Gaza Crisis:Food & water running out

Aid agencies warned yesterday that the people of Gaza face "grave" shortages of food and water.

Save the Children warned that basic humanitarian supplies are running out with much of the city left without electricity and water.

The agency called for aid to be let in to the stricken area and said 50,000 children were already suffering from chronic malnutrition.

Thousands of peoplefamilies were displaced prior to the launch of the ground offensive, with charities expecting the number to increase significantly as fighting escalates.

The long-suffering residents of the Gaza Strip, who before Israeli invasion were already facing severe shortages of food, shelter, medicine and other basic daily necessities, now are caught in an even more grave humanitarian crisis, the United Nations said.

The Israeli offensive has so far resulted in the death which has so far killed around 970 Palestinians and wounded 4,300 others.

"When women, children and babies are killed in Gaza, how can you say Gaza is not in a humanitarian crisis?" Christopher Gunness, a spokesperson for the UN relief operation in Gaza, told ABC News. "When hospitals are overwhelmed with patients, how can you not say Gaza is not in a humanitarian crisis? When bakeries are shut down, how can you say Gaza is not in humanitarian crisis?

Israeli Foreign Minister Tzipi Livni said Thursday that Gaza is not facing humanitarian crisis.

"We are on the ground and we have a much better idea of the situation than those who view Gaza through the lenses of high-altitude bombers."

Asked whether the UN relief agency had succeeded in delivering food aid over the last 10 days of Israeli bombing, Gunness said: "We are continuing our food distribution, but it has been severely curtailed by the situation on ground."

A more detailed view of the food shortage situation emerged from the account of Maher Abu Dakka, a driver inside Gaza who spoke with ABC News in a telephone interview.

"We wait long hours, in long queues, in front of the bakeries to be able to buy bread," Abu Dakka said. "Shops are closed. Everything was shut down due to the air bombardments. There is no food and the only opened shops are running out of the basic food supplies. I have a 1-year-old son. No Pampers and constant shortages in baby milk. Nothing since last week. The windows glass was broken due to the bombardments. We can't even find plastic to seal the windows."

"The conditions in Gaza were already miserable even before the Israeli air bombardments," said Abu Hasna. "We are talking about an area which is hard to describe.

"Gaza is a prison. No Palestinian is allowed to go out or to get in. Eighty percent of Gaza's population are refugees and non-refugees who rely on the UN aid. We are talking about an area where 750,000 Palestinian refugees depend entirely on food aid offered by the UN agencies. We are talking about an over 50 percent unemployment rate. What is happening in Gaza now surpasses the capacities of any humanitarian organization."

In addition, the logistical challenges of delivering the food are great, he said.

"The situation on ground is grave, roads have been cut off," he said. "There are aerial bombardments which makes it very hard for the vehicles loaded with aid to move around"

When the Israeli aerial bombardment started, the electricity flow was reduced to five hours a day. Gaza is now in complete dark.

"There is no electricity and when you don't have electricity, you will not have water and this makes people's life more difficult than what they are already," he said.

Category:

News & Politics

Tags:

• Gaza
• Israel
• Palestine
• food
• water
• crisis
• war
• illegal occupation
• death
• destruction
• holyland

[NOWAYTOBEGOOD]

people in gaza god be with you coz there are no more people in the world

[Prairysky]

Lets get some water and peace to these peoples!

[missgriffin77]

So sad...thank you for posting, people need to see these things.