UN aid chief warns Gaza is on the verge of humanitarian crisis

By The Associated Press

Gaza is three days away from a deadly humanitarian crisis unless Israel promptly restores fuel and electricity to the densely populated area after its offensive to free an abducted soldier, the United Nations aid chief warned on Thursday.

"They are heading for the abyss unless they get electricity and fuel restored," said Emergency Relief Coordinator Jan Egeland, who also urged the Palestinians to free the soldier and clamp down on militants firing rockets into Israel.

Without clean water in the hot summer weather, "we would in days see a major humanitarian crisis," he said. Military action targeting innocent civilians violates international humanitarian law, he added.

"I am confident that neither of the two want to see a massive increase in mortality in the Gaza," where children make up about half of the area's 1.4 million people, Egeland told a small group of reporters.

http://www.haaretz.com/hasen/spages/732995.html

* has had us in Iraq for 3 years now and the Iraqi's still have problems with electricity, fuel and water. Why hasn't the United Nations Aid Chief warned us that Iraq is on the verge of a 'deadly humanitarian crisis"? If Gaza is heading for the abyss - what can we say for Iraq?

the only hope is for the US to lean heavily on Israel. And that's a slim hope indeed. The State Dept could even do this privately, but Condi is enormously inept and the admin's policy is hopelessly tilted toward Israel

Having said that, I really have to question the posting of this in GD. Whether or not one agrees with the DU rules, it's disrespectful.

not a topic of debate between pro or against one or the other side. But OK, I don't really knows where the limit goes. For example this has been posted in GD : http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=364x1538883

frequently on I/P threads. The rules are hardly a deeply buried secret. That you see it in a way that runs contrary to the rules, or because someone else is doing it, is rather weak.

"Due to continuing problems, discussion of Israeli/Palestinian issues is limited to the Israel/Palestine forum, and is governed by a special set of rules which are available in that forum. If a discussion is primarily about US policy in Israeli/Palestinian affairs, it is sometimes allowed in other forums. Discussion of other Middle East issues is also sometimes allowed. If a thread is on a different topic, but later goes off-topic and becomes a discussion of Israeli/Palestinian issues, the moderators may move the thread to the Israel/Palestine forum."

so it's a matter of interpretation. Besides I am not a frequent poster on I/P threads, I had a couple of arguments on some distinct threads and initiated a post once or twice.