By Nidal al-Mughrabi/Reuters
The Guardian
11 August 2006
Last month was the deadliest in the Gaza Strip for nearly two years, a Palestinian research group said yesterday, as Israel's six-week offensive against militants in the territory led to a surge in killings. The Palestinian Monitoring Group said 151 people were killed in the strip in July, the highest total since October 2004, when 166 people died. The majority of those killed were civilians.
"The spiralling civilian casualties caused by Israeli actions throughout the region serve to strengthen extremists, weaken peace advocates and exacerbate the conflict," said the chief Palestinian negotiator, Saeb Erekat, commenting on the findings.
From late June, when Israel launched its offensive, until August 8, at least 170 Palestinians were killed, of whom 138 were civilians and a quarter children, the monitoring group said. Other reports have put the death toll at 200.
When the offensive was launched, Israeli warplanes bombed and partly destroyed Gaza's only power plant and also hit several bridges. The flow of fuel, food and other essential supplies was also repeatedly interrupted. The United Nations says the densely populated territory is now facing some of the worst humanitarian conditions in years.
In a report this week the UN said more than 70% of the 1.4 million population was reliant on emergency assistance to meet food needs and the price of essential goods, such as flour and sugar, had risen by between 15% and 33% this year. Waste treatment in the northern strip has reached a "critical point", threatening to flood populated areas with sewage and spread infection.
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3 comments:
So give back the kidnapped soldier and insist that your government negotiate a peace agreement. You should read President Clinton's book "My Life". He tells of the Israelis prepared to go the extra mile for a peace agreement and Yasser Arafat's absolute refusal. If President Clinton is the liar here then you should say so. but tne truth is elsewhere... it is easy to see that you are a propagandist with no interest in the truth!
Clinton lied about Lewinsky to a jury and was almost impeached. You want to believe him and his Israeli-donation loving\dependent wife?
Trust is required for peace. This is the Lesson of the Egyptian-Israeli peace accord. If there can be no trust, there can be no peace.
It is time for new thoughts concerning Middle East issues, not a new Middle East, but new thoughts. Doing the same thing over and over again and exprecting different results is the substance of dimly lit minds. All parties need to consider new ideas and new ways of working for peace.
The very idea that decades of war have existed, and continues to exist clearly demonstrates the failure of policies used in the past decades. Resolving Middle East disputes makes the whole world safer.
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