Letter to Mr. Christos Stylianides Euro Med (PDF)

 

January 3, 2017
The Honorable Mr. Christos Stylianides,
The EU Commission for Humanitarian Aid & Crisis Management
Sub: Looming catastrophe in the Gaza Strip, urgent
intervention needed
The Honorable Mr. Christos Stylianides,
The Gaza Strip has been placed under an Israeli-Egyptian siege for the
last 11 years, turning it into the biggest open-air prison in the world. Due
to the tight siege which affected all walks of life, the situation there is
speaking of a looming catastrophe, that would affect the entire region.
Young people in Gaza have lost hope in a better future after long years of
unemployment as nearly 60% of them became jobless.
Due to the continuing power cuts, which extends to 20 hours a day, the
normal life system has been put on hold and with it the lives of nearly
two million Palestinians. Patients at Gaza’s hospitals became at the
mercy of the electricity cuts as cleaners at hospitals, who have not
received their salaries for four months, have gone on a strike in protest.
Civil servants have been staging protests and sit-ins to protest not
receiving their salaries, leaving their families on empty stomachs with
nothing in hand to feed.
Thousands of students and patients are still locked inside Gaza with the
continuing closure of Gaza’s border crossings, with dozens of students
losing their scholarships and handful of patients losing their life, while
waiting for Gaza’s gates to open. Yet, Gaza’s gates rarely do, with the
tight siege is still going on and with the lives of Palestinians becoming
harder to imagine.
97% of Gaza’s water is unfit for human consumption. Gaza’s sewage and
water systems, with the continuing power cuts, have come to a near
collapse. Huge amounts of untreated sewage being pumped into the sea,
thus further polluting it, spreading diseases and closing the sea, Gaza’s
only place of fresh air, in front of Gazans.
With this catastrophic reality in mind, the Euro-med urges you to
arrange for an urgent meeting with the related entities (UNRWA
 

  

Commissioner-General, the United Nations Under-Secretary-General for
Humanitarian Affair, and the local and international organizations
working in Gaza) to discuss various ways to elevate the suffering of
Palestinians in Gaza and to avoid a looming catastrophe that would be
difficult to deal with in the near future. The UN had published a report
saying that Gaza would not be a liveable place by 2020, yet the bitter
truth is that Gaza is not liveable by today.
Yours Sincerely,
Euro-Mediterranean Human Rights Monitor  
Email: Yousef@euromedmonitor.org  
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