Geneva - The United Nations Relief and Works Agency (UNRWA)
for Palestinian refugees on Thursday said exceptionally cold weather
was making life more difficult for the 1.5 million people living in
Gaza and facing extreme hardship as a result of border closures.
The agency said it hoped talks planned for next week and headed by
European Union foreign policy chief Javier Solana and Middle East
Quartet envoy Tony Blair to try and ease the access crisis would be
'fruitful.'
UNRWA Spokesman Matthias Burchard said in Geneva: 'It is just not
acceptable that whole communities are penalized for the condemnable
actions of a few.'
Jerusalem was under snow and aid deliveries were further hindered
from there, while the Sofa and Karni crossings remained closed.
The critical shortage of fuel meant Gaza was receiving merely 75
per cent of its electricity needs, leading to long power cuts. Up to
40,000 cubic tons of raw sewage was being pumped into the sea every
day because of a lack of fuel to power the Gaza Coastal Municipal
Water Utility.
The UNRWA said costs were spiralling with containers full of
supplies stranded dockside. There were 161 lorry loads of food now
waiting at the port of Ashdod.
Up to 12 trucks had been turned away at the Kerem Shalom crossing,
despite agreement with Israel forces to allow them entry. A few days
ago the Israeli military had agreed 50 lorries a day should enter
Gaza. In total 28 had entered in the last 10 days, the UNRWA said,
describing the situation in the West Bank as 'equally grim.'
Until now, the UNRWA has raised only 1 per cent of its December
appeal for 237 million dollars for the occupied Palestinian
territories for 2008.
The UN World Food Programme (WFP) said it was critical that border
closures were relaxed as had been promised in the coming days.
The WFP, which normally sends 15 trucks into Gaza a day, five days
a week, had only succeeded in bringing in 20 in two weeks.
The WFP could only provide 61 per cent of the daily needs of the
three quarters of the population of Gaza that relies on food handouts
from the UN.
UN children's agency UNICEF warned that a quarter of a million
children, due to return to school Saturday, faced freezing classrooms
as well as equipment shortages.
In a statement Saeed Harb, who runs schools in the south of Gaza
said: 'Children are finding it almost impossible to learn and you
can see it in their falling marks.'
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