22 Jan 2008 17:59:33 GMT
Source: Reuters
By Nidal al-Mughrabi
GAZA, Jan 22 (Reuters) - The leading U.N. aid agency for the Palestinians said Israel's decision to let some supplies into the Hamas-controlled Gaza Strip on Tuesday was a first step, but would not be sufficient to head off a humanitarian disaster. "In terms of the supplies coming in today, welcome as they are, they are nothing but the first step," said John Ging, head of the United Nations Relief and Works Agency (UNRWA) in Gaza. Unless Israel agrees to open the border crossings to aid shipments on a permanent basis, "we will face another disaster very quickly", he told Reuters in an interview. Israel allowed fuel supplies to resume on Tuesday to Gaza's main power plant, offering a limited respite from a blockade that plunged much of the impoverished territory into darkness and touched off international protests. Israel said it would also allow international aid agencies to bring up to 50 trucks of food and medicine into Gaza, citing a decline in the frequency of cross-border rocket attacks by Palestinian militants since Defence Minister Ehud Barak closed the crossings on Friday. But the number of trucks that made it through Israel's Kerem Shalom crossing with Gaza on Tuesday fell well short of what was planned, aid agencies said. Ging's agency, which provides food assistance to an estimated 860,000 Palestinian refugees, got only seven of its 17 trucks through. Likewise, the World Food Programme managed to get only three of its seven trucks in, according to Bekim Mahmuti, head of logistics for the agency. Aid groups said disturbances at the nearby Rafah border crossing with Egypt prompted Israel to close Kerem Shalom early, preventing the loads from reaching their destination. Israeli government officials said future aid shipments would hinge on regular assessments of Gaza's humanitarian needs and on the number of rockets fired by militants. Ging said the large impact of Friday's closure put a spotlight on how fragile Gaza had become since Israel tightened its cordon in June when Hamas Islamists took control of the territory after routing rival Fatah forces loyal to Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas. "Gaza cannot survive for very long at all without supplies and we are teetering here for the last seven months on the brink of a catastrophe," Ging said. "Israel is the occupying power. It has an international legal obligation to the civilian population here in Gaza as long as it is the occupying power," Ging added. "They are entitled to a decent, civilised existence." He called on Israel and the Palestinians to "break and end the cycle of violence". Israel pulled its troops and settlers out of the Gaza Strip in 2005, but still controls the territory's borders with the Jewish state, as well as its air space and coastal waters. (Editing by Caroline Drees)
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