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Occupied Jerusalem: A coalition of eight British-based human rights organisations yesterday released a scathing report in claiming that the humanitarian situation in the Gaza Strip is at its worst point since Israel captured the territory in 1967.
The report said more than 1.1 million people, about 80 per cent of Gaza's residents, are now dependent on food aid, as opposed to 63 per cent in 2006, unemployment is close to 40 per cent and close to 70 per cent of the 110,000 workers employed in the private sector have lost their jobs.
It also said hospitals are suffering from power cuts of up to 12 hours a day, and the water and sewage systems were close to collapse, with 40-50 million litres of sewage pouring into the sea daily.
The report follows strident international condemnation of Israel after it struck hard against Palestinian fighters in Gaza, killing more than 120 in the past week, including many civilians, after Palestinians fighters escalated their daily rocket fire at Israel.
The rockets have killed 13 people, wounded dozens more, traumatised thousands and caused millions of dollars in damage. Last week longer-range rockets reached Ashkelon, a city of 120,000 people, about 17km north of Gaza, prompting the harsh Israeli response.
Israel's Defence Ministry rejected the report, blaming Hamas for the hardships.
"Israel has the right and obligation to protect its citizens, but as the occupying power in Gaza it also has a legal duty to ensure that Gazans have access to food, clean water, electricity and medical care," said Amnesty International UK Director Kate Allen, one of groups behind the report.
"Punishing the entire Gazan population by denying them these basic human rights is utterly indefensible. The current situation is man-made and must be reversed."
'Reverse policy'
The 16-page report - sponsored by Amnesty, along with CARE International UK, Cafod, Christian Aid, Medecins du Monde UK, Oxfam, Save the Children UK and Trocaire - calls on the British government to exert greater pressure on Israel and to reverse its policy on not negotiating with Gaza's Hamas leaders.
The report adds that it considers Gaza blockade as unacceptable and illegal collective punishment.
Replying to the report, Israel's Defence Ministry said it was misdirected.
"The main responsibility for events in Gaza - since the withdrawal of Israel from the territory and the uprooting of the colonies there - is the Hamas organisation, to which all complaints should be addressed," read a statement by a spokesman, Major Peter Lerner.
The Defence Ministry also said medicines and medical equipment are shipped into Gaza with no limitation. On Wednesday, a typical day, the military said it allowed 69 truckloads of supplies into Gaza, including basic food and baby formula.
Israel's Foreign Ministry said in a statement that it respects the activity of the NGOs but that their criticism should be directed elsewhere. "Unfortunately, and not for the first time, these organisations fail to face the reality and sequence of events leading to the deteriorating situation in the southern regions of Israel, as well as in the Gaza Strip," the statement read.
"If only the Palestinians chose to cease their pointless and indiscriminate firing of rockets and missiles against hundreds of thousands of Israeli civilians, the entire region would return to a normal routine in which Palestinians and Israelis could once again enjoy their daily lives."
This week NGO Monitor, an occupied Jerusalem-based watchdog, called on human rights groups to end what it called their political use of international law. It cited an Amnesty International press release that it said made unsubstantiated accusations that Israeli responses "are being carried out with reckless disregard for civilian life".
"NGOs and human rights groups must end their irresponsible and immoral use of legal rhetoric," said Gerald Steinberg, Executive Director of NGO Monitor. "False claims of disproportionate force and collective punishment by Amnesty International and Human Rights Watch make a mockery of international law."
For more information see http://www.amnesty.org, http://www.ngo-monitor.org.
Punishing the entire Gazan population by denying them these basic human rights is utterly indefensible."Kate Allen, Director, Amnesty International UK
Aid
Handing out a lifeline
Hundreds of thousands of Palestinian in Gaza are living in what might be considered the "worst humanitarian situation ever", warned an Arab-American charity organisation.
"The recent blockade of the Gaza Strip has pushed the 1.5 million Palestinians living there into what is possibly the worst humanitarian situation ever witnessed in Palestine. There are now constant shortages of food, medicine and fuel," said a statement by Life, a charity Arab-American organisation.
Life, which was founded in 1992 by a group of Arab American professionals to respond to the humanitarian crisis in Iraq that time, is also registered with the Israeli government as a charity group and is authorised to conduct humanitarian operations in the Palestinian territories.
The statement said the group has concluded last week the third phase of its "Gaza emergency campaign". The phase covered 1,000 families in Gaza, and brought the total number of beneficiary families to 3,000.
The provided aid included food stuff in addition to one container of new clothes, new blankets and other donations shipped from the United States. More containers are expected to be exported to Gaza in the near future, the statement said.
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