"There is no humanitarian crisis in Gaza," a military official told Ynet Sunday, claiming that the Palestinians had enough food supply to last them for the next weeks, and that any reports of such a crisis were created and promoted by Hamas.
| Lights Out |
|
| 'Israel's sanctions strengthen Hamas' / Ali Waked |
|
As Gaza plunges into darkness due to power shortage, locals warn of impending humanitarian crisis. One resident says Israel's 'collective punishment' increases solidarity among Palestinians |
| Full Story |
|
|
|
While admitting that the situation in the Gaza Strip was far from good, the official rejected claims that Gazans were suffering from a power shortage due to the shutting down of turbines at the local power plant.
"Even today, Israel is behind 70% of the power supply to Gaza, and therefore any claim to the effect that there are electricity problems in Gaza is unfounded," he stated. "These are media spins by interested parties. We did not cut back on electricity and don't intend to do so at this point.
"The Palestinians are in fact the ones who shut down power for several hours a day in a bid to create a crisis. At the moment, their fuel supply has not run out yet. If there is shortage of fuel oil at the power plants, they should ask themselves what happened to the supply they received."
According to Israel, a recent shipment of 10,000 heads of cattle into the Strip, coupled with the existing stocks of poultry, fruits and vegetables and the smuggling of food supplies from Egypt should be enough to sustain the local population for weeks.
Consequently, Israel said it did not plan to ease the siege on Gaza, except for urgent humanitarian needs.
RSS
