Europa & Palestine News « Europa & Middle East News
Darkness, shortage of fuel, flooding, hunger. Two Palestinians were killed and thousands evacuated to shelters while international community is blind and keeps silence like nothing is happening.
Catastrophe in Gaza, World Silent and Blind
Darkness, shortage of fuel, flooding, hunger. Two Palestinians were killed and thousands evacuated to shelters while international community is blind and keeps silence like nothing is happening.
During the last two days thousands of Gazans were evacuated from their homes because of the flooding caused by the storm “Alexa” that invaded the Middle East and has covered it with snow, rain and hail.
Chris Gunness, The UNRWA spokesperson, has described the Gaza Strip on Sunday, Dec. 15 2013 as a “disaster area”. He called on the international community to send relief for the Gazans and to lift the Israeli blockade for human reasons.
Chris Gunness, The UNRWA spokesperson, has described the Gaza Strip on Sunday, Dec. 15 2013 as a “disaster area”. He called on the international community to send relief for the Gazans and to lift the Israeli blockade for human reasons.
He said: “large areas near the refugee camp of Jabalia in the northern Gaza Strip have become a “lake of up to two meters depth of sink waters engulfing and surrounding the homes of thousands of people.”
Gaza also lives in continuous darkness due the cut of electricity because of the shortage of fuel. Over the last few years, the Gaza Strip has largely relied on the fuel coming in from Egypt through the cross-border smuggling tunnels under Rafah. Egypt has demolished hundreds of smuggling tunnels earlier this year. The Gaza Strip uses about 120 megawatts of electricity purchased from Israel and about 27 megawatts from Egypt.
According to UNRWA, “Everything stops,” says Daulat. She doesn’t just mean the refrigerator, the washing machine and other devices; this Palestine refugee mother means daily life in her neighbourhood of Shajaiya. “Electricity outages paralyze our entire life,” she explains. Since the Gaza Power Plant stopped operating, on 1 November, she’s had to change her entire routine: “I sleep when the electricity is off, and I wake up when it’s on.” 
Power outages are something that Gaza has dealt with for years. Israel’s restrictions on the amount of fuel Gaza could import, together with supply from Egypt not always being reliable, meant regular cuts for homes and businesses, hospitals, schools and even basic infrastructure.
But after several years, the shortages have finally grown so severe that the plant can no longer operate at all. Blackouts now last for an average of 16 hours a day. With the essentials of daily life compressed into only a few hours, it is no wonder that Gaza and its residents – young and old, women, men and children alike – are tense and anxious.
For mothers like Daulat, the loss of power has upended their entire routine. For students like her daughter, 17-year-old Khitam, it means a threat to her future as well. She is in her last year of secondary school. “This is crucial for my future,” Khitam says. “I am afraid of how these outages will affect my studies and my achievement.”
The family can’t afford a generator or an emergency light, so Khitam has no option but to study by the light of candles or mobile phones. But candles have their own risks, Khitam adds. “Once, my mother woke up because she smelled smoke – the candle had fallen down on the mattress.”
They were able to extinguish the fire quickly, but now, Daulat stays up until everyone else has gone to bed, to make sure she blows out the candle. And then, until morning, there is darkness. Khitam explains that getting up at night means stumbling over furniture or running into walls; her brother, afraid of going to the bathroom in the dark, has been wetting the bed.
Khitam’s mother asks only that her daughter’s teachers consider the conditions under which the children of Gaza must study and try to learn. But Khitam asks the other question: “How long will this continue?”
Power outages are something that Gaza has dealt with for years. Israel’s restrictions on the amount of fuel Gaza could import, together with supply from Egypt not always being reliable, meant regular cuts for homes and businesses, hospitals, schools and even basic infrastructure. But after several years, the shortages have finally grown so severe that the plant can no longer operate at all. Blackouts now last for an average of 16 hours a day. With the essentials of daily life compressed into only a few hours, it is no wonder that Gaza and its residents – young and old, women, men and children alike – are tense and anxious.
For mothers like Daulat, the loss of power has upended their entire routine. For students like her daughter, 17-year-old Khitam, it means a threat to her future as well. She is in her last year of secondary school. “This is crucial for my future,” Khitam says. “I am afraid of how these outages will affect my studies and my achievement.”
The family can’t afford a generator or an emergency light, so Khitam has no option but to study by the light of candles or mobile phones. But candles have their own risks, Khitam adds. “Once, my mother woke up because she smelled smoke – the candle had fallen down on the mattress.”
They were able to extinguish the fire quickly, but now, Daulat stays up until everyone else has gone to bed, to make sure she blows out the candle. And then, until morning, there is darkness. Khitam explains that getting up at night means stumbling over furniture or running into walls; her brother, afraid of going to the bathroom in the dark, has been wetting the bed.
Khitam’s mother asks only that her daughter’s teachers consider the conditions under which the children of Gaza must study and try to learn. But Khitam asks the other question: “How long will this continue?”
The Commissioner-General Thanked Assaf for taking on the role of UNRWA Regional Youth Ambassador for Palestine Refugees. 26 June 2013 – Gaza - The Commissioner General of UNRWA, Filippo Grandi, welcomed Arab Idol winner, Mohammad Assaf, to UNRWA headquarters in Gaza, and thanked him for accepting the role of UNRWA’s first ever “Regional Youth Ambassador for Palestine Refugees”. Speaking in front of hundreds of UNRWA staff, Grandi said Mohammad “had brought us all together in a rare moment of celebration”.
Palestinian Central Bureau of Statistics (PCBS) conducted the fifth round of the Victimization Survey of 2012. Data collection was conducted during the fourth quarter of 2012 (04/10/2012 – 31/12/2012).
I received the copy of a strongly-worded letter, sent to me by the Arab Assembly in Berlin, calling on the Palestinian Embassy in Germany to cancel a dancing and singing ceremony organized by that embassy and which is suppose to be held on November 20 2012 in one of the largest hotels in Berlin.
The letter referred to the difficult financial circumstances facing the Palestinian people as one of the reasons that mandating the cancellation of the celebration of the embassy. It speaks of the claims on side of the PA of lack and the shortage of money as a reason for their inability to pay the salaries of their own employees. “We do not want the celebration … of the difficult financial conditions experienced by our people … We suggest sending the costs of the festivity to help our people in Gaza”!!
During four days of the israeli zionist war crimes in Gaza, 40 Palestinians have been killed and over 400 injured, among them many in serious conditions, one third of the killed and injured Palestinians were children. Several houses and buildings have been completely destroyed and leveled to the ground, among them the building of the Prime Minister offices.
In Gaza and according to a press release from Al Mizan for Human Rights: (Note: the number of the causalities, the murdered and injured Palestinians, increased after this press release). Israeli occupation forces (IOF) launched an air strike on a house, in a serious escalation of its aggression on the Gaza Strip.
Solaiman Salah and his son, Mohammed, 13, sustained critical injuries. His wife, Fayza Salah, 53, and her son Zakariya, 19, and daughter, Safaa, 23, sustained moderate injuries. Al Mezan filed workers noted that the northern part of the family house collapsed completely, but the back part of the house remained standing with partial damage. The family were in the back part of the house when the attack took place. Al Mezan’s field workers witnessed the rescue operation at the house by the civil defense and neighbors. Two women and two children were rescued from under the rubble. This attack damaged 10 adjacent homes; 4 of which seriously, and left 33 injuries; 13 of them children and 7 women.
Al Mezan highlights that IOF’s attacks as Israel’s over five-year-old closure and naval blockade of the Gaza Strip continue. The situation of basic services in Gaza has deteriorated seriously during these years; especially for the health, water and sanitation sectors. The Israeli closure to the Gaza’s last crossing point, through which trade and humanitarian aid can be supplied, will further deteriorate the humanitarian situation in
International community has a responsibility to act to prevent serious violations of international law and human rights. Al Mezan calls on the international community to promptly intervene to stop the Israeli aggression; including by convening an urgent session of the Human Rights Council.
