17 years of "humanitarian crisis" in Gaza

Today, a UNRWA spokesman named Adnan Abu Hasna told a German news agency that Gaza was suffering from a "humanitarian crisis."

The idea that Gaza was suffering from a "humanitarian crisis" has been around for a long, long time:

November 17, 1993:

...the humanitarian crisis in the Gaza continues to grow.

December 6, 2000:

...impoverishing families across The West Bank and Gaza Strip and risking a humanitarian crisis, according to international economists and aid workers...

June 15, 2001:

The United Nations has warned of a humanitarian crisis in the Gaza Strip due to a shortage of medical supplies there.

November 19, 2002:

The humanitarian crisis in the West Bank and Gaza is a crisis of access and mobility; it is further compounded by an economic downturn that severely limits the ability of the civilian population to purchase and access basic needs.

February 27, 2003:

Humanitarian crisis: The cumulative impact of damage to civilian infrastructure, curfews and closures, and ongoing violence led the head of the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) to describe the humanitarian situation as "the most dire since 1967."

October 7, 2004:

The United Nations has warned in a special report of an impending humanitarian crisis in the Gaza Strip.

August 19, 2005:

Thousands of Palestinians in Gaza are suffering from a chronic humanitarian crisis that is deepening during the disengagement period.

March 19, 2006:

Gaza facing humanitarian crisis

May 18, 2006:

As the representatives of donor governments made fresh vows to rapidly establish a flow of aid to Palestinians on Monday, the humanitarian crisis in Gaza continues.

July 9, 2006:

UN Secretary General Kofi Annan has demanded that Israel take urgent action to prevent a humanitarian disaster in the Gaza Strip.

August 16, 2006:

Humanitarian Disaster in Gaza: "People are crying, hungry, thirsty, and desperate"

November 20, 2006:

Gaza: UN appeals for $2.5 million to ease 'humanitarian disaster'

July 20, 2007:

U.N. Official: Humanitarian Crisis Looms in Gaza

December 8, 2007:

The World Health Organisation warned against a humanitarian crisis erupting in the Hamas-run Gaza Strip due to Israeli travel restrictions

One would have thought that after 17 years of this "crisis" the Gaza population would be decimated by now. Reading these stories you'd expect Gaza to be like sub-Saharan Africa. Yet, somehow, the brave Gazans still manage to get weapons, ammunition, fuel, food, medicine and hundreds of millions of dollars in Western aid, managing to stave off the starvation forecasted by "human rights" experts year after year.

It appears that there is an entire cottage industry of "human rights" organizations that are dedicated to sounding the alarm about Gaza every few months so they can keep their jobs and keep blaming Israel for every self-inflicted problem that the PalArabs have created in their Gaza homeland.


(updated post from December, 2007)