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Reuter’s Alertnet reports today that an paramedic working for an Oxfam-supported Palestinian health company was killed Sunday and his colleague badly injured when their ambulance was destroyed by an Israeli shell. Oxfam
GB Country Director John Prideaux-Brune, in Jerusalem observed:
Hospitals in Gaza are overflowing with dead and wounded while facing severe shortages of essential medical supplies and spare parts. Oxfam and local partners have had to suspend all our work, apart from emergency medical aid. Many of our colleagues in Gaza are trapped in their homes, and in fear of their and their families’ lives. Others, such as the paramedic Arafa, have lost their lives trying to save others.
He noted that 80% of Gazans rely on humanitarian aid and that the "trickle" that has been allowed in through the single available crossing is inadequate. Reuters adds:
Oxfam is calling for a binding UN Security Council resolution to demand: an immediate halt to violence in Gaza and Israel by all parties, all parties to commit to an immediate, comprehensive and permanent truce, Israel, Hamas and other parties to permit immediate and unhindered access
to and from Gaza for humanitarian and commercial goods, and for people, thereby ending the blockade.
Oxfam is also calling on the European Union to suspend the EU-Israel upgrade process until there is a comprehensive ceasefire in Gaza, and Israel provides unimpeded humanitarian access.Reuters Alertnet also notes that Save the Children
is calling for a peaceful solution to the current crisis that endangers the life of nearly every child in Gaza, and the lives of Israeli children in areas subject to attacks. Thousands of children, who are already suffering from the physical and psychological effects of the violence, are now facing an increased risk of malnutrition due to acute food shortages.
These agencies can use your support: Oxfam; Save the Children; International Committee of the Red Cross.
Crossposted at JustPeaceNow.
10 Comments
Digg is open, for those so inclined. Thank you.
Yeah, but Ms. Tzipi Livni says there is no humanitarian crisis in Gaza so there is no need for all this humanitarian intervention.
snark.
Except it is actually the most sickening thing I believe I’ve ever heard.
Shimon Perez said the same thing today. And an IDF spokesperson yesterday.
Who will speak for peace?
The silence of Obama is deafening. Too busy with tax cuts for Republicans. Dead people don’t count.
Dugg. Thank you so much, Laura.
Why don’t their Egyptian brethren let them in?
And, why is that question never even asked by you humanitarians-above-all-else?
The Egyptians want part of the gas that the Gazans own. They are betting that Israel will wind up in control of it and so are doing what they need to do to retain access to a fuel source they desperately need.
This whole thing is all about the gas anyway. It has never been about the Hamas rockets.
That’s why. It’s not about humanitarian issues either.
bloodthirsty israelis
bush&co are the war criminals
if there’s a god they must be in the Court of law!
John Bolton is proposing a three state solution. If he is saying this, you can be sure that the White House plan has just been revealed.
Let’s start by recognizing that trying to create a Palestinian Authority from the old PLO has failed and that any two-state solution based on the PA is stillborn. Hamas has killed the idea, and even the Holy Land is good for only one resurrection. Instead, we should look to a “three-state” approach, where Gaza is returned to Egyptian control and the West Bank in some configuration reverts to Jordanian sovereignty. Among many anomalies, today’s conflict lies within the boundaries of three states nominally at peace. Having the two Arab states re-extend their prior political authority is an authentic way to extend the zone of peace and, more important, build on governments that are providing peace and stability in their own countries. “International observers” or the like cannot come close to what is necessary; we need real states with real security forces.
This idea would be decidedly unpopular in Egypt and Jordan, which have long sought to wash their hands of the Palestinian problem. Accordingly, they should not have to reassume this responsibility alone. They should receive financial and political support from the Arab League and the West, as they both have for years from the United States. Israel should accept political and administrative roles by Jordan and Egypt, unless it intends to perform such roles itself (which it manifestly does not).
http://www.washingtonpost.com/…..01434.html