Israelis get four times more water than Palestinians, says World Bank report | World news | guardian.co.uk

Report on guardian.co.uk : regarding the desperate plight of some Palestinians who are receiving inadequate water supplies from Israeli sources

"In some areas of the West Bank, Palestinians are surviving on as little as 10 to 15 litres a person each day, which is at or below humanitarian disaster response levels recommended to avoid epidemics. In Gaza, where Palestinians rely on an aquifer that has become increasingly saline and polluted, the situation is worse. Only 5%-10% of the available water is clean enough to drink.
The World Bank report, published last month, provoked sharp criticism from Israel, which disputed the figures and the scale of the problem on the Palestinian side. But others have welcomed the study and its findings"

GAZA DEC Appeal

UNSEEN GAZA

A report in The Independent  argues that There have been two versions of the assault on Gaza played out over the past three weeks. One is the moderated account aired in the West; the other is the unexpurgated account of civilian deaths filmed in vivid close-up inside Gaza.

The Channel 4 documentary Unseen Gaza explored the the war on Gaza from  the media perspective as foreign news organisations were refused access into the Gaza Strip. John Snow offers an insight into the frustation expressed by UK journalists as the IDF created a closed military zone along the borders of Israel and moved reporters on to a specially designated hill overlooking the territory, but away from the fighting.

An article on which I read on Media Channel indicates that the ban on journalists is a form of censorship and questions the motives behind the Israeli decision.  The ban did not however did not  apply to journalists already living and working in Gaza although it seems that they were targeted during the conflict.

What gives Israel the right to ban foreign media? Surely that only happens in countries such as Zimbawe and China whose leaders run oppressive regimes and inflict fear or terror on its citizens without intereference from the outside world.

How the press has been reporting Gaza - Guardian Article

Newspapers are supposed to be better than TV at putting over context. But they rarely are. This has always been a problem in the Israeli-Arab conflict where, as Jonathan Freedland observed in the Guardian, there is a 'Newtonian chain of claimed action and reaction that can stretch back to infinity'. Lack of context normally works against Palestinians who are portrayed as 'terrorists' and wild 'bomb-throwing militants' bent on undermining a well-ordered, western-style state. By banning foreign journalists from entering Gaza, Israel helped turn the context problem against itself. Nearly all the stories and pictures came from local Palestinian reporters and photographers.

read more on how the press has been reporting Gaza | Media | The Guardian

Q&A - What's next in the Gaza conflict?

Jan 2 (Reuters) - Israel pressed on with its seven-day-old air attack on Hamas militants in Gaza on Friday and the death toll reached 424 Palestinians, with 2,000 more wounded in the blockaded coastal strip. This article from Reuters answers key questions about the conflict

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Dispatches - The Killing Zone

British journalists report on Israeli violence ...

Israel’s Barrier to Peace

The horrors of "life" and death under Israeli Occupation are revealed in this poignant article. The former Middle East bureau chief for The New York Times and author of the bestseller “War Is a Force That Gives Us Meaning” examines the way Israel’s security wall has ripped a mortal gash in the lives of Palestinians living in its shadow, and argues that there can be no hope for peace in the Middle East as long as America continues to aid Israel in its dehumanizing practices.

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Blockade puts Gaza on brink of serious food crisis, says UN

Destitution and food insecurity among Gaza's 1.5 million residents has reached an unprecedentedly critical level, according to unpublished UN findings that they now need "urgent assistance" to avert a "serious food crisis" in the occupied Palestinian territories.

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Gaza's humanitarian crisis

Startling statistics that shed light on the situation in Gaza. A report on the BBC website highlights the need for urgent action to prevent a humanitarian disaster in Gaza in what is described as an unprecendented crisis

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A group of UK-based human rights and development organisations have called for fundamental policy changes towards the Gaza Strip by Israel, the international community and the West Bank-based Palestinian leadership.A report sponsored by Amnesty International, Care International UK, Cafod, Christian Aid, Medecins du Monde UK, Oxfam, Save the Children UK and Trocaire, details what the organisations say is the worst humanitarian crisis in the strip since Israel occupied it in the 1967 war, and describe it as a man-made disaster resulting from the isolation and blockade of Gaza after its take-over by Hamas militants last June. The full report can be read here The Gaza Strip:A Humanitarian Implosion

The main points of the report cover the dramatic decline of social and economical indicators and flag key issues such as poverty, food aid dependency, humanitarian access,unemployment, access to basic services and medicalsupplies, They describe the situation as an unprecedented humanitarian crisis. Israel, as the occupying power, is ultimately responsible for ensuring the welfare of the Palestinian population in the Occupied Palestinian Territories (OPT), including the 1.5 million Palestinians who live in the Gaza Strip, all of whom are protected persons.Israeli officials however contend that Israel is no longer bound by the laws of occupation since it redeployed its forces to the perimeter of the Gaza Strip in 2005. Israel does control however , The Strip's air space and territorial waters, and the movement of people and goods. The report concludes the Israeli authorities are
bound by their obligations under international humanitarian and human rights law to ensure the welfare of the Palestinian population in the OPT.

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