ISMAIL Haniyeh, the Hamas leader in Gaza, has said that Egypt had ‘not surrendered to blackmail’ when it decided to allow Palestinian pilgrims to return to Gaza via Rafah in the face of Zionist opposition.
Haniyeh was responding to Egypt’s decision to allow 2,000 Palestinian pilgrims who had been stranded for days in the Egyptian Sinai to cross back into the Gaza Strip on Wednesday. The Palestinians had travelled to Saudi Arabia for the annual Muslim pilgrimage.
In Gaza, the Hamas-run Al Aksa radio and television greeted the returning pilgrims with Palestinian wedding songs. Haniyeh, applauded Egypt, saying it had not surrendered to blackmail.
Haniyeh said that Saudi Arabia had also helped ensure the pilgrims returned ‘in dignity’. Hamas television hailed it as a ‘victory’.
Mushir al-Masri, a Hamas lawmaker who came to the crossing to greet the returning pilgrims, praised Egypt for its decision.
‘This is a humanitarian case since the start. Egypt’s position was laudable. We thank Egypt,’ he said.
The Egyptian decision coincided with a visit by Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas against a background of Israeli intransigence over allowing the pilgrims back through the Rafah crossing point with Egypt, from which they had departed.
Abbas told reporters his talks with Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak focused on the issues of Palestinian pilgrims stuck at the Rafah Crossing.
Palestinians in Gaza attributed the timing of the pilgrims’ return to an Egyptian desire for Abbas to receive some of the credit.
The Rafah crossing has been officially closed since Hamas took over the strip in a military showdown in June, condemned as a coup by the Palestinian National Authority (PNA).
An Egyptian official said on Wednesday that Israel had been informed of the Egyptian decision to let the pilgrims back.
Israel had demanded that they return via an Israeli-controlled crossing, Karm Salem (Kerem Shalom), where they could undergo Israeli security checks before re-entering Gaza. Hamas had refused to send the pilgrims back through Karm Salem, saying that its supporters could be arrested by Israel.
An aide to Defence Minister Ehud Barak said: ‘What has happened in Rafah is in contravention of our agreements with Egypt.’
Israeli Public Security Minister Avi Dichter told Israel’s Channel 10 television: ‘I think that on this matter it is very important for Israel to insist – and stand firm on its right to do so – that the border between Egypt-Sinai and the Strip be closed and that neither terrorists nor weapons get through.’
Another Israeli official said that the subject had been raised in a December 26 meeting between Ehud Barak and President Mubarak in the Sinai resort of Sharm el Sheik, where it was decided that the pilgrims would return via Kerem Shalom, the official said, adding: ‘There is likely (to be) some damage to security here.’
Meanwhile, at the same time as Israel condemned Egypt’s humanitarian aid, the Zionist entity was being roundly condemned for breaking international law over its economic siege on the Gaza Strip.
More than 1.4 million Gaza Palestinians are facing an impending health disaster from decaying sewage and water systems that lack vital spare parts, fuel, and maintenance work, due to the Israeli blockade.
‘We are a one-generator-failure away from disaster,’ Michael Bailey, an Oxfam spokesman said.
‘The situation is verging on critical. There are 35 sewage pumping stations operational in Gaza. If one of the pumps breaks there is no way to replace it, because of a lack of spare parts,’ said Bailey, whose organisation works with Gaza’s Coastal Municipalities Water Utilities (CMWU).
‘This would mean sewage backing into homes and onto the streets and the resulting health problems associated with it.’
In March, a sewage reservoir earth embankment in the northern Gaza Strip collapsed, spewing a river of waste and mud that killed at least five people.
Water and sewage pumps in Gaza run on electricity. When there is not enough, they run on diesel-powered standby generators. The interruption of both electricity and fuel supplies has at times forced water and sewage pumps to stop operating altogether.
The CMWU operates some 130 water wells, 33 sewage pump stations, and three treatment plants in the Gaza Strip.
Ten of the wells run on fuel, and the others on electricity.
The company said it presently receives only half the amount of fuel needed to operate its wells, pumping stations and treatment plants 24 hours a day. Since July, the CMWU has been unable to perform normal functions because it does not have spare parts.
The World Bank and UNICEF have reported that despite repeated requests Israel has forbidden the importation by any means – sea, air, or by land across the Egyptian border – of consignments of pumps, metal pipes, air and oil filters, and other goods that need to be obtained from outside Gaza; while allowing only a few basics to be trucked through the Erez crossing with Israel in the northern Gaza Strip.
‘We are worried about how we will cope with a flood from sewage pump stations, water shortages, and other problems, because we know that we don’t have the materials to respond to urgent needs. We are unable to make the necessary repairs or carry out preventative maintenance,’ Monther Shoblak, CMWU’s general manager told the Middle East Times.
Israeli Defence Forces spokesman Colonel Nir Press disputed this claim, saying that in early December Israel had permitted the delivery of 4,500 tons of essential medicines and spare parts in a convoy of 106 trucks, but that attacks from Gaza ‘disrupted’ plans.
‘We are operating under a situation where the crossing points to Gaza, through which aid is delivered, come under regular rocket and Qassem (home-made rockets) attacks from militant groups, thereby forcing us to strike a balance between delivery and security,’ he claimed.
After Hamas took control of the Gaza Strip in June last year, Israel bombed Gaza’s main power plant and imposed a blockade on Gaza.
Supplies were further reduced in October – diesel by 49 per cent, petrol by 40 per cent and industrial diesel by 14 per cent – according to the World Health Organisation (WHO).
Bailey argues that the civilian population is being unfairly punished for crimes they never committed, in contravention of international humanitarian law.
‘We have tried unsuccessfully to persuade the Israeli authorities that importing these parts and resuming the supply of urgently needed fuel is an essential part of humanitarian aid, just as are basic foodstuffs which are permitted to enter,’ he said.
Since May, 149 public wells in Gaza have had too little fuel to operate and have not been maintained due to the lack of parts.
As a result, 15 per cent of Gaza’s population – 225,000 people – get water for only two hours per day. Gaza has an annual population growth rate of 3.6 per cent and the water extracted from the coastal aquifer is not being replenished.
Furthermore, the poor quality water has not been tested for more than a year, because laboratories have been unable to import chemicals to test it. WHO tests carried out several years ago concluded that Gaza’s water is unfit for human consumption.
The seriousness of the situation as well as growing Palestinian anger prompted ex-British premier and current Middle East envoy, Tony Blair, to get involved in the World Bank’s North Gaza Emergency Waste Water Treatment Project.
Blair offered to ‘persuade’ the Israeli authorities to allow in urgent spare parts for this particular project.
But Shoblak claimed that this was not enough for the remaining treatment plants in Gaza and said that the Israelis were still refusing to allow the delivery of essential supplies to the struggling Palestinian population.