Toll rises due to “Israeli” siege on Gaza and situation worsening

With the death of the latest victim of the "Israeli" siege on the Gaza Strip on Tuesday 3rd of October 2009, the number of Palestinians who have died as a result of the blockade on besieged Gaza- which began in 2007- has passed 36o, a statement released by the health ministry of the deposed Palestinian government in Gaza has said.

The statement followed the death of a Palestinian man- Asaad Ibrahim Mohammad Asfour, 51, who had lung cancer and cancer of the bronchial tubes. and was denied approval to leave the Strip to receive medical treatment abroad.

The health ministry said the ban on medicine and medical equipment being allowed into Gaza, as well as ill residents being refused permission to leave will lead to many more deaths.

It appealed to the "free and honorable world ... to end its brutal, ugly practices committed day and night in front of the entire international community".

The statement came as the Miles of Smiles humanitarian convoy remained trapped in Egypt for more than 20 days.

Organizers of the convoy said the delay was due to "stalling of the Egyptian authorities in easing the procedures for the convoy to enter the Strip."

The convoy is made up of more than 100 vehicles carrying humanitarian aid including 275 wheelchairs as well computers for Gazan schools that were destroyed or damaged during the "Israeli" offensive in the Gaza Strip in December and Januray.

Karen Abu Zeid, the commissioner general of the UNRWA, the UN relief agency, earlier called on the Egyptian authorities to allow the UN mission to use Egypt's Rafah crossing with the occupied territories to pass into Gaza.

It is worth mentioning that the trap of Miles and Smiles convoy in Egypt coincided the opening of the Rafah crossing for the sake of "Israeli" entertainment as "Israel" organized a steam-bike race inside the Egyptian territory -where borders were effortlessly open- through which the "Israeli" contestants entered the Egyptian territories while the government remained silent.
In June 2007, following the Hamas takeover of the Gaza Strip, "Israel" imposed an unprecedented blockade on all crossings in and out of the Gaza Strip.

The blockade has locked in 1.5 million people in what is one of the most densely populated areas on earth.

The humanitarian situation has deteriorated further since "Israel's" war on Gaza which left about 1,400 Palestinians - the majority of them women and children - killed during the three-week offensive, not to mention the different discriminatory policies towards the Palestinians- even in basic rights- of which the latest denying them right to access adequate water.