UN warning of disaster in Gaza, UNRWA cry for help.

Gaza / PNN -- The Gaza Strip remains closed after 18 days. The United Nations Relief Works Agency did receive a shipment of aid since then, but reports that for eight days there has been no medicine or electricity. The Israeli Defense Minister Ehud Barak is ignoring all international calls to open the crossings as 1.6 million people are trying to survive without food, medicine, or fuel imports. Barak continues to claim projectile launches as the reason, but to hold the Strip under siege is a grave violation of international law by all counts. Israeli forces have killed 17 Palestinians since the closure began over two weeks ago. The "period of calm" that the Israelis agreed to five months ago is slated to end on the eighteenth of next month.The United Nations issued an appeal as stocks of medical and food supplies are gone due to the closure of the crossings and the complete ban on imports. In this regard, Assistant Secretary-General of the United Nations for Humanitarian Affairs, John Holmes called on Israel to end the closure which he referred to as unacceptable." The United Nations Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon had expressed to Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert by telephone on Tuesday "extreme" concerned regarding the humanitarian situation in Gaza and asked him to stop preventing relief workers of the international organization to enter the Palestinian territory. In a statement from the United Nations Ban Ki-moon called on the Israeli administration lift the ban on humanitarian assistance to the civilian population in Gaza. However, the Israelis failed to respond to the appeals. At the same time, Ban Ki-moon condemned the Palestinian projectile launches attacks toward Israeli civilian targets. No serious injuries have been reported, yet still Barak was quick to reject the appeal of the Secretary-General of the United Nations further indicating that the blaming projectile launches for the closure is a ruse."The Gaza Strip is being further isolated from the West Bank," a resident told PNN tonight. "There will be no contiguous state. If there is a state Gaza won't even be in it."In the meantime, while the 750,000 people it services run out of food, UNRWA said it may soon be forced to suspend cash assistance to some 98,000 people due to a lack of currency. The UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs said that the population suffers from daily power outages and a lack of cooking gas, fresh food and clean water. The United Nations warned that Gaza faces a humanitarian disaster if the Israeli administration continues to prevent humanitarian access to the Gaza crossings while at the same time Tel Aviv is ignoring international concern over the closures.The UNRWA said that its food basket normally supplies approximately 60 percent of daily needs.

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