John Ging, Director of Operations for the United Nations Relief and Works Agency (UNRWA) in Gaza spoke with reporters today about the latest update in regards to food and supply aid to Palestinian refugees.
“There are a number of materials that still remain on the banned list,” Ging said. “The water situation is a crisis, 90 percent is unfit for human consumption. And the ten of thousands of homes damaged and destroyed during Operation Cast Lead (December 2008) are still not built.”
Ging said most of the goods coming in are consumer goods. UNRWA is meeting only 7 percent of its needs in construction and non-consumer materials needed.
“On the security side, the good news is that rocket fire has not been directed at operations. Which is good. But we must condemn all the rockets that are fired and target Israel,” he added.
The UN General Assembly preceded the briefing with statements from world leaders balking at the current state of Palestinian rights in the Gaza Strip. Ging said that in reality there is a possibility to get goods across the Gaza strip but the UN is now looking to survey the impact on the population. Still , he said 80 percent of the population continues to be aid dependent. And he underscored the business sector is 95 percent “dormant” and the commercial imports and exports industry has not been fully developed.
Ging also said education falls short as many schools have yet to be built or rebuilt and many children are still denied access to basic education. He underscored that Palestinians need to get off aid dependency and the UN plans to to boost programs for economic independence throughout the region.
“We have a huge amount of progress to make. The plight of the people is still desperate. We are still at the bottom of the latter, but we have now turned that corner and are going in the right direction.”
There are currently 1.5 million Palestinians living in Gaza, of which 800,000 are children.