GAZA blockade continues to draw humanitarian toll, UN

New York, 25 Oct-(ANA)-The people of Gaza continue to suffer from the humanitarian consequences of the Israeli blockade of the area, despite the recent partial easing of the restrictions, a United Nations independent human rights expert said today.

Israel imposed the blockade on Gaza, where some 1.5 million Palestinians live,over three years ago for what it called security reasons after Hamas ousted the Fatah movement in the Strip in 2007.

“The situation in Gaza remains very serious from a humanitarian perspective. The blockade has been eased in some respects, but it has been maintained in other respects, and it continues to put the population there under great psychological and physical stress,” Richard Falk, the UN Special Rapporteur on the situation

of human rights in the occupied Palestinian territories, told reporters at the UN Headquarters in New York. (ANA)

FA/ANA/25 October 2010---------