Rice urges Israel to avoid Gaza humanitarian crisis

VIDEO - US Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice said on Tuesday she had spoken to the Israelis and urged them to avert a humanitarian crisis in Gaza where Israel implemented a blockade on fuel and electricity. "Nobody wants innocent Gazans to suffer and so we have spoken to the Israelis about the importance of not allowing a humanitarian crisis to unfold there," Rice told reporters travelling with her to Berlin for a meeting on Iran. Video: Infolive.tv Earlier Tuesday, Israel renewed the diesel and cooking-gas supply to the Gaza power stations, but the electricity supply was not resumed. Due to the situation, the Palestinian Parliament held discussed the humanitarian situation in Gaza by candlelight. The Hamas-controlled parliament convenes in the Strip only, as most Hamas lawmakers in the West Bank have been arrested by Israel and because the other factions, headed by Fatah, boycott the meetings. Dr. Ahmed Bahar, the Palestinian Legislative Council speaker, called on the United Nations Security Council to urge Israel to lift the siege imposed on the Strip. Other council members made similar demands, using a battery-operated megaphone, as the electricity outage made it impossible to use microphones. The UN Security Council was to meet in emergency session Tuesday on the humanitarian crisis triggered by Israel's crippling blockade of the Gaza Strip, in response to the firing of rockets into the Jewish state. The 15-member body was to meet at the request of Arab UN ambassadors and the 57-member Organization of the Islamic Conference. The decision to hold the emergency session was made during closed-door consultations late Monday amid a growing international outcry at what the European Union termed the "collective punishment" of Gaza's 1.5 million residents. Palestinian UN observer Ryad Mansour told reporters Monday that he wanted the 15-member council to adopt a resolution or a statement demanding that Israel lift "its crippling, cruel siege on the Palestinian civilian population." Workers at the Gaza power station prepared Tuesday to resume its operations following the diesel's arrival. The station's manager said that it would take several hours to resume the electricity supply to all areas across the Strip. The Gazans expressed their disappointment over Israel's failures to renew the fuel supplies. Meanwhile, some gas station owners in the Gaza Strip refused to receive the diesel supplied by Israel due to the failure to provide fuel as well.

Rice urges Israel to avoid Gaza humanitarian crisis

(Video) US secretary of state tells reporters, 'No one wants innocent Gazans to suffer.' Palestinian Parliament holds meeting by candlelight, in view of power outage in Strip; owners of gas stations refuse to receive diesel supplied by Israel