November 14, 2008

GAZA, (PIC)– The UNRWA, the UN agency that caters for Palestinian refugees, has announced Thursday that food supplies and basic needs in Gaza Strip had ran out due to the Israeli rejection to allow the agency trucks into the populated Strip.

John Ging, the operations manager of the UNRWA in the Strip said in a press statement that the agency won’t be able to bring food supplies into Gaza Strip as a result of the Israeli refusal to open the border-crossings with Gaza, describing the situation there as “catastrophic”.
He added that UNRWA ran out of supplies on Thursday evening and will not be able to distribute more unless the crossings are opened and food aid is allowed in.

The Israeli occupation authorities had earlier promised to allow the agency bring around 30 trucks of food and basic needs into the Strip to enable the agency attend to the needs of the 750,000 Palestinian refugees it serves in the Strip alone, but it reneged on those promises and furthermore banned the entry of the EU-financed fuel supplies to the Strip’s main electricity plant.

The plant produces only one-third of the needs of the Strip’s 1.5 million people of energy.

For her part, UNRWA Commissioner Karin Abu Zaid, in a press statement in Brussels, expressed concern at the Israeli tightening the criteria of materials allowed in as humanitarian aid to the Palestinians. She explained that a number of goods, including school materials among other important goods won’t be allowed into the Strip in future shipments.

The Gaza-based popular committee against the siege had announced Thursday that the Gaza electricity plant would stop operating starting 6:30 p.m. local time due shortage in the fuel needed to run the plant’s generators.

According to officials in the committee, the suspension of the plant would affect hospitals and health centers where hundreds of Palestinian patients were lying in, in addition to derailing basic services. Many bakeries in the Strip had stopped operation due to the sharp shortage of gas.