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Food Running Out in Gaza
From: Fred Bush
The coming war against Iraq is having drastic consequences in the Occupied Territories. The fear of the costs of such a war has dried up aid to the UNRWA, and the Palestinians are facing starvation. The article below describes UNRWA commissioner general, Peter Hansen, as reluctant to say that funds are not forthcoming because donors are worried that a war on Iraq will cost billions of dollars in emergency aid and reconstruction costs. But others in the UN do so. Hansen describes conditions thus: "If we don't get money coming in soon we will have a rupture in the food distribution which will be very serious, as we already have malnutrition levels of 22% among children, and that is bound to rise if food aid stops. . . . More than 30% of the children are suffering from anaemia, the direct result of a lack of nutrition." Abdalhadi Abu Khousa, head of the Gaza section of the Union of Palestinian Medical Relief Committees, adds, "These past two years are the worst for Gaza since the occupation began in 1967. It's not just unemployment and disease. There's no hope. No hope for the peace process. No hope for the future. No hope the Israelis will accept us as human beings. These are the worst times Gaza has seen."
