Reuters AlertNet Full site
Homepage | Newsdesk | NGO Latest | Crisis briefings | Country profiles | MediaWatch | Jobs | Alerting | Login

U.N. says forced to stop food aid to Gaza
31 Mar 2004
 By Tim Large

Background

•  Food and hunger

•  Israeli-Palestinian conflict

MORE >>
LONDON (AlertNet) – United Nations food aid to the Gaza Strip will be halted this week due to Israeli restrictions on the movement of staff and food containers, the U.N. agency in charge of Palestinian refugees said on Wednesday.

Rene Aquarone, director of the executive office of the U.N. Relief and Works Agency for Palestinian Refugees (UNRWA) in Gaza, said increased Israeli security at checkpoints was making it impossible to bring empty food containers out of Gaza, crippling the flow of aid.

“We can’t continue to bring in full containers if we have already empty containers in Gaza which we can’t get out,” he told AlertNet by telephone.

“We fully acknowledge the security concerns of the Israeli side…but we don’t see how this applies to empty containers.”

Israel’s decision to tighten border controls follows a March 14 attack in the Israeli port city of Ashdod, in which two suicide bombers slipped out of Gaza in a container and blew themselves up, killing 10 people. The incident did not involve a U.N. container.

It also reflects fears of reprisal attacks following the assassination earlier this month of Hamas leader Sheikh Ahmed Yassin by Israeli forces.

“We are exercising extreme caution,” an Israeli spokesman was quoted as saying on BBC News Online.

The beefed-up border controls come as U.N. agencies press Israeli authorities to ease earlier restrictions on staff movements in and out of Gaza following a string of Palestinian attacks.

Those restrictions had already hindered the flow of food through Karni, the only crossing point open to aid vehicles.

Between 600,000 and 700,000 Palestinian refugees in the Gaza Strip rely on emergency food rations from UNRWA.

“Our warehouses are depleting and will be exhausted by tomorrow,” Aquarone said. “In Ashdod, we have 267 containers waiting for transfer, and we have another 285 containers on their way from suppliers.”

Aquarone said lack of funding had already forced UNRWA to cut daily calorie requirements to 40 percent from 60 percent.

“It’s a very important issue because people are going to suffer very quickly,” he said.


Email this article       Send comments

Topics

•  Food and hunger

•  Refugees & displacement

MORE >>

Emergencies

•  Israeli-Palestinian conflict

MORE >>

NGO latest

•  The F word causes debate
Red Cross - UK

•  Emergency Relief supplies to aid 10,000 families fleeing South Waziristan conflict
World Vision Middle East/Eastern Europe/ Central Asia

•  Where now for Sri Lanka’s war refugees?
Caritas Internationalis

•  Rains fail again across East Africa
Oxfam GB - UK

•  SitRep: Security Hinders Assistance from Reaching Many IDPs
ACT - Switzerland

MORE >>

Latest news

•  FACTBOX-Who is Saad al-Hariri?

•  FACTBOX-Lebanon's Hariri heads for Damascus

•  Burma: Clinton Should Press for Release of Burmese-American

•  Morocco yields to pressure, activist back home

•  EGYPT-ISRAEL: Perilous journey to the promised land

MORE >>

Background information

Briefings
Israeli-Palestinian conflict - [Who works where]

Topics
Food and hunger Refugees & displacement
Facts & figures
Israel
Statistics graphs
Human development index ranking (2005)
Chart for Human development index ranking
View more stats

Related articles

Breaking stories
 FACTBOX-Who is Saad al-Hariri? (1 minute ago)

FACTBOX-Lebanon's Hariri heads for Damascus (1 minute ago)

AlertNet insight
 Insecurity, disease and political uncertainty put Sudanese lives at risk (1 minute ago)

Aid agency news feed
 The F word causes debate (1 minute ago)

Blogs
 Yemen conflict: Adapting to life in the camps (1 minute ago)

Maps
 IDP Camp Satellite Analysis Report - Sa´adah, Wadi Khaiwan & Baqim, Yemen (1 minute ago)


Del.icio.us Del.icio.us  |   Digg Digg  |   NewsVine NewsVine  |   Reddit Reddit   
Thumb for /thefacts/imagerepository/RTRPICT/2009-12-18T103753Z_01_POP52_RTRIDSP_2_CLIMATE-COPENHAGEN_mainimage.jpg|/thenews/pictures/pop52.htm
Thumb for /thefacts/imagerepository/RTRPICT/2009-12-18T103640Z_01_POP51_RTRIDSP_2_CLIMATE-COPENHAGEN_mainimage.jpg|/thenews/pictures/pop51.htm
Thumb for /thefacts/imagerepository/RTRPICT/2009-12-17T224833Z_01_PDH203_RTRIDSP_2_SPAIN-SAHARA-ACTIVIST_mainimage.jpg|/thenews/pictures/PDH203.htm
Thumb for /thefacts/imagerepository/RTRPICT/2009-12-17T224528Z_01_PDH202_RTRIDSP_2_SPAIN-SAHARA-ACTIVIST_mainimage.jpg|/thenews/pictures/PDH202.htm
Thumb for /thefacts/imagerepository/RTRPICT/2009-12-17T224350Z_01_PDH201_RTRIDSP_2_SPAIN-SAHARA-ACTIVIST_mainimage.jpg|/thenews/pictures/PDH201.htm

Israel's President Shimon Peres (R) arrives at the morning session of United Nations Climate Change Conference 2009 in Copenhagen December 18, 2009. World leaders worked through the early hours to try ...


More pictures | Galleries
Disclaimers |  Copyright |  Privacy |  Contact Us |  Feedback |  About Us |  RSS XML

Last updated:Sat Dec 19 11:21:51 2009