On anniversary of Hamas's Gaza takeover, 50 NGOs demand an end to Israel's blockade

Jerusalem insists the closure is legal and vital for security

On the eve of the fifth anniversary of Hamas’s takeover of the Gaza Strip, a group of 50 international aid and human rights organizations have called upon Israel to immediately lift its blockade of Gaza.

“The Gaza blockade has been going on for five years now in contravention to international law. The blockade impacts on the life of more than 1.6 million people, half of them children,” the group said in a short statement. The signatories include human rights groups Amnesty International, Oxfam, Save the Children and Terre des Homme as well as several United Nations bodies such as UNESCO, UNICEF and the World Health Organization.

After Hamas won the Palestinian legislative elections in 2006, violent clashes ensued between rival factions, until PA President Mahmoud Abbas declared a state of emergency and terminated the unity government of Hamas and Fatah on June 14, 2007. A day later, Hamas forced Fatah out of Gaza and seized sole control of the strip, leading Israel and Egypt to close their borders with Gaza.

In June 2010, Jerusalem eased restrictions, expanding the inflow of materials for civilian projects that are under international supervision. Last year, Cairo opened the Rafah crossing between Egypt and Gaza for Palestinians, a move which some analysts said effectively ended Israel’s closure of the strip.

Israel insists on monitoring goods coming into the strip to prevent terrorist activity there. Over the years, thousands of rockets have been launched at Israeli cities from Gaza.

This Wednesday, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s office referred to the issue in its response to a State Comptroller report critical of a 2010 raid on an aid flotilla intended to break the Gaza blockade. Netanyahu’s spokesmen quoted a United Nations report that “clearly ruled that the maritime blockade to prevent weapons reaching the terrorists in Gaza is legitimate self defense.”

However, the so-called Palmer report, issued in September 2011, also states that Israel should keep the naval blockade under regular review to assess whether it remains necessary. “Israel should continue with its efforts to ease its restrictions on the movement of goods and persons to and from Gaza with a view to lifting its closure and to alleviate the unsustainable humanitarian and economic situation of the civilian population,” the report stated.

An Israeli nonprofit watchdog slammed the groups’ statement. It “continues the immoral exploitation of universal human rights for political objectives,” said Gerald Steinberg, president of NGO-Monitor. “These NGOs and UN agencies use the façade of human rights and humanitarian aid while callously ignoring indiscriminate rocket attacks against Israeli civilians – everyone one of which is a war crime. They should be using their resources to end the massive smuggling of weapons into Gaza, rather than targeting Israel.”