Wednesday 9 June 2010

UNRWA: Siege bigger than just a humanitarian crisis


[ 09/06/2010 - 10:13 AM ]


CAIRO, (PIC)-- UNRWA commissioner general Filippo Grandi said that the crisis in Gaza was bigger than just a humanitarian one and will greatly influence the Palestinian people and their way of life for a very long time.

Grandi, noting that the siege on Gaza had surpassed that on Sarajevo, described the blockade that has been ongoing for four consecutive years as "ridiculous, tragic, and absolutely unacceptable".

He said that Gaza had turned into the biggest open prison in the world.

In a statement released by UNRWA regional office in Cairo on Tuesday, Grandi said that Israel and the world community shoulder the responsibility for the daily suffering of the Gaza people.

UN statistics indicate that 60% of Gaza inhabitants are unemployed while 80% of them depend on UN aid, he elaborated.

The commissioner general pointed out that two thirds of Gaza buildings were destroyed during the last Israeli war on Gaza, and are still in ruins because of the acute shortage in construction material.

Grandi described Israeli claims that there is no humanitarian crisis in Gaza and that the siege was necessary for Israel's security as "nonsense", adding that if one and a half million Palestinians living only 60 kilometers away from Tel Aviv are suffering then the situation is not at all "healthy" for Israel.


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