Red Cross report says blockade is leaving Gazans 'in despair'

THE INTERNATIONAL Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) yesterday released a sharply critical report on the impact on Gaza of Israel’s blockade. which it said left Palestinians “trapped” and “in despair”.

Six months after Israel’s military offensive, “restrictions on imports are making it impossible for Gazans to rebuild their lives. The quantities of goods now entering Gaza fall well short of what is required to meet the population’s needs,” the report says. Israel has decreased the flow of goods by 80 per cent since April 2007.

Gaza’s medical services are collapsing, hospitals “are run down” and “much of the equipment is unreliable and in need of repair.Seriously ill patients should be given prompt and safe passage out of the Gaza Strip in order to access the specialised medical care they cannot get [there]. Drugs, disposables and spare parts must be allowed ... without delay and in sufficient quantities to ensure essential health services.”

The ICRC describes neighbourhoods bombed by Israel during the 23-day onslaught as still looking “like the epicentre of a massive earthquake” because Israel refuses to allow “vast quantities of cement, steel and other building materials .., into the territory for reconstruction”.

The report says that “the only way to address this crisis is to lift import restrictions on spare parts, water pipes, and building materials ... so that homes can be rebuilt and vital infrastructure maintained and upgraded”.

“Gaza’s alarming poverty,” it adds, “is directly linked to the tight closure imposed on the territory. Local industry and businesses have to be allowed to rebuild, import essential inputs and to ex- port their products.”

The organisation, which rarely goes public, asserts that “the crisis has become so severe and entrenched that even if all crossings [between Israel and Gaza] were to open tomorrow, it would take years for the economy to recover”.

Publication of the report coincides with the eighth voyage of the Free Gaza movement’s blockade-busting ship carrying 21 peace activists and three tonnes of medical supplies, toys, and tool kits.

Among those on the Spirit of Humanity are 1977 Irish Nobel Peace Prize laureate Mairéad Maguire, former US congresswoman Cynthia McKinney, and Derek Graham, an electrician from Co Mayo. Ms Maguire, awarded the prize for her reconciliation work in Northern Ireland, said that Gazans “must know that we will not forget them”. Organiser Huwaida Arraf said that Israel had warned that the ship would not be allowed to reach Gaza. Two of seven missions have been blocked by Israel.