WORLD VISION JERUSALEM STATEMENT ON GAZA BLOCKADE CRISIS
Palestinians and Israelis alike have endured suffering, violence and insecurity due
to military incursions or short-range rockets. However, the recent renewal of Israeli military attacks on Gaza's population has greatly aggravated the deplorable conditions caused by a year and a half
of Israeli blockade of fuel and humanitarian assistance. In the past three weeks the blockade has tightened even more and food stores have completely run out.
Over a million people in Gaza
depend on food aid where the humanitarian situation has been critical for some time and people live in conditions of abject poverty. The most vulnerable people, such as young children, the sick and
the elderly, are suffering the most.
The situation is desperate. The blockade has prevented all food, fuel and medical supplies from entering Gaza for the past 20 days. The basic needs for
survival have vanished. Bakeries have shut down because there is no wheat and no electricity. People are making do by burning what wood they can find for cooking and milling chicken feed for bread.
Medical attention is reduced to less than basic care without medicines and treatment options for patients with life threatening illnesses. There isn't even paper and pens for writing
prescriptions.
Alarmingly, no diplomats and humanitarian workers have been permitted entry to Gaza for nearly three weeks. Beyond merely being fed, Gazans are in dire need for freedom from
the extensive controls on movement, and freedom from violence. We ask decision makers and donors to make the humanitarian welfare and basic rights of the Gaza civilian population-especially
children-their highest priority. It is imperative that violence ceases on all sides. The situation needs urgent action in order to end the blockade and prevent further suffering.
RNPS IMAGES OF THE YEAR 2008 Rescuers work at the crash site of the Hewa Bora Airways passenger jet in Goma, capital of Democratic Republic of Congo's eastern North Kivu province, ...
