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For more than 1000 days now, Gaza has been the victim of the most immoral collective blockade by Israel and Egypt against the 1.5million Palestinian inhabitants.
Nearly a year ago, Israel launched a military offensive against the Gaza Strip summarized by a United Nations Human Rights Council (UNHRC) report as follows:
“The military operations in the Gaza Strip included two main phases, the air phase and the air-land phase, and lasted from 27 December 2008 to 18 January 2009. . . . The army was responsible for the ground invasion, which began on 3 January 2009 when ground troops entered Gaza from the north and from the east. . . . Based on extensive field research, non-governmental organizations place the overall number of [Palestinian] persons killed between 1,387 and 1,417.” (UNHRC, 2009 p. 10)
The consequences of the attack were/are devastating:
An estimated 4,100 homes were destroyed and an additional 15,000 damaged (thousands were made double-refugees).
Nine out of ten Palestinians in Gaza suffer frequent power cuts while the rest have no power at all.
Water and sewage treatment plants were heavily damaged during the war (raw sewage flowed onto the streets during the war) and supplies for repair have not been allowed into the Strip due to the ongoing blockade which prohibits more than a drip-feed supply of goods from entering (80% of the Palestinians in Gaza are dependent on UN aid food). The United Nations fact-finding, post-war Mission in Gaza states that the Namar water wells, for instance, were “destroyed by multiple air strikes on the first day of the Israeli aerial attack” and that “the mission considers it unlikely that a target the size of the Namar wells could have been hit by multiple strikes in error.”
In a heavily-dense population center of 1.5 million roughly 32,000 have no running water and an estimated 100,000 infrequently receive water about once every few days.
Diseases, including diarrhea and viral hepatitis, which occur due to poor water have risen.
On September 14, 2009, the United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP) reported that “Gaza’s underground water system is in danger of collapse after recent conflict compounded by years of overuse and contamination.” The report added that there has been a rise in seawater intrusion and contamination from sewage and agricultural runoff. Between 90-95% of water is unsafe for drinking. Toxic levels are as such that infants are at risk of nitrate poisoning. Per capita daily consumption of water is 91 litres in comparison to 280 litres in Israel and the World Health Organization (WHO) recommendation of 100-150 litres. As of early September, the United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA) reported that at a minimum 10,000 Palestinians remain without running water and for the rest of the population running water is sparse often limited to no more than eight hours in the day for no more than four days in the week.
And due to the blockade, many Palestinians have died in want of medical aid. Both Israel and Egypt often refuse to allow medical aid to enter or Palestinians to leave to seek aid elsewhere. And dozens of Palestinians have died as a result, and continue to die:
Palestinian medical sources in the Gaza Strip reported that a 5-year-old child died on Saturday at a local hospital due to the ongoing illegal Israeli siege on the coastal region.
The child, Fuad Swerih, 5, suffered respiratory issues, and Israeli prevented his transfer to hospitals outside the besieged and war- torn Gaza Strip.
Swerih is from Al Nusseirat refugee camp, in central Gaza.
The doctors were trying to transfer him to an Israeli hospital but Israel rejected all applications.
There are hundreds of patients who are facing the same fate while Israeli is refusing to allow them medical treatment in Israeli hospital or elsewhere.
With the death of Swerih, the number of patients who died due to the siege arrive to 502.
The ongoing siege on Gaza and the war left the hospitals and medical centers lacking the main medical supplies and equipment.
The nation responsible for this cruelty will never be forgiven and neither will it ever find peace or permanence.
