UN Halts Aid To Gaza After Hamas Seizes Supplies Again
Friday, February 6, 2009 (4:58 pm)
By George Whitten, Jerusalem Bureau Chief
JERUSALEM, ISRAEL (Worthy News) -– The United Nations announced Friday, February 6, it has stopped sending humanitarian aid to the Gaza Strip after militants of the Hamas group apparently seized 300 tons of supplies, in the second such incident this week.
The United Nations Relief and Works Agency (UNRWA) said the latest robbery happened late Thursday, February 5, just after on Tuesday, February 3, Hamas police raided a U.N. storage facility in a refugee camp.
On Thursday night, February 5, Hamas seized ten truckloads of provisions containing 200 metric tons of rice, and 100 metric tons of flour, the UNRWA said.
In Tuesday's incident, Hamas confiscated "at gunpoint" about 3,500 blankets and over 400 food parcels meant to help hundreds of families in the Gaza City Beach Camp, U.N. officials said.
It was part of the emergency aid being distributed after Israel's 22-day military offensive in Gaza that ended January 18.
PROVIDING FOOD
The UNRWA claims to provide food, education and health care to more than half of Gaza’s 1.4 million residents and it was not immediately what impact its decision to halt shipments would have on the population.
UNRWA already said that 400 trucks were needed to avoid a crisis, but that at the moment roughly up to 140 trucks are entering into Gaza every day.
The U.N. said deliveries will not resume until the seized aid is "returned and guarantees are made by Hamas that no such occurrences will happen in the future."
UNRWA told Israel Friday, February 6, that it was suspending its shipments of aid into Gaza, and that Sunday’s shipments were already canceled.
U.N. RESOLUTION
The U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-Moon urged Hamas to return the aid immediately and said the Security Councils resolution 1860 calls for the "unimpeded provision and distribution" throughout Gaza of humanitarian assistance, including food, fuel and medical supplies.
The Israeli Defense Force (IDF) suggested it was not surprised about the latest developments. "On several occasions we have witnessed Hamas stealing aid such as flour and medicine to be sold on the black market", IDF spokeswoman Avital Leibovitch told Worthy News.
Mahmoud Al-Habbash, the Palestinian Minister for Social Affairs, said that Hamas seized "63 trucks delivering aid consisting of food and medicine" which were on their way to the UNRWA warehouses in January, according to a translation of Palestinian daily Al-Ayyam provided by Palestinian Media Watch.
In January, Worthy News reported the seizure of a Jordanian aid convoy by Hamas.
JERUSALEM, ISRAEL (Worthy News) -– The United Nations announced Friday, February 6, it has stopped sending humanitarian aid to the Gaza Strip after militants of the Hamas group apparently seized 300 tons of supplies, in the second such incident this week.
The United Nations Relief and Works Agency (UNRWA) said the latest robbery happened late Thursday, February 5, just after on Tuesday, February 3, Hamas police raided a U.N. storage facility in a refugee camp.
On Thursday night, February 5, Hamas seized ten truckloads of provisions containing 200 metric tons of rice, and 100 metric tons of flour, the UNRWA said.
In Tuesday's incident, Hamas confiscated "at gunpoint" about 3,500 blankets and over 400 food parcels meant to help hundreds of families in the Gaza City Beach Camp, U.N. officials said.
It was part of the emergency aid being distributed after Israel's 22-day military offensive in Gaza that ended January 18.
PROVIDING FOOD
The UNRWA claims to provide food, education and health care to more than half of Gaza’s 1.4 million residents and it was not immediately what impact its decision to halt shipments would have on the population.
UNRWA already said that 400 trucks were needed to avoid a crisis, but that at the moment roughly up to 140 trucks are entering into Gaza every day.
The U.N. said deliveries will not resume until the seized aid is "returned and guarantees are made by Hamas that no such occurrences will happen in the future."
UNRWA told Israel Friday, February 6, that it was suspending its shipments of aid into Gaza, and that Sunday’s shipments were already canceled.
U.N. RESOLUTION
The U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-Moon urged Hamas to return the aid immediately and said the Security Councils resolution 1860 calls for the "unimpeded provision and distribution" throughout Gaza of humanitarian assistance, including food, fuel and medical supplies.
The Israeli Defense Force (IDF) suggested it was not surprised about the latest developments. "On several occasions we have witnessed Hamas stealing aid such as flour and medicine to be sold on the black market", IDF spokeswoman Avital Leibovitch told Worthy News.
Mahmoud Al-Habbash, the Palestinian Minister for Social Affairs, said that Hamas seized "63 trucks delivering aid consisting of food and medicine" which were on their way to the UNRWA warehouses in January, according to a translation of Palestinian daily Al-Ayyam provided by Palestinian Media Watch.
In January, Worthy News reported the seizure of a Jordanian aid convoy by Hamas.
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Increase
Decrease
Sometimes It Just Smells
“Dead flies cause the ointment of the apothecary to send forth a stinking savour: so doth a little folly him that is in reputation for wisdom and honour.” Ecclesiastes 10:1
Because Sin Stinks
“But we are all as an unclean thing, and all our righteousnesses are as filthy rags; and we all do fade as a leaf; and our iniquities, like the wind, have taken us away.” Isaiah 64:6
But God
“Come now, and let us reason together, saith the LORD: though your sins be as scarlet, they shall be as white as snow; though they be red like crimson, they shall be as wool.” Isaiah 1:18
Saves
“And it shall come to pass, that whosoever shall call on the name of the LORD shall be delivered: for in mount Zion and in Jerusalem shall be deliverance, as the LORD hath said, and in the remnant whom the LORD shall call.” Joel 2:32
Did they really think that Hamas would not take the supplies? I often question what people are thinking.
Proverbs 2
The Value of Wisdom
My son, if you receive my words,
And treasure my commands within you,
So that you incline your ear to wisdom,
And apply your heart to understanding;
Yes, if you cry out for discernment,
And lift up your voice for understanding,
If you seek her as silver,
And search for her as for hidden treasures;
Then you will understand the fear of the LORD,
And find the knowledge of God.
For the LORD gives wisdom;
From His mouth come knowledge and understanding;
He stores up sound wisdom for the upright;
He is a shield to those who walk uprightly;
He guards the paths of justice,
And preserves the way of His saints.
Then you will understand righteousness and justice,
Equity and every good path.
When wisdom enters your heart,
And knowledge is pleasant to your soul,
Discretion will preserve you;
Understanding will keep you,
To deliver you from the way of evil,
From the man who speaks perverse things,
From those who leave the paths of uprightness
To walk in the ways of darkness;
Who rejoice in doing evil,
And delight in the perversity of the wicked;
Whose ways are crooked,
And who are devious in their paths;
To deliver you from the immoral woman,
From the seductress who flatters with her words,
Who forsakes the companion of her youth,
And forgets the covenant of her God.
For her house leads down to death,
And her paths to the dead;
None who go to her return,
Nor do they regain the paths of life—
So you may walk in the way of goodness,
And keep to the paths of righteousness.
For the upright will dwell in the land,
And the blameless will remain in it;
But the wicked will be cut off from the earth,
And the unfaithful will be uprooted from it.