Hamas Creates Humanitarian Crisis In Gaza, Blames Israel
An Israeli woman in Sderot, Israel narrowly escaped death when a
Hamas rocket landed near the school for where she teaches.
By Joel Leyden
Israel News Agency
Jerusalem, Israel ----- January 21, 2008 ....... As the world suddenly awakes to a problem in Gaza, much of the media again blames Israel. Newspapers around the world ink their headlines with "Gaza Dark Amid Israel Blockade" and "Gaza Plunged Into Darkness As Israel Fuel Blockade Takes Effect."
It appears that Israel has nothing better to do than just make the lives of innocent Palestinians in Gaza miserable.
What much of the global media misses or chooses to ignore is that Hamas cut off the electricity to Northern Gaza - not Israel. Hamas did so even after inviting the media to watch it happen. That most of Gaza has electricity. That humanitarian supplies of fuel and medicine continue to flow into Gaza from Israel even as the people in Gaza toss deadly rockets on Jewish children in the Negev town of Sderot.
Israel has threatened to cut off Gaza from the world. And why not? What democratic nation would tolerate a city controlled by Hamas terrorists who launch thousands of deadly rockets onto Israel civilian towns and cities? One only needs to ask the traumatized children of Sderot as they run crying into cold cement air raid shelters. Or ask the citizens of Ashkelon, if they feel safe.
HonestReporting.com in an article entitled: "Lights On, Nobody Home" illustrates how Hamas is using professional public relations to place a spin on Israel.
Quoting misleading headlines in LA Times and The Guardian, HonestReporting states that: "You could be forgiven for thinking that Israel has cut off the entire electricity supply to the Gaza Strip." HonestReporting.com states: "The mainstream media ultimately assisted Hamas in creating the impression of a humanitarian crisis in Gaza. The fact is Israel has restricted fuel supplies in response to the terrorism emanating from Gaza but continues to provide the Palestinians with electricity. The Times of London omits this vital fact altogether in a story headlined "Darkness falls on Gaza as Israel takes revenge for rocket attacks".
AFP, while quoting Israel officials, also omitted the facts leaving readers with the impression that Israel is simply denying responsibility."
In fact, Israel Defense Minister Ehud Barak has announced that Israel will continue to allow fuel for Gaza Strip's power plant as well as medical supplies into the Hamas-controlled territory.
The power plant, which depends on fuel funded by the European Union, under the orders of Hamas shut down its two working turbines on Sunday, plunging Northern Gaza City into darkness, after Israel closed border crossings on Friday.
Captain Shadi Yasin, spokesman for the Israel Coordination Liaison Administration in Gaza, told the Israel News Agency: "Israel is doing all that it can to prevent a humanitarian crisis in Gaza, in contrast to Hamas which is doing all they can to create one." Yasin states that tomorrow Israel will allow heavy duty diesel fuel to enter the Gaza power plant and diesel for the generators. In addition, Israel will allow international humanitarian organizations to deliver medicine and medical equipment through the Keren Shalom terminal on the border of Egypt."
Israel Prime Minister Ehud Olmert briefed ministers at a Cabinet meeting yesterday on his visit to Sderot, Israel and the area adjacent to the Gaza Strip last week: “Last Thursday evening, I visited the area adjacent to the Gaza Strip, including Sderot. My visit followed a day during which dozens of rockets were fired at the communities adjacent to the Gaza Strip in response to the operational successes of the Israel Defense Forces and ISA and severe losses to both Islamic Jihad and Hamas."
Olmert stated: "Our activity as a Government, in response to the terror attacks from the Gaza Strip, rests on two foundations. The first is continuous and intensive operations against terrorists in the Gaza Strip and the second is concern for the population under relentless and intolerable, Gaza Strip-based terrorist attacks. Communities adjacent to the Gaza Strip are much better reinforced today than they were a year ago. We will continue to invest additional hundreds of millions in the area this year in order to strengthen the residents’ fortitude."
"I found people there who are suffering but who do not intend to give in. I found people who are courageously dealing with daily distress that is forced on them by the Kassams but who are determined to continue living in the region. The Israel Defense Ministry, via Israel Deputy Defense Minister Matan Vilnai, who is responsible for the matter, is doing outstanding work in assisting the conduct of daily life in the area. There is a sense that there is a guiding hand and there are activities that assure the continuation of daily life. The education system is operating normally and the achievements of area students on their matriculation exams - in wake of a program that we enacted in the schools - are among the highest in the country. Today, there is no unemployment at all in the area adjacent to the Gaza Strip and I hope that we will be able to cause additional factories and investors to go there."
Olmert continued: "The second foundation of our activity is operational. There is no doubt that the terrorist organizations in the Gaza Strip are trying to use indiscriminate terrorism in order to force a war of attrition on us and to create an equation of force in which they respond to with dozens of rockets for harsh strikes against their personnel. Israel cannot live with such an equation. The communities of the south will not be hostage to the terrorist organizations in the Gaza Strip. Israel will continue to act with strength, sophistication, courage and determination. The objective is to bring about the cessation of Kassam rocket fire and not to agree to any balance of terror. The terrorist organizations are starting to understand that Israel is determined. Their leadership is perplexed over how to act in light of the strikes against them. There are those among them who have begun to understand that it would be better to refrain from further firing. In any case, we will not slacken from our operations until peace is assured for the residents of the south.”
HonestReporting states: "While Gazans are undoubtedly suffering, the dark picture painted by the mainstream media is different from the reality. As the Israel's Foreign Ministry notes, the supply of electricity to Gaza from the Israel and the Egyptian power grids (124 Megawatts and 17 Megawatts respectively) has continued uninterrupted. These 141 Megawatts of power represents about three quarters of Gaza's electricity needs."
Israel Electric Company workers' committee chairman Miko Zarfati goes further:
"This is Palestinian spin. No one has stopped the supply of electricity to the Strip," Zarfati told Ynet News. He claimed that his employees worked day and night in a power plant in Ashkelon, Israel while putting themselves in danger of being hit by Hamas Qassam rockets falling in the area.
The Gaza power plant only produces thirty percent of the electricity consumed in the Strip while Israel supplies the rest.
"It is simply offensive and arrogant for them to claim that there is shortage," Zarfati said.
"The situation is totally absurd. We're continuing to supply Gaza with electricity despite the (demand) overload for electricity in Israel and despite the fact that Israel residents and Electric Company workers that are being sent to Gaza Vicinity communities are under terror threat from Qassam (Kassam) rockets," Zarfati said.
Israel and other objective global media outlets report that despite the blackout in Gaza City, southern and central Gaza, which receive electricity from Israel and Egypt directly, were not affected by the shutdown.
Hamas manipulation of the media is evident in an AP story that reported "Children marched through dark streets holding candles, an angry Hamas TV announcer shouted at the camera "We are being killed, we are starving!"
"Once again, the mainstream media has wittingly or unwittingly fallen into the Hamas trap," states HonestReporting.com "By plunging Gaza into darkness, the Hamas terrorist organization has managed to shift the story away from its own responsibility for the Qassams and terror on Sderot, Israel. Instead, Israel's image is taking a beating for a perceived humanitarian crisis of Hamas's own making."
The people of the Gaza Strip have suffered from skyrocketing unemployment, poverty, lack of medicine, fuel, electricity, food and other essential commodities since Hamas took power in June 2007.
"We think Hamas got the message. As we have seen in the past couple of days, when they want to stop the rockets attacks on our children, they can," said the Israel Foreign Ministry spokesman, Arye Mekel.
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