The International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) has added its voice to the cascading international demand that Israel must lift its three year old siege on the Gaza strip.
In a statement, the ICRC said the Israeli blockade was illegal as it violated international humanitarian law.
“The whole of Gaza’s civilian population is being punished for acts for which they bear no responsibility. The closure therefore constitutes a collective punishment imposed in clear violation of Israel’s obligations under international humanitarian law,” the statement said.
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Beatrice Megevand-Roggo, the ICRC’s head of operations for West Asia said that Israeli security concerns cannot justify the imposition of the blockade, “which is having a devastating impact on the 1.5 million people living in Gaza”. “Israel’s right to deal with its legitimate security concerns must be balanced against the Palestinians’ right to live normal, dignified lives,” she said.
Worsening healthcare system
The blockade has been severely undermining Gaza’s healthcare system, and basic sanitation needs of the people are not being met. At the end of May 2010, 110 of 470 essential medicines such as chemotherapy and haemophilia drugs were unavailable in Gaza. More than 110 of the 700 disposable items, such as ventilator tubes or colostomy bags are out of stock. Most heart monitors in Gaza will be unusable by the end of June. “The state of the health-care system in Gaza has never been worse,” said Eileen Daly, ICRC’s health coordinator in Gaza.
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The siege has badly hit Gaza’s agriculture. The 50 square km of buffer zone established by Israel, contains one third of Gaza’s farmland. This has significantly hampered agriculture and displaced families from farmland. The three nautical miles restriction of movement imposed on fishing, has been impoverishing the fishing community. Consequently, nearly 90 per cent of Gaza’s 4,000 fishermen now fall within the “poor” or “very poor” category. Besides, driven by survival needs, fishermen, sail into prohibited zones, where the Israeli navy can shoot at them.
While the bulk of the statement focuses on Israel, the ICRC has not spared Palestinian Hamas from criticism, for its dealing with the captured Israeli soldier Gilad Shalit. Hamas has continued to rebuff the ICRC’s requests to let it visit Gilad Shalit. In violation of international humanitarian law, it has also refused to allow him to get in touch with his family, the statement observed. Meanwhile foreign ministers of the European Union (EU), meeting on Monday are also likely to call for the lifting of the Gaza siege and for a credible investigation into the Israeli attack of May 31 on the Gaza aid flotilla, which left nine persons dead. In a draft declaration prepared for the meeting, the EU has called the Gaza blockade “unacceptable and counterproductive”.