zaterdag 3 januari 2009

Geen humanitaire crisis in Gaza volgens IDF

 
Het is soms moeilijk uit te maken wie te geloven. Het IDF stelt het hier waarschijnlijk wat te rooskleurig voor, maar de eindeloze mantra over een humanitaire crisis en het 'uithongeren' van de bevolking schijnt vooral propaganda van Palestijnse kant te zijn.
Dit wordt al geroepen sinds het begin in 2007 van de gedeeltelijke Israelische blokkade en invoerbeperkingen. Een video uit Gaza van begin december geeft daarentegen geen blijk van voedselschaarste, en ook auto's rijden er volop in Gaza.
 
Wouter
___________
 
IDF coordination chief: There is no humanitarian crisis
Yaakov Katz , THE JERUSALEM POST
 
Hamas terrorists are using civilian infrastructure in the Gaza Strip - including hospitals, mosques and areas next to offices of international aid groups - to conduct terrorist activity and fire rockets at Israel, Col. Moshe Levi, commander of the IDF's Gaza Coordination and Liaison Administration (CLA), said Thursday.

Levi, who is in charge of coordinating humanitarian efforts in the Gaza Strip, told The Jerusalem Post that since Sunday over 330 trucks carrying food, medicine and medical supplies had been allowed into the Gaza Strip despite the daily rocket barrages against the South.

In addition, the CLA has facilitated the transfer of 10 ambulances and 2,000 blood units to Gaza, and has approved a Palestinian request to allow three Gazans wounded in the fighting into Israel for medical treatment, Levi said.

He rejected Palestinian claims of a humanitarian crisis in the Gaza Strip. "Hamas is trying to create the appearance of a humanitarian crisis, but together with the international organizations, we are preventing this from happening," he said.

Levi said Israel was prepared to accept additional wounded Palestinians for medical treatment, but that the Palestinians had not submitted a request. He said 80 wounded had been allowed into Egypt for treatment as well.

The CLA commander said it was possible that Hamas was preventing wounded from leaving Gaza for medical treatment, but that either way, the health system in Gaza was "stabilizing" and that there were 2,200 beds available for the wounded.

"We asked if they wanted to send us more, and they said they were managing," Levi said. "In recent years, the hospital system has improved in Gaza, and today there are hospitals in every district in the Strip."

Levi backed up comments made by Shin Bet (Israel Security Agency) chief Yuval Diskin that Hamas operatives were conducting operations inside Gaza's Shifa Hospital and in mosques.

"Hamas uses civilian infrastructure to shoot at us," he said. "They fire from next to buildings that belong to international organizations and from within urban centers."
The Palestinian people, he said, understood that Hamas was responsible for Operation Cast Lead and that Israel had made this clear by launching only surgical air strikes at Hamas targets.

"The IAF is focused on Hamas installations and Hamas officials who are known to the Palestinian people," he said. "The Palestinian street knows that our operations are directed solely against Hamas."

Geen opmerkingen:

Een reactie posten