Hamas insists and has maintained all along that it will make peace with Israel - not necessarily recognise it - if Israel allows border crossings to remain open and returns to the borders as they stood in June 1967.
That Israel has blockaded Gaza is beyond question. The 1.5 million people have been denied every sort of requirement for a decent daily life - food, water, electricity, medicines and even a proper infrastructure. Israel has done much to decimate any infrastructure from roads to bridges to hospitals and government buildings. Against that background other than send rockets into Israel what resource has Hamas really got to get its people out from under the Israeli blockade?
Why the people of Gaza should suffer - bearing in mind that half the population is under the age of 15 - has never been explained by the Israelis. To read, as the NY Times reports, that aid is being stalled at the border crossing between Gaza and Egypt - especially now post Israel's battering of Gaza - is intolerable and unconscionable.
"France sent technical equipment to help Gazans draw water from the ground. The Swiss sent blankets and plastic tarps. Mercy Corps, a relief agency, sent 12 truckloads of food. And on Tuesday all of it, including dozens of other trucks carrying sugar, rice, flour, juice and baby formula, sat in the hot sun here going nowhere.
This normally quiet commercial crossing between Egypt and Israel has been turned into a parking lot of stalled, humanitarian aid, and in the city of El Arish there are even greater quantities of food, clothing and essential supplies, sitting, waiting and baking in the sun. Some supplies are loaded onto dozens of trucks parked on city streets, but much more is stored in the open areas of a local sports stadium, also waiting, also going nowhere. Only medical supplies seem to be getting through to Gaza.
Since the cease-fire, Israel has allowed some humanitarian supplies into Gaza, but the territory is still desperately short of the necessities. Israel closed all the crossings into Gaza on Tuesday after an Israeli soldier was killed in a bombing on the Israeli side of the border. But that changed nothing at this crossing, where the flow has been stalled for days.
Officials and volunteers in Egypt blame the Israelis, saying that even before the passage stalled Israel had allowed supplies to pass through for only 19 hours each week. Israeli officials said that Egypt had not done enough to coordinate the flood of aid coming to Gaza, and that they hoped a system would soon be in place to remedy the problem."
Continue reading here. Can one really blame Hamas for insisting that the blockade must stop? And also, how in heaven's name will Obama's special envoy to the Middle East, George Mitchell, now in the region, come to grips with the issue if he isn't going to visit Gaza let alone talk with Hamas? Will he visit the border crossing the NY Times details? Unikely!
That Israel has blockaded Gaza is beyond question. The 1.5 million people have been denied every sort of requirement for a decent daily life - food, water, electricity, medicines and even a proper infrastructure. Israel has done much to decimate any infrastructure from roads to bridges to hospitals and government buildings. Against that background other than send rockets into Israel what resource has Hamas really got to get its people out from under the Israeli blockade?
Why the people of Gaza should suffer - bearing in mind that half the population is under the age of 15 - has never been explained by the Israelis. To read, as the NY Times reports, that aid is being stalled at the border crossing between Gaza and Egypt - especially now post Israel's battering of Gaza - is intolerable and unconscionable.
"France sent technical equipment to help Gazans draw water from the ground. The Swiss sent blankets and plastic tarps. Mercy Corps, a relief agency, sent 12 truckloads of food. And on Tuesday all of it, including dozens of other trucks carrying sugar, rice, flour, juice and baby formula, sat in the hot sun here going nowhere.
This normally quiet commercial crossing between Egypt and Israel has been turned into a parking lot of stalled, humanitarian aid, and in the city of El Arish there are even greater quantities of food, clothing and essential supplies, sitting, waiting and baking in the sun. Some supplies are loaded onto dozens of trucks parked on city streets, but much more is stored in the open areas of a local sports stadium, also waiting, also going nowhere. Only medical supplies seem to be getting through to Gaza.
Since the cease-fire, Israel has allowed some humanitarian supplies into Gaza, but the territory is still desperately short of the necessities. Israel closed all the crossings into Gaza on Tuesday after an Israeli soldier was killed in a bombing on the Israeli side of the border. But that changed nothing at this crossing, where the flow has been stalled for days.
Officials and volunteers in Egypt blame the Israelis, saying that even before the passage stalled Israel had allowed supplies to pass through for only 19 hours each week. Israeli officials said that Egypt had not done enough to coordinate the flood of aid coming to Gaza, and that they hoped a system would soon be in place to remedy the problem."
Continue reading here. Can one really blame Hamas for insisting that the blockade must stop? And also, how in heaven's name will Obama's special envoy to the Middle East, George Mitchell, now in the region, come to grips with the issue if he isn't going to visit Gaza let alone talk with Hamas? Will he visit the border crossing the NY Times details? Unikely!
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