Parliamentary Question addressed to the Minister for Foreign Affairs

 

 

I remain seriously concerned about the situation in Gaza, both the long term situation and the recent deterioration caused by a reduction in the power supply. My Department monitors the situation in Gaza closely, including through regular contact with UNRWA and UNOCHA, the main UN agencies active there, as well as relevant Palestinian and Israeli NGOs, some of whom are supported in their work by Irish Aid. My colleague, Minister of State Joe Costello T.D., witnessed firsthand the very difficult conditions on the ground in Gaza during his recent visit to the occupied Palestinian territory to see the impact of Ireland’s aid programme. He met directly with the UN Humanitarian Coordinator, Mr. James Rawley, and others.

 

While Israeli restrictions have eased marginally in recent years, the overall situation in Gaza has worsened in recent months as Egypt has taken action against smuggling into Gaza, in response to its own security concerns.  The existing fuel shortfall and shortage of supply of building materials, accentuated by the closure of tunnels, is affecting the daily lives of residents, their electricity supply and water and sewage facilities. In addition, delivery of construction materials through the crossings from Israel, which had been gradually increased, was suspended again in October following the discovery of a reinforced tunnel dug into Israel from Gaza, with the apparent purpose of facilitating an attack into Israel, perhaps on the soldiers manning the border.

 

The power situation is a complex one. Both Israel and Egypt supply electricity to Gaza through the grid system, at commercial rates. In addition, the Gaza Power Plant supplied about one third of the total available power, using fuel supplied by the Palestinian Authority via Israel, and cheaper fuel smuggled in from Egypt. Both of these sources have been cut recently, partly because of a dispute in which Hamas has refused to pay for the fuel supplied to Gaza by the Palestinian Authority. The loss of one third of what was already a marginal power supply has led to increased outages, including to vital water and sewage facilities.

 

The loss of construction materials and of power has led to major lay-offs in the construction sector, one of Gaza’s few large employers, and thus increased the level of food dependency, which is the principal cause of concern. More than 800,000 of the over 1.2 million Palestine refugees in Gaza receive food assistance from UNRWA, which also provides basic education, health, relief and social services.

 

Ireland has responded to the current crisis by providing additional funding of €500,000 to UNRWA to support the food assistance element of their Gaza Emergency Appeal.  This brings Ireland’s total contribution to UNRWA’s appeals for Gaza to €4.64 million since 2006. UNRWA’s food assistance provides a lifeline for thousands of refugee families in Gaza and helps to prevent a potentially large scale crisis in a context where an estimated 57% of households are classified as food insecure.

 

This funding support is in addition to Ireland’s broader programme of assistance to the Palestinian people and brings our total funding support to date in 2013 to €8.3 million. This includes support to UNRWA’s general fund, the Palestinian Authority, the UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs and civil society organisations working to promote human rights and democratisation.

It is clear, however, that humanitarian aid can only seek to ameliorate the difficulties, which will persist until there is a solution at political level. Ireland has therefore continued to draw attention to the urgent need for an end to the overall blockade of Gaza. We have sought to maintain a focus on this issue, as have organisations such as Amnesty International in their recent report, despite the many other crises in the Middle East at present.

 

We argue this position consistently in our regular contacts with the Israeli authorities, both in Israel and with the Embassy here in Dublin. I have raised the matter repeatedly at EU level, to push for the EU to do more to press Israel to end the blockade. I have made clear before my view that the international community is not doing enough on this issue. Ireland has also raised Gaza at multilateral level, including in recent weeks interventions at the UN General Assembly in New York and the Human Rights Council in Geneva.

 

In the case of Egypt, the sole crossing point at Rafah is not closed, although it is operating at a more restricted level, as a result of the turmoil in Egypt itself. The main impact has been from Egypt’s effective action against the smuggling tunnels, which we cannot take issue with. However, the loss of the extra supplies formerly obtained through smuggling has highlighted the shortages caused by the overall Israeli blockade regime. Their interdiction now only underscores the urgent need for the opening to normal traffic of the main crossings from Israel. I have urged Egypt to allow the widest possible use of Rafah for normal commercial, human and humanitarian traffic.

 

Israel is entitled to take measures for the security of its people and borders from attacks which have come from Gaza over a number of years. Nevertheless, it is clear to me that some measures taken, and the overall regime enforced on Gaza, have a negative impact on the entire civilian population and cannot be justified by security needs. Whether a particular measure amounts to a prohibited act, such as collective punishment, under international humanitarian law is, however, ultimately a matter for legal determination.