Palestinians in Gaza appeal for more aid
Friday, 20 July 2007
GAZA, July 19 (Reuters): Children raced to help parents collect food from UN aid distribution centers in the Gaza Strip as women sat in the shade near trucks, waiting for their names to be called to receive their food rations.
The enclave's isolation has deepened since the Islamist Hamas group routed their Western-backed rivals to seize control last month. Israel, effectively at war with Hamas, has sealed off key border crossings, stifling trade and forcing thousands of Palestinians to seek handouts from U.N. aid bodies.
The UN aid agency for Palestinian refugees says that up to 825,000 of Gaza's 1.5 million inhabitants, classed as refugees, currently receive food rations, and the U.N. World Food Program aids a further 200,000 people.
As UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon prepared to meet fellow members of the Quartet of mediators in Lisbon on Thursday, Palestinians urged the United Nations Relief and Works Agency (UNRWA) to widen its program to feed more people.
"We now have only God and then UNRWA," said Ahmed al-Jammal, a father of five, inside an aid centre in Gaza City. "We have no other source of income," he said as he received sacks of flour and rice and bottles of cooking oil.
UNRWA Commissioner-General Karen AbuZayd also urged the Quartet powers to act to ease an effective trade embargo on the Strip and send their new envoy Tony Blair to visit.
"If the economy doesn't work ... then we will have to have food for many more people," she said in an interview.
The enclave's isolation has deepened since the Islamist Hamas group routed their Western-backed rivals to seize control last month. Israel, effectively at war with Hamas, has sealed off key border crossings, stifling trade and forcing thousands of Palestinians to seek handouts from U.N. aid bodies.
The UN aid agency for Palestinian refugees says that up to 825,000 of Gaza's 1.5 million inhabitants, classed as refugees, currently receive food rations, and the U.N. World Food Program aids a further 200,000 people.
As UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon prepared to meet fellow members of the Quartet of mediators in Lisbon on Thursday, Palestinians urged the United Nations Relief and Works Agency (UNRWA) to widen its program to feed more people.
"We now have only God and then UNRWA," said Ahmed al-Jammal, a father of five, inside an aid centre in Gaza City. "We have no other source of income," he said as he received sacks of flour and rice and bottles of cooking oil.
UNRWA Commissioner-General Karen AbuZayd also urged the Quartet powers to act to ease an effective trade embargo on the Strip and send their new envoy Tony Blair to visit.
"If the economy doesn't work ... then we will have to have food for many more people," she said in an interview.