Tag Archives: closure

Are The Last Gates to Gaza Being Nailed Shut?

According to Palestinian officials, last month Israel mounted three attempts to transport industrial diesel into the Gaza Strip via the Kerem Shalom border crossing. Previously, Nahal Oz has been the only crossing designed and equipped for the transfer of fuels and gas to Gaza. The reports that Israel intends to close down the Nahal Oz crossing completely follow a gradual slowdown of operations at the terminal, which now operates only three days a week. Continue reading

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Lighting up the Holiday

Rafiq Maliha, Project Manager at the Gaza Power Generation Company (GPGC) heaves a heavy sigh before beginning his description of the current situation at the Gaza Power Plant. Apparently he’s been over this quite a few times already. “Originally, the Gaza Power Plant was designed with an output capacity of 140 megawatts of electricity,” he explains. “Throughout its years of operation, the plant’s maximum output level was 118 megawatts. That was in 2006, just before Israel bombed the power plant and destroyed all six transformers”. Continue reading

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No Development, No Prosperity, No Humanitarian Crisis

When senior foreign delegates visited Israeli President Shimon Peres recently, they were surprised when he informed that there are no humanitarian problems in the Gaza Strip. He maintained, in fact, that there is plenty of food, medicines and other products, although there is a slight shortage of cement. But you know – Hamas wants cement. Continue reading

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Teaching Gaza a Lesson

Picture this: its 7:15am, 40-60 children are crammed into a single classroom ready for a new day of learning. Many of them have no exercise books, textbooks or even pencils. This scene repeats itself at 12:15pm, when the “second shift” starts in the same classroom, at the same school, with the same overcrowding and the same shortages (no, this is not Israel in the 1950’s; this is the Gaza Strip in 2009). Continue reading

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