World governments 'betraying' Gaza civilians

16 rights groups say international community failed to end Israeli siege of Gaza Strip.

JERUSALEM - The world has "betrayed" civilians in the Gaza Strip by failing to end a blockade of the enclave, 16 rights groups, including Amnesty International and Oxfam, said Tuesday.

"The international community has betrayed the people of Gaza by failing to back their words with effective action to secure the ending of the Israeli blockade which is preventing reconstruction and recovery," said the report.

"It is not only Israel that has failed the people of Gaza with a blockade that punishes everybody living there for the acts of a few," said Jeremy Hobbs, executive director of Oxfam International.

"World powers have also failed and even betrayed Gaza's ordinary citizens. They have wrung hands and issued statements, but have taken little meaningful action to attempt to change the damaging policy that prevents reconstruction."

The groups said that Israel had allowed only 41 truckloads of construction materials into Gaza since a devastating 22-day war launched by Tel Aviv nearly a year ago ended with mutual ceasefires on January 18.

"Little of the extensive damage the offensive caused to homes, civilian infrastructure, public services, farms and businesses has been repaired" because of the shortages, the report said.

Some 1,400 Palestinians (mainly civilians and a third of which children) and 13 Israelis were killed during the war, which flattened portions of Gaza, an impoverished territory where the vast majority of the population relies on foreign aid.

Israel controls all but one of Gaza's border crossings, the Rafah terminal with Egypt, which Cairo rarely opens due to US-Israeli pressure.

"Sick, traumatised and impoverished people are being collectively punished by a cruel, illegal policy imposed by the Israeli authorities," said Kate Allen, director of Amnesty International UK.

"Israel's responsibility to protect its citizens does not give it the right to punish every man, woman and child of Gaza," she added.

The groups also urged rival Palestinian factions to create a unified government capable of delivering aid, and said resistance groups should refrain from rocket attacks from Gaza.

"Hamas and other Palestinian armed groups, too, must maintain their current de facto cessation of violence and permanently cease all indiscriminate firing of rockets into Israel," Hobbs wrote.

The report called on European foreign ministers to visit Gaza to see the damage for themselves and urged the EU to do all it can to lift the blockade.

Other groups signing the report include: Broederlijk Delen, CAFOD, CCFD Terre Solidaire, Christian Aid, Church of Sweden, Diakonia, Finn Church Aid, Medical Aid for Palestinians, medico international, medico international schweiz, Mercy Corps, MS ActionAid Denmark, Trocaire, and United Civilians for Peace.