International   

Food, medicine supplies becoming scarce in Gaza: aid agencies

LONDON: International aid agencies on Friday accused Israel of playing down the scale of the growing humanitarian crisis in Gaza after Israeli Foreign Minister Tzipi Livni claimed that “there is no humanitarian crisis in the [Gaza] Strip and therefore there is no need for a humanitarian truce”.

They warned that Gaza was running out of food supplies and medicines, and people were having to live without electricity and water as the system had collapsed after seven days of continuous Israeli bombardment.

A spokesman of the United Nations Relief and Works Agency said Israeli air raids were hampering relief work. “How can you carry out proper relief work in these conditions of violence? When you look at the Israeli assertions about the humanitarian situation it is very hard to square it with the extraordinarily dire situation in the ground,” said Chris Gunness, head of the Agency. He warned that his organisation had “only a few days of supply left”. A similar warning came from the World Food Programme director.

Printer friendly page  
Send this article to Friends by E-Mail

Stories in this Section

Kilinochchi captured in devastating blow to LTTE
Decisive victory over savage terrorism, says Rajapaksa
Stay order defied at Nepal temple
Global protests against Gaza attacks
Food, medicine supplies becoming scarce in Gaza: aid agencies
Citigroup bosses forgo bonuses
Pirates fought off with water jets
Muslims removed from U.S. plane
Eyewitness account of a Gazan boy

Copyright © 2009, The Hindu. Republication or redissemination of the contents of this screen are expressly prohibited without the written consent of The Hindu