JERUSALEM, 21 June 2007 (IRIN) - The Gaza Strip will face a general food shortage within two-four weeks if the main commercial Karni Crossing is not reopened, the UN has warned. “For a crisis to be avoided, commercial and humanitarian food stocks must be replenished regularly and reliably,” a report on the humanitarian situation in the Gaza strip issued by the UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA) on 20 June said. Aid workers say most food supplies in Gaza arrive through Karni Crossing. Read more about UN warns of food shortages unless key crossing point reopened 

JERUSALEM, 20 June 2007 (IRIN) - Some 4.4 million Palestinians remain refugees nearly 60 years after the start of the 1948 war. As the world marks World Refugee Day on 20 June, about one third of these refugees still live inside camps, while an even larger proportion continue to receive aid and relief services, primarily from UNRWA, the UN Agency for Palestinian Refugees. Observers say the situation in the occupied Palestinian territories has worsened over the past year due to the violence, intense infighting in the Gaza Strip and the international economic boycott on the Palestinian Authority. Read more about Plight of Palestinian refugees worsening in most parts of Middle East 

Four years after the emergence of the first signs of a serious insurgency in Iraq, U.S. President George W. Bush finds himself beset with major crises stretching from Palestine to Pakistan.With U.S.-backed Fatah forces routed by Hamas in Gaza this week, Bush’s five-year-old vision of a two-state solution to the Israel-Palestinian conflict now looks more remote than ever, while a new Pentagon report in Iraq suggests that his four-month-old “surge” strategy is failing in its primary objective of reducing the violence there. Read more about Bush Faces Crises from Palestine to Pakistan 

BRUSSELS, Jun 13 (IPS) - The European Union’s freeze on direct aid to the Palestinian Authority has led to sharp increases in debts owed by families in the West Bank and Gaza, the relief agency Oxfam has alleged. Next week (Jun 18), the EU’s foreign ministers are to discuss the security situation in the Middle East, with particular focus on the recent clashes between the rival Palestinian organisations Fatah and Hamas. Oxfam is calling on the Union’s 27 governments to use the occasion to reverse their 2006 decision to suspend direct aid to the Palestinian Authority after Hamas swept to victory in parliamentary elections. Read more about 'EU Placing Palestinians in Debt' 

The one-state solution for Palestine-Israel is “gaining ground,” a senior UN diplomat has admitted in a leaked confidential report. Recently retired UN special envoy Alvaro de Soto wrote “that the combination of [Palestinian Authority] institutional decline and Israeli settlement expansion is creating a growing conviction among Palestinians and Israeli Arabs, as well as some Jews on the far left in Israel that the two State solutiuon’s best days are behind it.” EI cofounder Ali Abunimah analyzes an unreported aspect of De Soto’s leaked end of mission report. Read more about One-state solution "gaining ground" UN envoy admits 

JERUSALEM, 13 June 2007 (IRIN) - The UN agency for Palestinian refugees (UNRWA) has suspended much of its aid operation in the Gaza Strip after two of its workers were killed during gun battles between Palestinian armed factions. Emergency food distribution to 850,000 refugees and medical services will continue, but schooling and waste collection are among the services to be cut after the deaths. “In view of the increased threats to our staff, UNRWA has no choice but to scale back its operations in Gaza,” John Ging, UNRWA’s director in Gaza, said in a statement on 13 June. Read more about UN agency scales back operations in Gaza after two workers killed 

The main water objective of the wall is not to steal a handful of wells, but to prevent any future expansion of Palestinian capacity to mine the Western Aquifer. That is the purpose of the facts on the ground currently being created. Once those facts have been created, they will make it impossible for Palestinian society in the fertile regions along the former Green Line to know any form of development, or even a return to something like their former ‘normal’ life. Hydrology expert Clemens Messerschmid analyzes the impact the northern section of the wall will have on Palestinians’ access to water. (Part 1) Read more about Separating the Waters (Part 1) 

JERUSALEM, 23 May 2007 (IRIN) - As Israeli operations against suspected Palestinian militants in the Gaza Strip increase and internal violence wanes, some humanitarian organisations are resuming work in the troubled enclave which remains closed off from the rest of the world. The Rafah Crossing, the only crossing to destinations outside Israel, has been closed for over a week. The other crossings lead to Israel, and most Palestinians from Gaza, barring exceptional humanitarian cases, are not able to obtain the requisite permits. Read more about Humanitarian work resumes in Gaza as factional fighting ends 

Humanitarian aid agencies are expressing concern as renewed intense Palestinian infighting between the Fatah and Hamas factions enters its fifth day, during which nearly as many ceasefires have been broken, and over 40 Palestinians killed. Two Israeli air strikes on Thursday in central Gaza City have left at least three Palestinians dead, and injured 30 more, including civilians, as Israel steps up its retaliatory actions against Hamas militants in the Gaza Strip. Read more about Gaza violence hampering aid deliveries