That things are diabolical in Gaza itself, and for its people, is now a given. The Guardian reports [as reproduced in The Age] on the latest assessments - one from no lesser source than the well-regarded The Lancet - how dire things really are:
"A two-year international investigation has revealed an increase in the number of stunted children in the occupied Palestinian territories.
It found conditions so extreme that Palestinian women have sometimes been forced to give birth at Israeli military checkpoints.
A series of articles published yesterday by the medical magazine The Lancet concludes that the occupation, the recent conflict in Gaza and inter-Palestinian fighting are undermining the health and development of the population.
The best solution to health in the territories is peace and security under a sovereign Palestinian state, say the authors, who are doctors and academics from Birzeit University in Ramallah and Oxford, with assistance from international health scientists, the World Health Organisation and other UN agencies.
Rita Giacaman, from Birzeit University, and colleagues say that since 2000 "life for Palestinians has become much harder, more dangerous and less secure". There was evidence that health gains during the 1990s were being eroded.
A humanitarian crisis had emerged in the Gaza Strip, "intensifying as a result of the Israeli military invasion in December 2008 and January 2009, and because of destruction of homes and infrastructure, the death and injury of civilians and shortages of food, fuel, medicines and other essentials", they say.
Infant mortality dropped between 1967 and 1987, but stalled between 2000 and 2006 at 27 per 1000 live births. (The rate in Israel, the authors note, is 3.9 per 1000)."
Meanwhile, can this be taken as a new voice sounding in the US in its approach to the Palestinian-Israel conflict? JTA reports:
"Call it a three-legged stalking horse: rapid progress toward a two-state solution, penalties for settlement expansion and engagement with Syria even as it remains in Iran's sphere.
They were the key suggestions for advancing Middle East peace outlined by U.S. Sen. John Kerry (D-Mass.) in a speech Wednesday following his visit to the region.
Kerry, the chairman of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, emphasized alacrity throughout the speech.
"There is a window of opportunity that we must seize by showing, with actions more than words, that it will not just be business as usual in the Middle East," he said.
Kerry said he would detail his recommendations in a private meeting with President Obama."
"A two-year international investigation has revealed an increase in the number of stunted children in the occupied Palestinian territories.
It found conditions so extreme that Palestinian women have sometimes been forced to give birth at Israeli military checkpoints.
A series of articles published yesterday by the medical magazine The Lancet concludes that the occupation, the recent conflict in Gaza and inter-Palestinian fighting are undermining the health and development of the population.
The best solution to health in the territories is peace and security under a sovereign Palestinian state, say the authors, who are doctors and academics from Birzeit University in Ramallah and Oxford, with assistance from international health scientists, the World Health Organisation and other UN agencies.
Rita Giacaman, from Birzeit University, and colleagues say that since 2000 "life for Palestinians has become much harder, more dangerous and less secure". There was evidence that health gains during the 1990s were being eroded.
A humanitarian crisis had emerged in the Gaza Strip, "intensifying as a result of the Israeli military invasion in December 2008 and January 2009, and because of destruction of homes and infrastructure, the death and injury of civilians and shortages of food, fuel, medicines and other essentials", they say.
Infant mortality dropped between 1967 and 1987, but stalled between 2000 and 2006 at 27 per 1000 live births. (The rate in Israel, the authors note, is 3.9 per 1000)."
Meanwhile, can this be taken as a new voice sounding in the US in its approach to the Palestinian-Israel conflict? JTA reports:
"Call it a three-legged stalking horse: rapid progress toward a two-state solution, penalties for settlement expansion and engagement with Syria even as it remains in Iran's sphere.
They were the key suggestions for advancing Middle East peace outlined by U.S. Sen. John Kerry (D-Mass.) in a speech Wednesday following his visit to the region.
Kerry, the chairman of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, emphasized alacrity throughout the speech.
"There is a window of opportunity that we must seize by showing, with actions more than words, that it will not just be business as usual in the Middle East," he said.
Kerry said he would detail his recommendations in a private meeting with President Obama."
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