 United Nations, Nov. 27 (PL) UN had to suspend 19 of its 20 construction projects in the Gaza Strip by the Israeli blockade at the entrance of materials that occupied Palestinian territory, according to a report released today.
In its report for Humanitarian Bulletin October 2013, the UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA) reports that were discontinued initiatives aimed at addressing housing needs, education, water and sanitation in Gaza under a tight siege since 2006.
At the detention by Israel of the passage of construction materials into Gaza, the UN Agency for Palestine Refugees in the Near East (UNRWA) was forced to suspend rehabilitation projects and humanitarian reconstruction, accurate.
The report includes tens of thousands of workers were temporarily unemployed, which further complicates life in Gaza.
According to OCHA, a week after discovering a tunnel between the southern Gaza and Israel, Tel Aviv authorities decided to prevent the flow of construction materials, including those for international organizations.
The Israeli decision exacerbates the already severe problems of access to these resources, following the drastic reduction in flow through underground tunnels from Egypt, stated in its report.
Israel has applied for seven years a blockade on Gaza, territory occupied in 1967, forcing its inhabitants to seek ways of subsistence.
In another report, OCHA notes that the lack of electricity exacerbates the humanitarian crisis in Gaza, whose only power plant operations left earlier this month for lack of fuel.
The entire population of that territory, one million 700 thousand people, affected by cuts up to 16 hours a day, with a severe impact on medical care, access to safe water and sanitation, warns in the document circulated here.
The UN humanitarian agency regrets that blackouts have a severe impact on the normal functioning of hospitals, especially in critical areas such as operating rooms, emergency assistance and neonatal care.
Also in health the situation is very complex, because it affected the work of the 291 facilities in the Gaza Strip for the treatment of waste, causing the spill of tens of thousands of cubic meters of sewage, including in areas residential adds.
On Tuesday, the UN special rapporteur on human rights Richard Falk called almost catastrophic situation of basic services in Gaza, by rolling blackouts.
Falk said he can not forget that the central cause of the crisis lies in blocking Israel. |
