[WCUSP] Action Alert: Critical Situation in Gaza...End the Israeli Siege of Gaza!

[KATHARLOW at aol.com]

Please contact your House Member and Senators on this issue ASAP.  The  
situation is critical.  The Israeli siege of Gaza must  end!

Peace,
Katharina
**********************************************

Date: Thu, 06 Dec 2007 11:06:59  +0200
From: bahia amro <bahia at pmrs.ps>


Palestinian Medical Relief Society Calls for an immediate  end to the 
murderous Israeli siege of  Gaza



People are dying in Gaza. Patients die  in their hospital beds because they 
are denied permits to access life-saving  treatments abroad. Patients with such 
permits die at the Erez crossing because  the Israeli military denies them 
exit, despite their  permits.

These are all avoidable deaths. These are patients  diagnosed with a critical 
condition, seeking life–saving treatment. This is  tantamount to murder. 
Premeditated murder. More than 29 Palestinians have  already died in this manner 
so far.  A further 900 are still waiting to  permits to leave the Strip.

But this is only the tip of the  iceberg, for the collective punishment 
unleashed on the Palestinian people in  Gaza cuts much deeper: food, goods, 
medicine, medical supplies, critical  equipment, construction materials and now fuel 
and electricity. The closure of  the crossings by the Israeli military and the 
new delivery cuts ordered by the  Israeli government are far reaching. All 
sectors of life are impacted; all the  population is under attack.

Hospitals depend on medicine and  medical supplies, water distribution 
depends on pumps that need fuel and  electricity, sewage treatment plants depend on 
fuel and critical spare parts,  factories and construction yards depend on 
imported raw materials, but all of  these are unavailable in the Strip. Tens of 
thousands of jobs have been  destroyed, and only 41% of the basic commercial 
food import needs reach the  impoverished Gazan people, who now buy 79% less 
food than before the siege.  People walk in the dark at night, for lack of fuel 
for transportation and  power for public lighting.

The health sector in particular is  suffering. Seven out of the 17 incubators 
at the Gaza paediatric hospital are  not functioning properly. Twenty percent 
of essential drugs and 31% of  essential medical supplies are no longer 
available. “Zero availability” is the  technical term used by the United Nation 
Agencies in their reports.  

While all these facts are well known, this massive violation of  
international humanitarian law is taking place openly, and the international  community’s 
failure to uphold international law and pressure Israel is  abysmal. 

There are no technical terms for the suffering endured  by the Palestinians 
in Gaza. There is no one to denounce the inhumanity of the  Israeli siege and 
the cruelty of its treatment of an entire population, women,  children, and 
patients included.

PMRS, on behalf of the people of  Gaza, calls for an immediate campaign to 
lift the Israeli siege of the  Strip.

Everyone must act now to stop this collective punishment.  It is the only 
ethical, just and humane thing to do. The siege must stop.  Now.







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