http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20090204/ap_on_re_mi_ea/ml_gaza_hamas_un JERUSALEM – A U.N. spokesman says Hamas police in Gaza have seized thousands of blankets and food parcels meant for needy residents. Spokesman Christopher Gunness says Hamas police raided a U.N. warehouse in Gaza City on Tuesday evening. He says police snatched 3,500 blankets and more than 400 food parcels. The aid is vital now because Gazans are facing hardship after Israel's three-week military offensive against Hamas. Hamas has ruled Gaza since it seized control of the territory in 2007. Gunness said Wednesday this is the first time Hamas has seized U.N. aid. Israeli officials have charged that the militant group routinely confiscates supplies meant for needy Gazans. A Hamas government spokesman was not immediately available for comment. -------------------------------------------------------------------------- Is this surprising? Nope.
Isn't this what Israel has been doing every time it imposes an economic blockade somewhere. Violate Article 54 of Protocol I to the Geneva Conventions PS - It's lawful for Hamas to do this in this situation:
And then what did they do with the blankets and food? Are they distributing themselves, destroying them, or stockpiling them?
Looks to be politics, on both sides. Hamas wants to be in charge of aid distribution, because that's how they maintain their popularity over their political opponents. Meanwhile, the UN and PA wants to keep Hamas out of the aid distribution process, in order to isolate and weaken them. The simple fact of the matter is that Hamas was elected into power by legitimate, democratic elections. They are within their rights to be a part of the reconstruction effort. http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/middle_east/7869704.stm [rquoter] Hamas policemen have seized thousands of blankets and food parcels that were meant to be distributed to Palestinian civilians in Gaza, UN officials say. A UN spokesman said policemen raided a UN warehouse on Tuesday after officials refused to hand over the aid to a Hamas-controlled ministry. The UN said it was the first time its aid had been confiscated by Hamas. It condemned the action and demanded the goods be immediately returned. Hamas denied its men had taken any aid. UN spokesman Christopher Gunness said Hamas police took 3,500 blankets and over 400 food parcels. The Hamas Social Affairs Minister in Gaza, Ahmed al-Kurd, denied that members of the Islamist movement had removed aid from a UN building. However, he said his ministry was in dispute with the UN relief agency about how aid should be distributed. He accused the UN of giving aid to local groups with ties to Hamas opponents. Reconstruction plan About half the population in the Gaza Strip are dependent on UN food aid, since Israel imposed a blockade on the territory 19 months ago. Aid delivery became increasingly difficult during Israel's offensive against Hamas which began in late December. The UN said it has increased its food distribution to cover 900,000 of Gaza's population of 1.5 million. However, the UN, along with most of the Western world, does not deal directly with Hamas, which controls the Gaza Strip. Meanwhile, the Palestinian Authority (PA) has announced $600m (£417m) for reconstruction in the Gaza Strip. PA Prime Minister Salam Fayyad said the programme would cover all Palestinian houses destroyed or damaged during Israel's 22-day offensive in December and January. "The amount of the project is $600 million. Most of it will come from donors," Mr Fayyad said in a speech in the West Bank city of Ramallah. The Palestinian Authority would contribute $50m of its own money to the to assist Gazans, he said. Further details would be announced later, he added. Initial Palestinian estimates said rebuilding would cost $2bn (£1.4bn) and take three to five years. Meanwhile Palestinian leader Mahmoud Abbas, speaking to the European Parliament in Strasbourg on Wednesday, said he would push for a war-crimes investigation into Israel's attacks. "People who committed those crimes have to be held responsible so that these crimes cannot be repeated," he told reporters after a speech which garnered a standing ovation. "We are stretching out our hand for peace with Israel. But what was done is regretfully crimes of war." He denounced Hamas' rocket attacks into Israel, but said "our doors are still open" for a unity government with the militant group. [/rquoter]
The UN Security Council needs to just pass a binding resolution declaring Gaza a part of Egypt and the West Bank as part of Jordan and we can bypass this whole travesty. I am sure people will still complaint, but who gives two craps about having a Palestinian state as long as the pre-67 lands remain in Arab hands? I know Egypt and Jordan want no part of that, but in all honesty I would rather bribe the hell out of them (to the tune of $2 billion in additional aid a year each) than have to deal at all with the political chaos and lack of leadership in the Palestinian ranks. Israel would easily negotiate with Egypt and Jordan, and in all likelihood would even make concessions on Jerusalem and settlements because they will know that there is someone accountable on the other side for a change. Do you think this is doable? Can we convince Egypt and Jordan to annex and retake back the Palestinian territories as they had in the past? And for Hamas, they are absolutely determined not to let anyone usurp their legitimacy and authority in Gaza. They know that many countries (including Arab states) have been sidestepping Hamas in the rebuilding of Gaza, and they see that as a threat against their authority in Gaza (and rightfully so). You cannot distribute aid in Gaza without at least the consent of its leadership, and that is Hamas. Lest we forget, Hamas is the government now, not some rag tag terrorist group anymore.
Egypt doesn't want to have anything to do with Gaza. They wouldn't take that mess on under any circumstances.
I'm not sure how they'd decide to partition the West Bank in that scenario. I don't think any of the sides would be happy with that arrangement.
There should be a boycott of Israel like was done with that other apartheid state of South Africa. I doubt that the average Israeli would like to live like a Gazan just for a few more square miles of the West Bank, which is basically what Israel's leadership , masked by frequent terrorism of its own people by invoking the Holocaust constantly, is struggling for. It seems that the democratically elected government of Hamas has as much legitimacy as the elected government in Israel.
The Egyptians and the Jordanians don't want anything to do with Palestinians. They have enough trouble with them within their country already.
