GAZA, December 2, 2008 (WAFA)- The Palestinian Center for Human Rights (PCHR) condemned, Tuesday Israeli collective punishments committed against Palestinian citizens in the Gaza Strip, and demanded the international community to intervene and alleviate the suffering of Palestinians in Gaza.

In a press release published, Tuesday, PCHR said that it is gravely concerned about the continuing closure of border crossings into the Gaza Strip, which have now been sealed by the Israeli Occupation Forces (IOF) for 27 consecutive days.

This current and unprecedented closure of Gaza is inflicting severe collective punishment on the entire population there, in total violation of international, humanitarian and human rights law. PCHR demands the international community to intervene and end the collective punishments being imposed on Palestinians by Israel. 

The 1.6 million citizens of the Gaza Strip are denied their right to freedom of movement, and are confined inside the Gaza Strip, where the humanitarian situation is deteriorating amidst fuel shortage, and lack of goods, including essential food items.

The Gaza power plant has been forced to shut down due to lack of fuel, and now, Gazans are totally dependent on electricity generated from Israel, and to a lesser extent, from Egypt. There is also a severe shortage of domestic cooking gas.

Regarding essential food items, IOF has not permitted any consignments of flour to enter the Gaza Strip for a whole week, and current stocks are sufficient for just less than three days. Five of the six flourmills in the Gaza Strip have been forced to close.

Meanwhile, patients who require urgent medical treatment outside the Gaza Strip are facing immense travel restrictions, with an average of just seventeen patients a day currently permitted to leave Gaza in order to access emergency medical treatment in Israel.

Palestinians are enduring power cuts for up to ten hours a day across the Gaza Strip, which is severely affecting every aspect of life in Gaza. Local emergency health services are having great difficulties in responding to critical cases amidst constant and severe shortages of electricity, medication and other vital, life-saving equipment. In addition, many Gazan families are being denied access to drinking water, as there is insufficient fuel for the electric water pumps that supply domestic drinking water.

The Centre reiterated that collective punishment is illegal under humanitarian and international human rights law, and that the international community is therefore legally, and morally, obliged to intervene immediately, and to demand that the IOF ends the current closure of the Gaza Strip, and ceases its continuing occupation of the Gaza Strip, as well as its collective punishment of the entire civilian population.