The growing isolation of the Gaza Strip since the Hamas wrested control in June is helping extremists, the head of the UN agency for Palestinian refugees said Thursday. Efforts to sideline Hamas over their refusal to recognise Israel are "putting people in the corner and they're going to want to fight," United Nations Relief and Works Agency chief Karen Koning AbuZayd told AFP.
"What you're seeing in Gaza, and even more so since June, is that the people from the extremes are taking over more than those who appear ready to compromise, as a result of the isolation," she said on the sidelines of a conference in Cairo.
And on the day that visiting US President George W. Bush said the Hamas had delivered nothing but misery since they were elected in January 2006, AbuZayd said the problems and potential solutions in Gaza are being sidelined.
"I would like the dire humanitarian situation in Gaza to be acknowledged and there to be some recognition that only a third of the people in Gaza support Hamas - what about the others? "There's the militants who everybody objects to who throw the rockets out and they're mostly not even Hamas and everybody is being punished as a result of the actions of the few."
She also said that the dire effects of Gaza's isolation - ranging from stunted children to a lack of basic foodstuffs - began long before Hamas took over the impoverished territory. "People have been saying since the beginning of the Intifada (in 2000) that it can't get worse but for seven and a half years it's been getting worse," she said.
"We are seeing evidence of stunting of the children, their growth is slowing, because our ration is only 61 percent of what people should have and that has to be supplemented," she said. "People living for seven and a half years just on flour, oil, lentils, a bit of milk powder and sugar, that's not a sufficient diet for a healthy person," she said.
Even Gaza farmland cannot be used "because there's no fertiliser and they can't take the food from the field to the city because people don't have any money for fuel or even a donkey cart. Besides the physical effects, Gaza children are subject to the trauma of constant conflict, especially since Hamas violently took control of Gaza in June after being internationally boycotted since their election victory.
"School students used to do really well but now a large percentage are failing very basic subjects and it's obviously attributable to the conflict and the trauma." "They can't concentrate, they don't get to school, the teachers don't get to school, their houses are invaded or bombed, they can't sleep at night."
The World Food Programme said last month that Gaza was receiving 56 percent of the food supplies needed, and the World Health Organisation said that there was only a month's supply left of almost 100 essential medicines.
And while Bush said on Thursday that there is "a clear difference (between) the vision of Hamas in Gaza and the vision of the president and his team right here in Ramallah," AbuZayd said the situation is also bad in the occupied West Bank.
"They're not totally cut off like Gaza, but the number of checkpoints, the number of settlements, the wall that continues to grow to encircle Jerusalem means that the West Bank is just chopped up into little pieces and people can't move around and lead anything like normal lives," she said. Israel says its West Bank security barrier is aimed at stopping militants infiltrating Israel. Palestinians say it is aimed at grabbing their land and undermining the viability of their promised state.
She said she hoped that Bush "can see that wall that's snaking all round, I hope someone informs him that a lot of it is on Palestinian land and prevents them living normal lives, going to school to their families, to the market." "What's quite frightening is you look at it and where will be the viable Palestinian state in this territory that's split into two, one part is cut off and the other part is cut into pieces? How will it function?"
Comments
Comments are closed.