IN 2011 medical shortages in the Gaza Strip reached their highest levels, a spokesman for Gaza’s Health Ministry said on Saturday.
Ashraf al-Qidra said that medics in the besieged coastal enclave had to cope with shortages of medicine and medical equipment on a daily basis, affecting over one-third of patients.
Patients with chronic diseases such as cancer, kidney failure and neuritis were the worst affected, al-Qidra said.
Hospitals and health centres have totally run out of 145 basic medicines and 150 types of medical equipment, he added.
Al-Qidra noted that medical shortages coincided with Israeli threats to launch a large scale offensive on the Gaza Strip.
The head of the Israeli army’s Southern Brigade Tal Hermoni told reporters on Wednesday that forces were ready for a new military operation on Gaza.
‘We are preparing and in fact are ready for another campaign, which will be varied and different, to renew our deterrence,’ Hermoni said.
On Tuesday, Israel’s army chief Benny Gantz marked the three-year anniversary of Israel’s last war on Gaza by hailing the invasion as ‘an excellent operation.’ Around 1,400 Palestinians were killed in the devastating three-week attack.
Gantz told Army Radio that Israel should initiate another invasion of the Gaza Strip and that it must be ‘swift and painful.’
In 2011, Israeli forces killed 124 people in Gaza including 20 children and two women, al-Qidra said. Over 600 people were injured in Israeli attacks, the health ministry official added.
Meanwhile, residents and hospitals had to cope with 8-hour power cuts most days in 2011 due to diesel shortages.
Meanwhile, Gaza Prime Minister Ismail Haniya arrived in Turkish city Istanbul on Sunday morning, as part of his first international tour since Israel tightened the siege on the coastal strip.
Haniya will meet Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan on Sunday evening to discuss regional developments and the reconciliation deal between the premier’s Hamas party and Fatah, officials said.
Erdogan’s government has sought to mediate between the parties and maintain good relations with both sides, as well as its NATO allies. On Friday Foreign Minister Ahmet Davutoglu said every Palestinian was welcome in Turkey.
The delegation in Turkey also includes Gaza Minister of Economy Ala Rafati, government spokesman Taher al-Nunu and Haniya adviser Yousef Rizqa.
Haniya left Gaza last Sunday for the first time since Hamas seized power of the coastal enclave in 2007 and Israel tightened a land and sea blockade on the 1.7 million-strong population.
The premier met officials in Egypt and Sudan, and is set to make a number of other regional stops.
Also, Jordan on Saturday denied reports that Qatar had offered Amman incentives to host Hamas, the Jordanian daily Al-Ghad reported.
Israeli media reported on Thursday that Qatar had offered Jordan financial incentives and natural gas in exchange for allowing Hamas to reopen its offices in Amman.
Jordanian government spokesman Rakan al-Majali told Al-Ghad that Jordan had not received any offers from Qatar.
Jordan was considering looking to other countries for natural gas following repeated disruptions to its supply lines from Egypt, al-Majali said. Saboteurs attacked Egyptian pipelines supplying gas to Israel and Jordan 10 times in 2011.
Al-Majali said Jordan may seek gas from Qatar and Iraq, but said arrangements would be technical and not political.
He noted that Jordan had previously worked to create a centre in Aqaba to receive gas from Qatar and supply it to the entire region.
The spokesman said Jordan was expecting visits from Hamas chief Khaled Mishaal and Qatari heir apparent Sheikh Tamim Bin Hamad Al-Thani, but the meetings were not related to reopening Hamas’ office in Amman.
Hamas chief Khalid Mishaal on Sunday dismissed speculation that the party would leave its politburo on Damascus over the Syrian government’s brutal crackdown on opposition protests.
‘What media outlets are disseminating about Hamas leaving Damascus isn’t true,’ Mishaal said.
‘Some individual Hamas people have indeed left Damascus with their families, but that was for social reasons related to schooling for their children and nothing political,’ he added.
Hamas relocated its politburo to Damascus after Jordan expelled Hamas leaders, including Mishaal, in 1999.
• Israeli Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu has delayed consideration of a bill to block eviction of settler outposts on occupied Palestinian land scheduled for a Sunday committee meeting.
The law would require a final court order proving private Palestinian ownership of the land before Jewish settlers and their property can be removed.
Sponsored by right-wing legislators from Likud, Yisrael Beiteinu and National Union, the bill was set to go before the Ministerial Committee for Legislation on Sunday.
Peace Now director Yariv Oppenheimer said the measures would allow any Israelis to seize land in the West Bank and block forces’ ability to promptly evict them.
The international community regards all settlements built on occupied land to be illegal, while the Israeli government distinguishes between state-sponsored settlement and unauthorised outposts.
The Likud-led coalition government has sought to calm violent confrontation with radical settlers after an Israeli high court ruled against a number of outposts in August.
Citing the ‘price tag’ policy of revenge against settlement restrictions, extreme settlers clashed with troops and vandalised military bases in the West Bank, and rampaged through four Palestinian mosques in December, covering them in racist slogans and burning interiors.
Settler attacks in the West Bank against Palestinians have increased by more than 50 per cent this year, according to the UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs.
In December, Hebrew press said the Israeli government had asked the Supreme Court for a delay in evacuating the outposts in order to resolve the issue ‘peacefully’.
