UN Urges Israel To Rethink Gaza Strategy
Tobias Buck in Jerusalem and Harvey Morris at the United Nations
Israel must rethink its policy of punishing Palestinians in the Gaza Strip for militant attacks from the territory, the United Nations political affairs chief said on Tuesday.
Lynn Pascoe, UN undersecretary-general for political affairs, told the Security Council, meeting to debate a deteriorating humanitarian situation in Gaza, that collective penalties were prohibited under international law.
Diplomats of the 15-member council were negotiating on Tuesday on the wording of a joint statement on the worsening Gaza crisis. The US, however, was insisting it must highlight the responsibility of Hamas – the Islamist group that controls the Gaza Strip – for the crisis through its rocket bombardment of southern Israel.
The Gaza Strip’s only power station resumed production on Tuesday, after the Israeli government agreed to allow fuel supplies into the territory. The government on Monday moved to ease the total blockade of Gaza in the face of rising pressure from the European Union, the UN and Arab neighbours, and on Tuesday a shipment of fuel, medical supplies and some food provisions arrived in Gaza.
Israel will allow sufficient fuel supplies to enter the territory over the coming days to keep the power station running for at least one week, and officials said the government would monitor the situation closely to ensure there was “no humanitarian crisis”.
Aid agencies, however, have warned that a crisis is already well under way, with the UN warning this week that it would have to suspend food supplies to hundreds of thousands of Gazans in a matter of days.
Riyad Mansour, Palestinian observer at the UN, said Israeli actions were undermining the Annapolis peace process launched two months ago.
Mahmoud Abbas, president of the Palestinian Authority, on Tuesday vowed to continue peace negotiations despite the worsening situation, shrugging off mounting criticism from domestic political opponents. “Halting contacts with Israel is useless. On the contrary, we should intensify our contacts and our meetings to stop the suffering of our people,” he told Associated Press.
Protests and demonstrations inside and outside Gaza escalated on Tuesday, with about 60 Palestinians injured as they clashed with Egyptian police at the Rafah border crossing between Gaza and Egypt.
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