Dramatic increase of death toll due to shortcuts of necessary fuel supplies feared in Gaza

European campaign to lift the siege on Gaza, BRUSSELS, (PIC)

The European campaign to lift the siege on Gaza warned that Palestinian patients in the Gaza Strip are going to die in large numbers if the Israeli occupation continues to prevent the entry of necessary fuel supplies.

In an urgent appeal issued in Brussels and received by the PIC, the campaign explained that a complete power outage in Gaza which is expected to happen at the end of this week would stop feeding hospitals with energy necessary for the operation of medical equipment which definitely would result in mass death among patients especially those who are in intensive care units and those who depend on respirators and dialysis machines as well as babies inside incubators.

The campaign added that the Israeli siege tightened its ropes around the Palestinian patients’ necks when ambulances stopped transporting patients and casualties and doctors became unable to reach their jobs because of scarcity of transport means.

The campaign issued an urgent appeal to the international medical institutions to move to supply Gaza with medicines and medical needs especially in light of the ongoing Israeli siege and aggression and called on Egyptian president Hosni Mubarak to intervene personally to open the Rafah border crossing which if opened an impending humanitarian catastrophe would be avoided.

In the same context, the European campaign set off the alarm bell in the wake of reports warning of the contamination of drinking water in the besieged Gaza Strip as a result of the fuel crisis, warning that this might cause mass poisoning of people.

In a press statement received by the PIC, the spokesman added that the lack of injection pumps of chlorine and their spare parts needed for cleaning and disinfecting drinking water would lead to the spread of diseases and epidemics among one and a half million citizens in the Gaza Strip.