UN: Truckloads of Goods ENter Gaza From Israel

New York, Nov 2 2009 4:10PM

The Office of the United Nations Special Coordinator for the Middle East Peace Process (http://www.unsco.org/Default.asp) reports that nearly 80 truckloads of goods entered Gaza from Israel yesterday through the Kerem Shalom crossing.

The majority of the trucks contained fruit, cooking oil, dairy products, flour, frozen meat, tea and coffee.

More than 100,000 kilograms of cooking gas also made it into Gaza through Kerem Shalom, UNSCO noted. However, the Karni conveyor belt and the Nahal Oz fuel pipelines remained closed.

The UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (http://ochaonline.un.org/) warned in a report released in September that the ongoing Israeli blockade of the Gaza Strip, now in its third year, has triggered a “protracted human dignity crisis” with negative humanitarian consequences.

“At the heart of this crisis is the degradation in the living conditions of the population, caused by the erosion of livelihoods and the gradual decline in the state of infrastructure, and the quality of vital services in the areas of health, water and sanitation, and education,” stated the report, entitled “Locked In: The Humanitarian Impact of Two Years of Blockade on the Gaza Strip.”

The blockade, imposed following the Hamas takeover of Gaza in June 2007, includes the closure of Karni, one of the largest and best equipped commercial crossings; sweeping restrictions on the import of industrial, agricultural and construction materials; the suspension of almost all exports; and a general ban on the movement of Palestinians through Erez, the only passenger crossing to the West Bank.

ENDS

© Scoop Media