UN contradicts Israel over depth of crisis in Gaza

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The United Nations said Monday there is an "increasingly alarming" humanitarian crisis in Gaza, directly contradicting Israeli denials that any such predicament has followed its military offensive.

UN humanitarian chief John Holmes told reporters Monday that UN officials believe as many as 25 percent of the 500 people killed in the fighting are civilians and that Gaza's health system is "increasingly precarious" due to the more than 2,500 injured.

He said Gaza is running low on clean water, power, food, medicine and other supplies since Israel began launching a heavy attack on the Hamas that controls Gaza's government, first with airstrikes and then with troops and tanks.

Israeli leaders have maintained consistently there is no humanitarian crisis for the Palestinians living in the densely populated territory, and that they have been keeping the border crossings open and are delivering vital supplies.

http://www.jpost.com/servlet/Satellite?cid=1231167266997&pagename=JPost%2FJPArticle%2FShowFull

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1. Lack of food and medicine a catastrophe, say aid groups

ISRAELI SHELLING killed 14 members of two Palestinian families yesterday, raising the fatality toll to more than 90 since Israel began its ground offensive on Saturday. According to UN and Palestinian health authority sources, at least 535 Palestinians have been killed, of which an estimated 28 per cent were women and children, and 2,450 wounded, 40 per cent women and children, in the offensive Israel launched on December 27th.

Humanitarian agencies characterised the situation of the Strip's 1.5 million people as a "catastrophe" and an "extreme emergency". The two functioning crossings into Gaza, Israel's Karem Shalom, meant to handle a limited volume of goods, and Egypt's Rafah, a passenger terminal not equipped for massive shipments of goods, cannot cope with need.

Unless the conveyor belts at Israel's Karni crossing operate, the amounts of food and medicines required cannot enter Gaza. At present, Karem Shalom is blocked by lorries carrying wheat, which cannot be milled or baked into bread without power.

Christopher Gunness, spokesman of the UN Relief and Works Agency (UNRWA), said Israel was allowing only a few dozen lorry loads of supplies into the Strip. "That is not enough. In June 2007, there were 475 trucks a day."

http://www.irishtimes.com/newspaper/world/2009/0106/1230936699664.html

[ConcernedCanuk]

2. I know the feeling - my US landlady has me living in a field running off my generator

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NO running water

NO bath

and I've stopped wondering why the USA has people like GWB running the USA

She votes . .