UN: Situation in Gaza Serious Due to Blockade
GAZA (Dispatches) – A United Nations official has warned that the situation in the Gaza Strip is serious, and increasing the Zionist blockade will lead to a new round of violence.
Adnan Abu Hasna, the media advisor of the UN Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees in the Near East (UNRWA), told reporters that tightening the blockade will renew tension in the coastal strip.
“Since the end of the wave of violence in the Gaza Strip on May 21, the situation in Gaza is extremely dangerous and deteriorating at all levels,” Abu Hasna said.
He said that the situation in the Gaza Strip “cannot continue in this way,” adding that UNRWA and its staff have noticed a rise in the “destructive negative energy” among the population.
Abu Hasna called on the international community and the donor countries “to find a quick mechanism to implement the aid in Gaza and move forward in order to create opportunity and hope for the residents of the enclave.”
The Palestinian factions complained that although Egypt had brokered a cease-fire, the occupying regime has tightened the blockade instead of easing it.
The factions, including the resistance movement Hamas, demand that the occupying regime abide by the cease-fire understandings.
The understandings include expanding the fishing area, implementing infrastructure projects, and lifting restrictions on importing and exporting goods.
The factions also call for allowing the entry of the financial grant of Qatar for humanitarian support and the entry of building materials to start the reconstruction process.
In a statement, the Palestinian ministry of foreign affairs said that more than 2 million people in the Gaza Strip “pay heavy prices due to the endless Israeli blockade which ruined their daily living.”
“The Israeli blockade has led to sabotaging the lives of the Palestinian citizens and declining the level of basic services provided, under the pressure of Israeli delay and extortion,” the statement said.
The Zionist regime has been imposing a tight blockade on the Gaza Strip since 2007.
The regime tightened the blockade during the recent 11-day onslaught on the strip, which ended on May 21 and left more than 250 Palestinians dead.
On Friday, the UN Humanitarian Coordinator of the occupied Palestinian territory Lynn Hastings warned that the Zionist ban on bringing supplies to the besieged Gaza Strip puts vital sectors in the enclave at risk.