Thousands of Palestinians, including children, public figures and medics, took out to the streets of Gaza city on Monday, in protest of the crippling siege, Gaza Strip has been going through since June2007, with the siege is getting much more tightened recently.
Marchers, headed by the national committee for breaking the siege, walked down in Gaza streets, as loudspeakers chanted ‘ no for the repressive siege’.
Dozens of children carried posters in English and Arabic, condemning the Israel-imposed closure on Gaza, and appealing for international intervention to stop the Israeli army actions against the 1.5-million-strong population.
Speaking to media outlets, in front of the office of United Nations’ special envoy to the occupied territories in Gaza, Jamal aL-Khudara, an independent lawmaker and chairman for the committee, said:
‘Such a siege can not be tolerated, such a siege can not be tolerated as it has reached a decisive point, with UN’s convoys of assistance are denied to cross into Gaza.
Such a demonstration comes as the situation in Gaza is getting worse; with most of the coastal territory’s areas suffer almost a total blackout as fuel supplies have been cut off over the past five days.
Director of UNRWA’s operations in Gaza, Jhan Gang, appealed in a press conference yesterday for in immediate international assistance to help Gaza get rid of such a deteriorated condition, maintaining that all UNRWA’s food stuffs storage are about to run out shortly.
Last Friday, Israel ordered complete closure of all Gaza’s crossing and prevented entry of all food and fuel supplies the coastal region
In the meantime, owners of petrol stations in the Gaza Strip drove their tank trucks today to the south of Gaza, just near the Rafah crossing terminal, the sole outlet to abroad for Gaza’s population.
According to such stations’ representatives who took part in the parade, this move comes in protest of the Israeli denial of access of fuel through the Eritz crossing in northern Gaza, as well as what they termed’ the need to get fuel from Egypt’, the closest destination to Gaza.
Rafah crossing terminal has been closed, along with other Gaza’s crossings, since June2007, when the now Hamas-dominated government took over the coastal region amidst a power struggle with Fatah party of Palestinian president Mahmoud Abbas, who embraces a peace strategy.
Meanwhile, Israeli Prime Minister, Ehud Olmert, pledged today that Israel would not further strict the underway Gaza siege. Olmert’s remarks came in response to Cairo’s concerns over the humanitarian situation inside Gaza.
However, Israeli media sources said Monday that the Israeli military began today what it termed ‘ the second step of actions against Gaza’.
In September 2007, Israel declared Gaza a ‘hostile entity’ as in October it began a series of ‘apparently punitive measures’ against the population, including fuel supplies cuts.
Israel claims its actions on Gaza are aimed at preventing Palestinian resistance groups from firing homemade shells onto nearby Israeli towns.
As of last week alone, Israeli army killed more than 35 Palestinians including 8 civilians, as Israeli air crafts pounded Hamas-run buildings.
Media estimates suggest that more than 100 Palestinians, mainly resistance fighters, have been killed by Israeli army over the past month.
Palestinian homemade shells, which have been fired in scores over the past few days, have caused slight injuries to some Israelis, horror to many others and inflicted slight damages to properties.
