A week after stopping industrial fuel supply to the Gaza Strip in response to rocket attacks by Palestinian militants, Israeli defence minister Ehud Barak has agreed to allow partial passage of fuel supplies through the Jewish state’s crossing points following the closure of the Strip’s only power plant on Monday due to acute fuel shortages plunging the region into complete darkness.
The Israelis are continuing with their blockade of vital food supplies into the impoverished occupied Palestinian region to punish radical Hamas militants for launching a sustained rocket attacks on the Israeli population. UN relief agency in the Gaza Strip has been quoted by various news channels as criticizing the actions of the Israeli authorities which have led to improper food distributions among poverty ridden Gaza children. In a conversation with the BBC, Christopher Gunness, spokesman for the UN relief agency inside Gaza Unrwa said that food distributions to 750,000 people would have to be stopped immediately unless vital supplies are allowed in through Israeli checkpoints adding that Tel Aviv’s blockade is ‘physical and mental punishment of the population.’ Mr.Gunness added that, ‘it is also shameful and unacceptable that the largest humanitarian in Gaza is being forced into yet another cycle of crisis management.’
The partial change of heart was brought about by mediation between Middle East peace envoy Tony Blair and Israeli politicians in Jerusalem. Yet, given Gaza’s desperate economic and social conditions, this temporary partial lifting of the ban is nothing more than an international show off.
Tel Aviv has accused Hamas of creating an artificial crisis for which the Jewish state should not be blamed but ground realities, according to the UN, are completely different with grave shortage of basic requirements for the under-fed population. Terming the situation as ‘real and serious’, the UN has called for the international community to pressurize Israel to lift the week-old blockade completely. It remains to be seen if the international community listens to the urgent call of the UN relief agencies inside Palestine or as always avoids a possible clash of interests with a much powerful Israeli state.