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Palestinians in West Bank and Gaza facing humanitarian crisis
2003-030-2
Thursday, February 13, 2003
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[Episcopal News Service]
According to the United Nations, Palestinians in the West Bank and Gaza suffering an economic collapse, growing unemployment and malnutrition are now facing a humanitarian crisis because western governments have not responded to an appeal for funds.
The UN said that the appeal has fallen flat, even though the facts on the ground indicate that the Palestinians have been driven to new depths of poverty. The people of Gaza, under a renewed curfew, are facing the most serious crisis. UN sources indicate that the food warehouses will be empty within a few weeks.
'If we don't get money coming in soon we will have a rupture in the food distribution which will be very serious, as we already have malnutrition levels of 22 percent among children--and that is bound to rise if food aid stops,' said commissioner general Peter Hansen. Two years ago the UN fed about 11,000 people in Gaza, mostly widows and those with no means of support. Today it feeds 715,000, more than half the total population. Child malnutrition is now being compared to the situation in the Congo and Zimbabwe.
Hansen warned that the situation will 'increase tension and be very difficult to keep things under whatever control there is at the moment. It's going to be politically destabilizing.' UN officials said that Gaza is the most crowded place on earth and rapidly becoming one of the poorest. 'It's not just unemployment and disease,' said Abdalhadi Abu Khousa, head of the Gaza section of the Union of Palestinian Medical Relief Committees. 'There's no hope. No hope for the peace process. No hope for the future. No hope the Israelis will accept us as human beings. These are the worst times Gaza has seen.'
'This is a humanitarian crisis and help must be provided to keep people going,' said Secretary of State Clare Short of Great Britain, a major relief donor. 'But this crisis will not be resolved without a political solution.'
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