Ref: 98/2013
Date: 26 September 2013
Time: 11:20 GMT
The Palestinian Centre for Human Rights (PCHR) closely follows up the statements issued by the Israeli authorities regarding new facilitations to the closure imposed on the civilian population in the Gaza Strip for more than 7 consecutive years, including allowing the entry of construction materials for the private sector. PCHR believes that such limited facilitations seek to improve the image of the closure policy and constitute a flagrant manipulation of the rules of international humanitarian law. PCHR calls on the international community to pressurize the Israeli authorities to lift the illegal closure on Gaza permanently, including removing all restrictions imposed on Palestinian civilians’ movement and, and to permit the free movement of goods from and to the Gaza Strip, as the closure constitutes a form of collective punishment prohibited under the international humanitarian law.
On 17 September 2013, the Israeli media reported about a package of facilitations to the closure imposed on the Gaza Strip, which include, according to a statement of Etan Dagnot, coordinator of Israel’s activities in the occupied Palestinian territories (oPt), allowing the entry of 350 truckloads of construction material weekly to activate the private sector, increasing coordination to allow the entry of fuel supplies for the Gaza Power Plant, working on supporting 16 Infrastructure, Education, health and social care Projects implemented by international organizations for the civilian population.
PCHR confirms that the new facilitations declared by the Israeli authorities do not constitute a serious step towards ending the suffering of the Gaza population, as they do not include the entry of all the needs of the Gaza Strip, especially raw materials required for production. The facilities do not either include permitting the export of the Gazan products to the West Bank and the outside world, which means maintaining the ban on the Gazan exports, including the industrial and agricultural ones, undermining any possibility of reviving the economy of the Gaza Strip which has been severely deteriorating due to this policy. Moreover, the facilitations for entry of fuel to the Gaza Strip are still vague, as they are not specified in amounts or times. The amount of construction material is also considered to be very limited and does not meet the minimal needs of the Gaza population, as Israeli authorities would allow the daily entry of 800 tonnes of cement only, 400 tonnes of iron and 1,600 tonnes of construction aggregates, which constitute 20%, 33% and 26% respectively of the needs of these materials in the Gaza Strip, whereas the actual needs amount to 4,000 tonnes of cement, 1,500 tonnes of iron and 6,000 tonnes of construction aggregates.
Such limited facilitations will not end the suffering of the Gaza population, who has been living under closure for 7 consecutive years, as it does not solve the crisis by completely through permanently lifting the closure to allow the free movement of the Gaza’s population and goods. These facilitations are aimed to improve the image of the closure, and constitute a flagrant manipulation of the rules of international humanitarian law, particularly the Fourth Geneva Convention Relevant to the Protection of the Civilian Person in Time of War. The Israeli authorities’ decision to allow specific goods to be entered into the besieged Strip while continue to prevent other products would not ease the suffering of the Palestinian people living in Gaza nor would it improve the economic and the social conditions of the Gaza population.
PCHR confirms that ending the suffering of the Palestinian population in Gaza cannot be achieved only by declaring limited facilitations or partially lifting the closure, but by admitting that this is an illegal policy that constitutes a form of collective punishment imposed on the Gaza population, and the Israeli closure completely and permanently.
