Geneva - The International Committee of the Red Cross warned
Monday that six months after the large-scale Israeli offensive in the
Gaza Strip, the enclave's inhabitants were being prevented from
'rebuilding their lives.'
The closure of the crossings points into the enclave - allowing in
only a limited amount of basic humanitarian goods- was also causing
overloads on the run-down water, sanitation and health
infrastructures in Gaza.
Goods needed for reconstruction of the thousands of homes and
schools destroyed during the fighting and to repair the failing
systems are blocked by Israel. Many patients too were prevented from
leaving Gaza for medical treatment, the Red Cross said.
It noted that water pipes, cement, painkillers and X-ray film
developing materials were among the items lacking in Gaza, which 'is
cut off from the outside world.' Also, the economy has virtually
collapsed, causing rampant poverty.
The ICRC demanded that Israel lift its blockade on Gaza, imposed
since shortly before the Islamist Hamas movement overtook the strip
two years ago, and let goods and people move more freely.
Also to blame for the lack of essential services in Gaza, the
humanitarian organization said, was the infighting between Hamas its
rival, the Fatah movement, which rules in the West Bank.
At the same time, Palestinian rocket fire into Israel was placing
thousands in the Jewish state's south at risk, the report said.
Warning that humanitarian responses were by definition limited in
scope, the ICRC said there are 'political steps that are needed to
bring about the changes the population of Gaza needs,' and that all
the players in the region need 'to do what is needed to reopen the
Gaza Strip.'
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