Reporting from Los Angeles and Jerusalem -- The Red Cross today accused Israel of preventing rescue workers from reaching Gaza City homes where the relief agency said it found 15 bodies and 18 wounded, including children, needing treatment after Israel shelled the area.From the Washington Post:
In a blistering report, the International Committee of the Red Cross said the Israeli army refused to grant rescuers access to the site in the Zeitun neighborhood for four days, a delay the agency said it considers unacceptable.
[snip]
"The ICRC/PRCS team found four small children next to their dead mothers in one of the houses," the statement said. "They were too weak to stand up on their own. One man was also found alive, too weak to stand up. In all there were at least 12 corpses lying on mattresses."
[snip]
The Israeli army had built earth walls, making it impossible to bring ambulances into the neighborhood, the report said. "Therefore, the children and the wounded had to be taken to the ambulances on a donkey cart," it said.
Israeli soldiers also ordered the rescue team to leave the area but the team refused to depart, the report said.
JERUSALEM, Jan. 8 -- The United Nations on Thursday said it was indefinitely suspending all humanitarian aid deliveries in the Gaza Strip, citing a series of Israeli attacks on U.N. facilities and personnel during the 13-day Israeli offensive.In a completely unrelated move, Israel continues to bar the media from entering Gaza despite a ruling from their own Supreme Court to allow access to journalists.
The suspension appeared likely to deepen a sense of crisis in Gaza, where more than half the territory's 1.5 million people live on food aid from the United Nations and where water, power and cooking gas are all in short supply.
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[United Nations Relief and Works Agency (UNRWA) spokesman Chris] Gunness accused Israel of "deliberately targeting" aid workers. He said the locations of U.N. facilities and the movements of its workers are communicated to the Israeli military.
UPDATE: The New York Times reports on UN and Red Cross Outcry here.
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Sorry, Maria, but this is where we part ways politically. I need to point you to this article so you may understand just one reason why most Jewish Dems will diverge from your viewpoints:
ReplyDeletehttp://www.jpost.com/servlet/Satellite?cid=1231424893023&pagename=JPost%2FJPArticle%2FShowFull
What does that map have to do with Israeli forces preventing the Red Cross, United Nations Relief and Works Agency and the media from doing their jobs?
ReplyDeleteIf the Red Cross, the UNRWA and the media are willing to take the risk, what right does Israeli forces have to stop them?
They want to take the risk? Fine. But they shouldn't be surprised when they get caught in a crossfire or Hamas human-shield scheme. In other words, if they get hurt, they shouldn't blame Israel. But you know what? They always do. Also, I don't know if you know, but the food warehouses in Gaza are stuffed to the gills. Hamas just doesn't want to distribute the food to anyone, just its select few adherents (the typical behavior of a one-party totalitarian state, btw).
ReplyDeleteFrom 5 days ago:
ReplyDeleteThe World Food Programme has coordinated emergency food deliveries into Gaza in recent months but the Israeli army said there was plenty of food in Gaza warehouses and that the territory's Hamas rulers had halted distribution.
The Israeli government is adamant there is no humanitarian crisis in Gaza.
"The WFP stopped sending food in there because their warehouses are full to the top," military spokeswoman Major Avital Leibovitz told AFP
"The question is why Hamas is not moving the food around the territory. They say the roads are blocked. Why are the roads blocked for food but they can get around to fire rockets?"
Christine Van Nieuwenhuyse, the WFP representative for the Palestinian territories, told AFP however that the Gaza food warehouses were at less than half capacity.
She said food could not be distributed because it is "too dangerous" in the conflict or because warehouses were in military zones.
Gaza border crossings have been closed for two days and she said the WFP had asked the Israeli government to allow more trucks to go into Gaza.
Letting in the media would help to determine who is telling the truth, no?