Agency refutes Israeli foreign
minister’s view as sewage pours onto the streets
 International aid agency Oxfam today called on the high level EU delegation, expected to arrive in the Middle East
Sunday, to put maximum pressure on all parties for an immediate ceasefire and allow unimpeded humanitarian access to the besieged population of Gaza. The agency refuted the Israeli foreign
minister’s view, expressed in Paris yesterday and widely reported in the media, that there is not a humanitarian crisis in the Gaza strip. Oxfam said the humanitarian
crisis gets worse by the day. Hospitals are overwhelmed with casualties. Raw sewage pours into the streets in Beit Hanoun, a town of over 20,000 inhabitants. The water authority has only a couple of
days’ stock of fuel and chlorine. Water supplies are being restricted in many areas to a few hours a week. Food and fuel are also becoming ever more scarce and there are queues of up to 300
metres long at some bakeries. “The humanitarian crisis in Gaza is only set to get worse while food and fuel shortages continue. The risk to public health increases
with shortages of chlorine to treat water and raw sewage spilling into the streets in Beit Hanoun. “The time for kid-glove diplomacy has long gone. The EU has to put
the maximum pressure on all parties to agree an immediate and lasting ceasefire, allow unimpeded humanitarian access and restart the search for a peaceful solution,” said Jeremy Hobbs, Oxfam
International’s Director. Oxfam has had to suspend much of its work in Gaza which was reaching 65,000 people. The agency is calling on the
EU delegation to put maximum pressure on all sides to end the violence immediately. It says that Israeli bombing is excessive and Hamas’ rocket fire indiscriminate and neither party is
respecting international humanitarian law. It is also calling for a binding UN Security Council resolution to demand an immediate halt to violence in Gaza and Israel by all
parties, call on all parties to commit to a comprehensive and permanent truce, and demand that Israel allow - and Hamas or other parties not block - immediate access to and from Gaza for humanitarian
and commercial goods and for people by ending the blockade. More from the Oxfam Press Office at http://www.oxfam.org.uk/news
[ Any views expressed in this article are those of the writer and not of Reuters. ]
Singer Annie Lennox attends a news conference in London January 2, 2009. Lennox joined other high profile British campaigners to call for an end to Israel's attacks in the Gaza Strip. ...
