GAZA: Israeli air strike on Gaza kills one while hospital officials warn of humanitarian crises due to Israel's closure

Record ID: 338640

  • Title: GAZA: Israeli air strike on Gaza kills one while hospital officials warn of humanitarian crises due to Israel's closure
  • Date: 21st January 2008
  • Summary: VARIOUS OF DEAD DONKEY CHILDREN LOOKING AT SITE
  • Embargoed: 5th February 2008 12:00
  • Keywords:
  • Topics: War / Fighting,Energy
  • Reuters ID: LVA8AII6M7KYCBJCVY7TWHMF3VSW
  • Story Text: An Israeli air strike killed at least one Palestinian and critically wounded another in the northern Gaza City on Sunday (January 20), while officials of the city's main hospital warned of a severe health crisis after Gaza's main power plant shut down completely, after Israel closed the borders of the Hamas-controlled territory and blocked fuel supplies.
    Hamas Islamists said the target of the air strike was a group of militants who fired makeshift rockets into southern Israel.
    An Israeli army spokesman confirmed there had been a missile strike in the northern part of the Hamas-controlled territory.
    Israel has killed at least 36 Palestinians in Gaza during the past week as part of what officials describe as a stepped-up campaign to curb rocket fire into the Jewish state.
    Gaza militants have fired more than 200 mortars and rockets at Israel in the past five days, the army said.
    Shortly before the Israeli attack, Palestinian hospital officials told Reuters that if power supply will not be resumed in the next few hours, patients might die.

    "We can not do anything, there is no substitute meaning, with no electricity we can not do anything. Without electricity we can not corporate with the baby. We can not create a suitable atmosphere or the right temperature without the presence of electricity. We can not subject the baby to room temperature," said Dr. Hakim Khaled Al-Salti of Gaza's Shifa hospital.

    "The consequence is known. Cases like this one, cases that have been born pre maturely that needs equipment, as this one, the consequence will be death, there is no way out of it without electricity," Dr. Al-Salti added.
    Large parts of the Gaza Strip were plunged into darkness on Sunday when its main power plant shut down after Israel blocked fuel supplies to the Hamas-run territory and closed its borders in response to rocket fire.
    Lines formed at bakeries on Sunday as people stockpiled food after Gaza's electricity generating station turned off the second of its two turbines.
    An Israeli Foreign Ministry spokesman questioned whether the complete shutdown of the electrical plant was necessary, suggesting Hamas Islamists had a political interest in exaggerating the impact of the Israeli measures.
    Officials of the European Union, which funds fuel for the plant, confirmed Sunday's shipment was blocked and that the reserves had dried up.
    Stores in the impoverished territory started running out of goods and factories closed. Gas stations have been shuttered because of Israeli cuts in petrol and diesel delivery.
    According to Israeli and Palestinian officials, Gazans ordinarily consume 200 megawatts of electricity, of which 65 are produced by the local power plant. The rest comes from Israel, which was continuing the supply, and Egypt.
    Kanaan Abeid, deputy chairman of the Palestinian Energy Authority in the Gaza Strip, estimated as many as one million of Gaza's 1.5 million residents would be affected by the plant's shutdown. He said there were no fuel reserves left.
    Palestinian militants have been firing rockets daily into Israel from the Gaza Strip, which Hamas seized in June after routing President Mahmoud Abbas's secular Fatah faction. Israel has responded with air strikes and ground incursions.
    On Friday, Israel's Defence Ministry tightened its Gaza border closure, shutting all crossings to even U.N. humanitarian supplies. Officials said only "humanitarian cases" that received Defence Minister Ehud Barak's approval would go through.
    Israeli Foreign Ministry spokesman Arye Mekel said Israel has reduced the flow of petrol used in cars, as well as diesel, but not fuel oil and cooking gas.
    The number of rocket attacks dropped off sharply on Sunday. Only four rockets and one mortar were launched at Israel during the day, compared to more than 45 on Friday and Saturday, an Israeli army spokesman said.
    But Hamas said in a statement it would not back down over the blockade: "Such methods have failed in the past to weaken the determination and steadfastness of our people."
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