GAZA: Three Hamas militants killed by Israeli troops, and deputy UNRWA commissioner warns of dire humanitarian situation

While three Hamas militants get killed by Israeli soldiers, the United Nations Relief and Works Agency (UNRWA) calls on the international community for help to resolve the humanitarian crisis in Gaza. Israeli troops killed three Palestinian gunmen during gun battles in the Gaza Strip on Wednesday (August 8), ambulance workers and army officials said. The incidents happened on the same day the Deputy Commissioner General at the United Nations Relief and Works Agency (UNRWA), Filippo Grandi, visited the town of Beit Hanoun. Grandi's visit was designed highlight the negative effects of the closure of the border crossings into Gaza. He told reporters that the humanitarian situation had collapsed after Hamas came to power in March 2006. According to Palestinian medical workers, Israeli soldiers on Wednesday killed two Hamas gunmen near a major commercial border crossing with Israel in central Gaza. An Israeli army spokesman said a force patrolling the border had shot and killed two militants after pursuing them into Palestinian territory. Local residents and medical staff in Gaza said the two gunmen belonged to Islamist Hamas, which took over the coastal enclave from secular Fatah during a brief civil war in June. In a second incident, Israeli troops killed a member of Hamas' Executive Force who was stationed at a roadblock near a border crossing in the northern Gaza Strip, residents and medical workers said. Later on Tuesday, Palestinian residents of southern Gaza laid to rest the two Hamas militants killed in the first incident. The funeral procession started at the hospital morgue in Gaza city with the sound of gunfire heard throughout the funeral procession, with mourners calling for revenge. Meanwhile, Filippo Grandi from the UNRWA visited Beit Hanoun and spoke to residents about attempts to resolve the crisis caused by the restricted border crossings. "The political situation is complicated at the moment as we all know, and there are restrictions in what can enter the Gaza strip. And unfortunately building materials are part of this restrictions, so we are negotiating with all those concerns with Palestinian authority in Ramallah, with the Israeli government and asking also the international community to help us resolve these urgent problems," the Deputy Commissioner General at the UNRWA, Filippo Grandi, said. A month after the takeover of Gaza by the Islamist group, main crossings with Egypt and Israel remained closed restricting the movement of goods and people. Israel allows basic food materials and medicine to come into Gaza but Palestinian imports and exports have been suspended, including the import of raw materials for factories and other businesses. The closures have forced UNRWA to announce the suspension of all its building projects in Gaza Strip, including the repair of shelters for refugees, schools and of other humanitarian and health facilities. As both Israel and Hamas continue to reject to recognise each other, Israel claims it is looking into other ways of facilitating the entry of humanitarian aid into Gaza.

ITN Source | August 9, 2007

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