Annan warning on Gaza 'disaster'
UN Secretary General Kofi Annan has indicated his increasing alarm at the situation in Gaza by issuing his second statement in as many days demanding that Israel take urgent action to prevent a humanitarian disaster in the Gaza Strip.
Annan has called on Israel to restore supplies of food and fuel and to repair the power station that the Israelis attacked.
Mr Annan said the strike on the region's only power station had affected hospitals, water and sanitation plants, as well as food production.
In a separate statement, UN agencies including the World Health Organisation, Unicef and the World Food Programme said Gaza was on the brink of a public health disaster.
They said there were water shortages and the situation at the sewage plants was now critical.
The WHO said hospitals and health centres - which are having to use their own generators for electricity - have at most two weeks' supply of fuel.
What's extraordinary about this situation is not the fact that the Israelis have overreacted and are using overwhelming force against an unarmed civilian population, that has become an almost commonplace Israeli reaction.
What's staggering is that she is so blatantly indulging in the war crime of collective punishment and that most of the world's governments are silent about this. Where, in God's name, is the international outcry?
The Palestinian people are not responsible for the actions of a group of terrorists in their midst's and it is not acceptable that Israel takes actions that punishes all of them for crimes that they did not commit.
The destruction of the power station means that the whole of Gaza will have no electricity for the next year. In the video below you can witness Zvi Ravner attempting to say that Israel did this to prevent Hamas smuggling Shalit around at night. This is simply an attempt to provide the excuse of "military necessity" for what is clearly a collective punishment.
In the video below, Jon Snow undermines Ravner's argument by pointing out that it's actually easier to smuggle someone about in the dark, thereby destroying Ravner's rather pathetic excuse for a war crime.
Switzerland alone have risen to condemn Israel's actions. The home of the Geneva Conventions has said that there is:
But where is the rest of Europe whilst this wanton destruction is taking place? Where is the outrage? The Foreign Office in London has repeated it's demand that Gilad Shalit should be released unharmed and was repeating its call for 'an end of all violence'. That's hardly condemnation and implies that violence is coming from both sides."no doubt Israel has not taken the precautions required of it in international law to protect the civilian population and infrastructure.
"The destruction of a power station, the attack on the offices of the Palestinian prime minister, the arbitrary arrests of a large number of democratically-elected representatives of the people and ministers... cannot be justified."
Guardian columnist Jonathan Steele described the European Union's similar response as 'shamefully muted'.Blair is indulging in weasel words. He is swift to condemn acts of terror when they are carried out by terrorist groups, but shamefully avoids the subject when acts of state terror are being carried out against an unarmed civilian population.
Earlier during Prime Minister's questions, Tony Blair declined to agree the Israeli action 'is in breach of international law and constitutes collective punishment that the international community should condemn and bring to an end as soon as possible'.
"I entirely agree that the situation is very serious," Blair said.
"We have made it clear what we believe that the Israeli Government should do in the circumstances," he added without elaborating.
He insisted the 'only thing that will resolve this issue ultimately is a restart to the negotiation process and a two-state solution that is in the interests of Israelis and Palestinians'.
The prime minister was equally non-committal while giving evidence to parliament's Liaison Committee on Tuesday in restating Britain's neutral policy.
"I have learned enough about this situation over the years to realise that going in and condemning either side is not deeply helpful," he added.
Must we all now play the US game of pretending that we cannot see what is taking place right in front of our noses?
Thank God for Kofi Annan and the Swiss. How long, I wonder, before the attacks on their credibility begins?
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