Israel bans foreign journalists from entering besieged Gaza

Israel bans foreign journalists from entering besieged Gaza

Cherrie Heywood, The Electronic Intifada, 18 November 2008

http://electronicintifada.net/v2/article9973.shtml

RAMALLAH, occupied West Bank (IPS) - Israel has imposed a virtual
news blackout on the Gaza Strip. For the last ten days no foreign
journalists have been able to enter the besieged territory to report
on the escalating humanitarian crisis caused by Israel's complete
closure of Gaza's borders for the last two weeks.

Steve Gutkin, the AP bureau chief in Jerusalem and head of Israel's
Foreign Press Association, said that he personally "knows of no
foreign journalist that has been allowed into Gaza in the last week."

Gutkin said that "while Israel has barred foreign press from
entering Gaza in the past, the length of the current ban makes it
unprecedented." He added that he has received no "plausible or
acceptable" explanation for the ban from the Israeli government.

AP has relied on reports from two of its journalists who were able
to enter Gaza days before the closure began and are currently stuck
there.

A delegation of European Union parliamentarians was also prevented
from entering Gaza to assess the situation on the ground and to hold
talks with Hamas leaders. They subsequently broke the naval siege of
Gaza by entering the coast's territorial waters from Cyprus by boat,
defying the Israeli navy.

During talks held with Hamas, the EU parliamentarians were able to
get a historic commitment from the Islamic organization to recognize
Israel's "right to exist" within the internationally-recognized 1967
borders. Hamas further offered a long-term ceasefire in return for
Israel legitimizing Palestinian rights.

Israel also prevented twenty EU consul-generals from entering Gaza
on Thursday. On Sunday Israeli border police prevented 15 trucks
loaded with medication from entering the Gaza Strip.

EU commissioner for external relations and European neighborhood
policy, Bentita Ferrero-Waldner, has expressed strong
reservations. "I am profoundly concerned about the consequences for
the Gazan population of the complete closure of all Gaza crossings
for deliveries of fuel and basic humanitarian assistance," Ferrero-
Waldner said in a statement Friday.

Karen AbuZayd, head of UNRWA, the UN agency for Palestine refugees,
added that it was unusual for Israel not to let basic food and
medicines in. "This has alarmed us more than usual because it's
never been quite so long and so bad, and there has never been so
much negative response on what we need," she said.

Israel closed the borders following a barrage of rockets fired by
Palestinian resistance fighters at Israeli towns bordering the Gaza
Strip. [sic – Israel military incursions preceded the rockets. The rockets are aimed at civilian populations rather than in military defence though. – JPLO]

The tit-for-tat violence began on 4 November when the Israeli army
launched a cross-border raid into Gaza, breaking a shaky five-month
ceasefire with Hamas. The purpose was ostensibly to destroy a tunnel
built by Palestinians allegedly to smuggle captured Israeli soldiers.

More than twenty Palestinians were killed in Israeli raids. Two
Israelis were lightly injured in the subsequent rocket attacks.

The timing of Israel's breach of the ceasefire is curious in that
hundreds of these smuggling tunnels have existed ever since Hamas
took over the strip in June last year. They have been used to
smuggle everyday necessities as well as arms because the territory
is hermetically sealed by Israel.

John Ging, director of UNRWA in Gaza, who has lived there for the
past three years, questioned the alleged security reasoning behind
the closure. Since the ceasefire went into place this summer, Ging
said, fewer supplies have passed through the crossing than in the
beginning of 2006, when the western Negev in Israel suffered
incessant rocket fire from Gaza.

At that time the Palestinian Authority (PA), which is supported by
Israel and the United States, EU and several other states, was
ruling Gaza in a unity government with Hamas.

"Last week we were unable to feed 60,000 of Gaza's neediest refugees
due to our warehouses running out of food. UNRWA supplies half of
Gaza's population of 1.5 million people with emergency rations, and
20,000 people are fed per day when there are adequate supplies,"
Ging told IPS.

Seventy percent of Gaza experienced electricity blackouts after
Israel prevented deliveries of diesel fuel, forcing Gaza's main
power plant to close down.

"The Israelis were only allowing 2.2 to 2.5 million liters of fuel
in per week prior to the closure, which was the minimum required to
operate the power plant. The plant has a capacity for 20 million
liters and this would last two months under normal circumstances and
tide over emergency periods. But this has all run out," Ging said.

Kanan Ubeid, deputy chief of the Palestinian Energy Authority, said
at a press conference in Gaza that in addition to the shutdown of
the diesel-fueled power plant, the electric network bringing in
power from Israel collapsed due to increased pressure on the system.

Gazans also ran out of cooking gas while Gaza's Coastal
Municipalities Water Utility (CMWU) was forced to pump tons of
untreated sewage into the ocean due to fuel shortages and the lack
of spare parts for equipment in need of repairs and new parts.

Much of this will flow back into Gaza's underground water table, and
the threat of contaminated drinking water spreading diseases has
increased.

Meanwhile, the emergency and ambulance services director-general,
Muawiyya Hassanein, says Gaza's health ministry is short of more
than 300 types of necessary medication.

Sammy Hassan, a spokesman from Gaza city's main Shifa hospital said
only urgent surgery was being carried out. "We have delayed all non-
urgent surgery as our small generator has stopped working, as we
can't import a vital spare part.

"We are down to 30,000 liters of fuel left to run the larger
generator which is used when electricity is cut. Under the current
circumstances with no electricity we require 10,000 liters per day,"
Hassan told IPS.

Philip Luther, deputy director of Amnesty International's Middle
East program, said that Israel's latest tightening of the blockade
had "made an already dire humanitarian situation markedly worse.
This is nothing short of collective punishment on Gaza's civilian
population, and it must stop immediately."

Following international pressure and protests from the EU, Israel
allowed thirty trucks of humanitarian aid to enter the strip
Monday. "It will last a matter of days," said UNRWA spokesman
Christopher Gunness. "But then what?"

Oxfam's spokesman in Jerusalem Michael Bailey, who coordinates a
number of humanitarian projects in Gaza, said this response was
entirely inadequate.

"Thirty trucks of aid after a closure of ten days is insufficient.
What we need is a complete revision of the embargo on Gaza. Dialogue
with the relevant political leaders is the only way forward," Bailey
told IPS.

"Both Israel and Gaza's other neighbors need to put the human rights
and essential needs of Gazans above all considerations if there is
to be a way out of this quagmire."

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