the dosage had been reduced to one because the hospital was suffering a shortage of the solution. He said that specialists decided to transfer him to Tel Hashomer hospital in Israel. He added: "Mahmud is melting away in front of our eyes like a candle."

Gaza hospital to stop surgery as runs out of gas

GAZA (Reuters) 21.10.07. A Palestinian health official said on Sunday Gaza's main hospital would be forced to stop surgery because Israel had banned imports of anesthetic gas, but Israel said it had not blocked medical supplies. Khaled Radi, spokesman of the Hamas-run ministry of health in the Gaza Strip, said Israel had told the company that imports hospital supplies into Gaza it would not supply the gas, which is needed to conduct surgery. He said the hospital had barely two canisters of gas left and would have to halt surgery soon. "This is a crime against humanity. Israel is killing patients, including women and children," Radi said.

Gaza's Shifa hospital is the main medical facility in the impoverished coastal enclave, home to 1.5 million people, and is used for major operations. Radi said supplies of anesthetic gas were also running out at Gaza's four smaller hospitals.

But Israel, which has shut the Gaza border to everything but humanitarian supplies since Hamas seized the coastal territory in June, said it had not stopped the flow of medical supplies and that anesthetic gas would be allowed in.

"I don't know if there has been a request for this gas but if there has there should be no problem," said Shlomo Dror, spokesman for the Israeli coordinator for the Palestinian territories. "They get all the medical supplies they ask for."

Israel has tightened border restrictions around Gaza since the violent takeover in June. The Jewish state last month branded Gaza an "enemy entity" in response to regular rocket attacks from militants inside the territory.

Une ONG israélienne dénonce le chantage sur les malades de Gaza

De notre correspondant à Jérusalem P. S.-P., Le Figaro, 17.10.07. S'ils veulent être soignés en Israël, les Gaziotes doivent collaborer avec les forces de sécurité. Selon l'ONG israélienne PHR (Physicians for Human Rights), le gouvernement israélien a progressivement durci les conditions de délivrance de permis de sortie pour les malades nécessitant des traitements qui ne sont pas disponibles dans la bande de Gaza. Les rares « privilégiés » qui parviennent à obtenir le précieux sésame n'ont pas la garantie de pouvoir sortir pour bénéficier de leurs traitements. Les patients sont retenus au point de passage d'Erez pendant plusieurs heures. Ensuite, ils sont appelés par le « capitaine », le coordinateur du Shin Bet (service de renseignement intérieur) chargé de recruter des agents. Le « capitaine » leur demande des noms de militants armés et des renseignements concernant les diverses milices de la bande de Gaza. Ceux qui refusent de se soumettre aux questions ou de collaborer avec Israël sont refoulés vers la bande de Gaza sous le prétexte qu'ils représentent une « menace à la sécurité » d'Israël. « Prends des jumelles, Israël est encore loin », s'est vu conseiller, après son refus de collaborer, un malade risquant de devenir aveugle s'il ne subit pas une opération de la rétine.

LES GAZIOTES n'en finissent pas de payer le prix du coup de force du Hamas, qui a pris le contrôle de la bande de Gaza le 15 juin dernier. Depuis quatre mois, ils sont soumis à un blocus économique, qui a provoqué leur ruine. Un million et demi de Palestiniens sont hermétiquement enfermés dans cette bande sablonneuse longue de 41 kilomètres sur 12 de large, où ils survivent grâce à l'aide internationale. Et depuis qu'Israël a déclaré Gaza « entité hostile », il y a un mois, même les malades dont la survie dépend d'un traitement à l'extérieur n'ont plus le droit de quitter Gaza.

Tirs de roquettes quotidiens

La collaboration avec Israël est passible de la peine de mort dans les Territoires palestiniens. « Les patients craignent pour leur santé et sont prêts à tout pour quitter Gaza afin de pouvoir suivre un traitement. Mais ils ont peur de coopérer avec Israël », explique le Dr Ran Yaron.

PHR s'est saisi du cas de six patients souffrant de cancer, d'une hépatite, ou nécessitant une opération cardiaque urgente, et dont les jours sont comptés. « Un patient en oncologie ou une jeune fille âgée de 16 ans avec une malformation cardiaque congénitale... ce sont des cas urgents, s'indigne Dr Danny Filk, directeur de PHR. La santé de ces patients se dégrade de jour en jour et les semaines de délais peuvent rendre leur condition irréversible. Il s'agit de l'exploitation de personnes très malades. Ces pressions sont contraires à l'éthique médicale et à la morale. »

Les services de renseignements israéliens espèrent ainsi combattre les tirs de roquettes, lancées quotidiennement depuis la bande de Gaza vers le sud d'Israël. Abasourdis par ces nouvelles restrictions, les Palestiniens dénoncent, quant à eux, une nouvelle forme de « punition collective ».

ISRAEL-OPT: Gaza squeezed by steady decline in imports, closure threats

Photo: Mahmoud Daher/IRIN

Palestinian patients waiting at Erez Crossing in order to enter Israel for medical treatment. Due to tight Israeli restrictions, many patients are unable to pass or have great difficulties doing so, limiting their access to needed care

JERUSALEM, 3 October 2007 (IRIN) - The UN has expressed renewed concern over the state of the Gaza Strip's border crossings, saying that, if realised, the Israeli threat of increased restrictions would most likely lead to a humanitarian crisis in the impoverished enclave. "There is an immediate need for better efforts by all sides to increase the flow of supplies to at least basic humanitarian levels and to ensure that the crossings remain open so as many supplies as possible can get in," said Kirstie Campbell of the World Food Programme in the occupied Palestinian territories. "The one and half million people in Gaza need more than what's getting in right now."

"In the last three months, the arrival of 106 truckloads of supplies per working day has ensured that there has not been a humanitarian crisis among the Gazan population. This could not be guaranteed with increased restrictions on the border crossings," a recent statement by UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA) said.

These truckloads contained mostly food products and other basic supplies, like soap and nappies.

However, before the mid-June internecine violence which culminated in Hamas seizing full control over the Gaza Strip, some 238 lorries were allowed into Gaza each day. Many of those lorries carried basic supplies, but also raw materials which are now banned.

Overall, some 3,190 trucks made it across during July, which was the highest of the last three months, compared to 5,814 in April.

Furthermore, statistics show a worrying decline recently even in the amount of basic supplies.

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In the first week of July, for example, 774 commercial trucks and 61 trucks belonging to humanitarian organisations made it into Gaza. During the last week of the month 754 commercial and 138 humanitarian trucks got through.

However, the first week of September saw only 531 commercial and 33 humanitarian shipments, while in the last week, until 25 September, just 182 commercial trucks and five humanitarian loads arrived, UN figures showed.

Reasons for reduced flow of goods

Observers say the drop is related to a number of factors, including increased poverty in the Gaza Strip which has affected purchasing power, fewer working hours due to the Muslim holy month of Ramadan, as well as increased closures of the main crossings.

The restrictions are Israeli-imposed either due to the recent and ongoing Jewish holidays or because of mortar attacks on the crossings by Palestinian militants from inside Gaza.

"We can do very little when the crossings are fired on daily," said one Israeli defence establishment official. The concern over mortar attacks was bolstered by specific threats Israeli intelligence gathered regarding planned militant action, he said.

"The noose is tightening around Gaza," a humanitarian aid worker in the enclave told IRIN.

Effect on students, patients

The border crossings also mean an effective ban on travel, except for a few hundred people allowed out. Hundreds of students who study abroad are unable to leave the enclave, for example.

The Israeli High Court recently refused to intervene in the case of Khaled Mudallal, who studies in the UK. He was represented by Gisha, an Israeli human rights group.

Patients who need to travel to Israel or Egypt for medical care, due to the limited capacity of Gaza's health system, are also affected and many have difficulties or cannot receive the care they need.

Photo: Shabtai Gold/IRIN

Cheese being brought into Gaza at the Kerem Shalom Crossing

Dwindling supplies

The decrease in the influx of foodstuffs is taking its toll: the Strip is running low on fresh meat and oil while wheat prices are steadily rising.

The ban on imports of non-essentials, and on exports, means Gaza's business sector is on the brink of collapse, but also affects needed humanitarian supplies, like filters for drinking water and pumps, as well as spare parts for vehicles.

"There is an immediate need for better efforts by all sides to increase the flow of supplies to at least basic humanitarian levels and to ensure that the crossings remain open so as many supplies as possible can get in," said Kirstie Campbell of the World Food Programme in the occupied Palestinian territories.

"The one and half million people in Gaza need more than what's getting in right now."

Ban on truckloads of paper set to hit Gaza schools

UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs, 30/08/07. JERUSALEM, 26 August 2007 (IRIN) - The Israeli ban on deliveries of paper to Gaza is not only threatening to create a shortage of textbooks in the Strip but also shining a spotlight on what constitutes legitimate humanitarian aid.

Israel is allowing in food, medicines and fuel, which it sees as essential aid, but not paper, even though many would see education as a vital sector in need of all the support it can get.

Because of an Israeli ban on deliveries of paper to Gaza, some 200,000 children will begin the new school year on 1 September without the books they need, UNRWA said

"Some 200,000 children will go into our classrooms on 1 September, and won't have the books they need," John Ging, the Gaza director of UNRWA, the UN agency for Palestinian refugees, told IRIN.

The shortage has emanated from Israel's refusal, so far, to allow five trucks of paper into the impoverished territory, needed to print the textbooks. Since the Hamas takeover of Gaza in June, Israel has clamped down on the borders, bringing imports and exports almost to a halt with the exception of basic humanitarian goods.

The latest development serves as an indicator of the difference of opinion between many aid organisations and Israel on what is considered "humanitarian aid".

Shadi Yassin, from the Israeli military's coordination unit, recently confirmed that the state remained committed to allowing in such assistance.

Indeed, food and medicine continue to make it into the Gaza Strip and even fuel. However, many goods are locked out.

Public health projects threatened

"We are trying to get raw materials into Gaza," but without success, said Sebastien Kuster of CARE France, adding that the materials, including pipes, asphalt and cement for water and sanitation projects were humanitarian goods. "These are needed to complete work to guarantee continuous access to water for the people in Gaza."

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However, Israel maintains that these materials would block up the limited routes for basic supplies.

"The priority right now is getting food in," an Israeli security official stated, noting that Israel would not coordinate with Hamas on the other side of the border, as it sees the Islamic group as a terrorist organisation. With no solution to the impasse, the borders stay closed.

UNWRA’s Ging, too, is feeling the clampdown: "We cannot get in vital supplies like construction materials for homes and schools. There is already overcrowding," he said, noting that health clinics were also scheduled to be built.

Many of UNRWA's water and sanitation projects have also been halted. "These are public health issues," Ging said, adding that over time a people could not be sustained on just the most basic aid.

Paper and radicalism

Even if the paper arrived immediately, the school year would still begin without the textbooks. According to the UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs, to print the over 350,000 books needed by UNRWA, factories would require between 20 and 25 days, "assuming the electricity is functioning normally".

Officials in Israel, speaking on condition of anonymity, said the state is concerned the paper might be used to print books with Hamas ideology imbedded within them, or for other propagandist endeavours.

However, Gershon Baskin, the Israeli director of the Israel-Palestine Centre for Research and Information, who is campaigning to get the paper in, said so far there is no indication Hamas will change the curriculum.

"It remains a concern," he admitted. "But by not allowing them to print books, will the thoughts and ideas go away? If they want to teach [radicalism], someone can teach without a book," said Baskin.

Not letting in the paper is "denying children their right to education", he concluded.

OPT: Concern for Gaza patients who cannot go abroad for treatment

JERUSALEM, 2 July 2007 (IRIN) - Many Palestinian patients in the Gaza Strip have been unable to access health care and advanced medical treatment since 9 June, when the Rafah crossing to Egypt was closed.

The medical infrastructure in Gaza is not able to provide certain services to its residents, including many types of surgery, and the Palestinian ministry of health refers patients to hospitals in countries such as Egypt and Israel.

According to the World Health Organization (WHO), in 2003 some 7,844 cases were referred abroad, of which 62.5 percent were sent to Egypt for treatment via Rafah. Now, this option no longer exists.

"The WHO is concerned about access for patients who need to travel for treatment," said Mahmoud Daher from the WHO in Gaza.

WHO estimates that between 300-400 patients a month need to travel through Rafah for medical care.

Dr Fawzi Nabulssi, from the Intensive Care Unit at Gaza's main Shifa Hospital, said five patients, all in a critical condition, await transport to Egypt.

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"A number of them have been here for a month and a half," he said.

Erez crossing

Israel has allowed some patients to travel through Erez crossing to receive treatment in Israeli hospitals and West Bank medical centres, at a rate of about 15 a day.

However, travelling through Erez requires Israeli issued permits, a problem for some as they are deemed "security risks".

"Right now, if someone is security restricted, access to advanced medical care may be off limits all together," said a medical official, who is not authorised to speak to the press.

Waiting to travel

Yousef Abed, a 24-year-old fire-fighter, was one of the over 500 people injured in the clashes between the rival Hamas and Fatah factions in Gaza 9-14 June.

He has tried, and failed, to travel to Ramallah, in the West Bank, for treatment for the gunshot wounds which injured his jaw and knee.

"I went to Erez, after the incidents ended here. While we were [at the crossing], clashes took place between the Israelis and militants from Hamas," Abed said from his bed in Shifa hospital.

Similarly, Hekmet Baker, 22, was targeted by militants for his alleged political affiliations. He suffered severe damage to his liver and kidney.

"I am dying here and I'm forgotten," he said.

His brother continues to press hospital officials to secure a transfer for him to a hospital outside Gaza where he can receive treatment.

Food aid

While, food aid continues to arrive in Gaza, residents still face hardships.

The UN’s World Food Program (WFP) said that although the situation had improved, daily basic consumption needs have not been met.

"The WFP remains extremely concerned about the stock of basic commodities in Gaza, and we continue to closely monitor the situation," said Kirstie Campbell, a spokeswoman for the agency.

Also, as Palestinians in Gaza remain unable to export their goods due to the border closures, people's purchasing power has diminished. Over 85 percent of the population lives below a poverty line set at US$2.41 a day.

This affects their ability to buy basic supplies such as drinking water, fuel and soap.

Cash transfer

On 1 July Palestinian officials confirmed they had received about US$117 million from Israel, out of an estimated US$600 million in withheld tax revenues Israel refused to transfer when Hamas was part of the Palestinian Authority government.

Israel's cabinet authorised the move, after Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas set up an emergency government based in the West Bank, without Hamas members.

Palestinian observers said a fair portion of the monies would go towards the salaries of civil servants, who have not received regular payments in over a year.