Pillay: Lift Gaza blockade

2008-11-18 16:06

Geneva - The top United Nations human rights official on Tuesday called on Israel to immediately lift its blockade of the Gaza Strip which she said violates international law.

"By function of this blockade, 1.5 million Palestinian men, women and children have been forcibly deprived of their most basic human rights for months," the High Commissioner for Human Rights Navi Pillay said in a statement.

"This is in direct contravention of international human rights and humanitarian law. It must end now."

The UN resumed food distribution to half of Gaza's population earlier on Tuesday but warned aid supplies would soon run out unless Israel eases its crippling blockade.

Israel responded to a recent surge in rocket and mortar attacks by completely sealing off Gaza on November 5, preventing delivery of the basic supplies that had been allowed in under a blockade imposed after the Islamist Hamas movement seized control of the territory in June 2007.

Amid mounting pressure from the international community, Israel last week allowed some industrial fuel to be delivered to Gaza's sole power plant and on Monday it let in 33 truckloads of humanitarian and other basic supplies.

Pillay said that "only a full lifting of the blockade followed by a strong humanitarian response will be adequate to relieve the massive humanitarian suffering evident in Gaza today".

"Decisive steps must be taken to preserve the dignity and basic welfare of the civilian population, more than half of which are children."

- AFP