Haaretz
Nisan 6, 5766
United Nations aid
organizations are warning that the Gaza Strip is on the verge of a
humanitarian disaster due to a lack of money and food.
David
Shearer, head of the UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian
Affairs (OCHA), told Foreign Ministry officials that if there is no
significant change in the situation, Gaza will face a humanitarian crisis
as bad as the one in Kosovo.
A report by the UN Relief and Works
Agency (UNRWA) warns of a lack of basic food supplies due to the frequent
closures of the Karni crossing that are preventing goods from reaching
Gaza from Egypt. The report also said there has been a significant
increase in the number of hungry people since financial aid has been
halted.
World Bank statistics show that if there is no dramatic
change, 75 percent of Palestinians will be below the poverty line within
two years. The current rate is 56 percent, compared to 22 percent in 2000.
An Israeli security official said, "Israel is aware of the
difficulties, and an effort is being made to find solutions without
violating the decision not to be in contact with the Hamas government. The
possibility of transferring funds via the office of the [Palestinian]
presidency to the regional rulers who are directly subject to Abu Mazen is
being examined.
"In such a situation," he continued, "a certain
amount of contact will be maintained with the Palestinian security
services by creating channels between the Israel Defense Forces and the
national security. Israel is aware of the humanitarian problems and does
not want such a crisis."
In the last two months, as a protest
against the Hamas government, Israel has been withholding the transfer of
some NIS 200 million a month in tax funds to the Palestinian Authority,
and the United States and several other countries have frozen monthly
financial aid payments coming to some $45 million.
UNRWA officials
are concerned that PA workers have not received their salaries this month,
due to Israel withholding the tax money. The United Nations estimates that
37 percent of employed people in the Gaza Strip - more than 73,000 people
- work for the PA.
Basic needs
UNRWA
commissioner-general Karen Koning Abu Zayd told Haaretz that if the PA
workers stop receiving their salaries, the UN organization will have a
hard time coping with even the most basic needs of refugees.
Abu
Zayd expects 25,000 families will be added to the food distribution list
and said UNRWA is lacking nearly $120 million of the $457.9 million it
needs to fund basic needs. Out of the $150 million needed for projects,
such as building schools, the organization has received only $14.3
million, she said.
There is also a public health issue facing the
Palestinians in Gaza, according to the UNRWA report: Some 850,000 fowl are
suspected of having contracted bird flu. Donor nations have yet to
transfer in full the money allotted to fight the virus.
But the
threat is not limited to the Palestinians. A report released last month by
Stratfor, a consulting agency that provides intelligence assessments on
world issues, noted that it is places such as the Gaza Strip where the
bird pandemic is mostly to mutate into a flu that affects humans.
The OCHA report, meanwhile, states that if the Palestinian
Authority loses its sources of income due to the boycott on donations and
the checkpoints remain closed to Palestinian goods, the PA's gross
national product is expected to go down by at least a quarter.