The United Nations refugee relief agency accused Israel Monday of impeding two and half months of humanitarian supplies from entering the Gaza Strip by imposing unreasonable security restrictions and charging hundreds of dollars in port fees.
"Humanitarian supplies should be facilitated and not obstructed. We are not getting the trust and support that we deserve from Israel," Peter Hansen, commissioner-general for the UN Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees in the Near East (UNRWA) told AFP in Gaza City.
"We are facing a very, very serious situation of deprivation in everyday supplies such as nourishment, medicine, building materials to repair refugee shelters destroyed by the shelling, and artificial limbs," said Hansen, adding that food stocks were all but depleted.
Israel slapped a tight blockade on the Palestinian territories when violence broke out in late September, dealing a crippling blow to the economy of the Gaza Strip and West Bank.
Israel said it has continued to allow the free movement of humanitarian supplies and food into the territories, though.
But lengthy security checks of UN vehicles at Israel's Ashdod port and the Karni crossing into the Gaza Strip, along with steep financial charges that the UN agency has refused to pay have prevented all relief supplies from being delivered, according to UN officials and a report shown to AFP.
Hansen said the agency was "anticipating a crisis" unless the restrictions were lifted immediately.
The agency -- which serves a 3.7 million Palestinian refugee population in the region -- has raised the issue with Israeli authorities, who say "they are looking at it," and at the UN general assembly, Hansen said.
"We will continue to remind Israel of its humanitarian and legal obligations," said Hansen, whose staff has complained to the Israeli Defense Forces and the foreign ministry, to no avail.
Israel is asking the UN agency for some 120,000 dollars in storage and handling fees for two months worth of supplies, mainly food and medicine, currently at the port.
Authorities are also demanding another 40,000 dollars in fees at Karni crossing, Lionel Brisson, the agency's director of operations in Gaza said.
Another 25,000 tons of emergency relief needed immediately, coupled with unknown port charges associated with security check delays, could cost the UN agency "hundreds of thousands of dollars," Brisson said.
"We consider that Israeli authorities are responsible for these charges because they are holding up the delivery of supplies," he said -- GAZA CITY (AFP)
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