In the most serious environmental disaster to hit the northern Gaza Strip, earth barriers in the sewage disposal pools broke, killing four Palestinians and rendering hundreds of families homeless in the bedouin village of Um El-Naser. Many remain missing. The Palestinian Center for Human Rights calls upon the international community and the Palestinian Authority to provide emergency shelters for the victims. As a result, sewage water flooded from the pool flooded the village, and the effect was more devastating due to the fact that the pool’s elevation was higher than the village, giving the flood more power and destructive force. Read more about Environmental disaster in Gaza, Sewage basin collapses
The international community has an obligation to support the new Palestinian National Unity Government without preconditions and to lift the aid restrictions imposed on it, according to participants in a United Nations meeting on Israeli-Palestinian peace. The UN International Meeting in Support of Israeli-Palestinian Peace, held at the Rome headquarters of the UN Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) on 22-23 March, welcomed the formation of the Government and voiced the hope that the development would allow the international community to restore much-needed economic and humanitarian aid and help to move the peace process forward. Read more about UN meeting on Middle East peace urges support for new Palestinian Government
It is crucial that both Israel and the Palestinians take steps to reduce tensions in the Middle East in order to advance the peace process, UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon said in Jerusalem today after meeting Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert. “The long-term safety and security of Israel and the creation of a Palestinian State go hand in hand,” he added, a day after holding talks with Mahmoud Abbas, noting stressed the need to give some “political space” to the new Palestinian government formed by Hamas and Fatah. “We must use the weeks and months ahead to advance the political dialogue, since the alternative is renewed stagnation, which only means more extremism and violence,” he said. Read more about Israel, Palestinians must both take steps on path to peace, Ban Ki-moon says
WASHINGTON, D.C., 23 March 2007 (IPS) - How seriously and to what ends is the administration of U.S. President George W. Bush willing to engage the new Palestinian government of national unity? As Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice makes her seventh visit to the Middle East in the last eight months, that is the question that foreign policy analysts and diplomats here are asking, and the answers are as yet far from clear.Is the administration committed to resuming a genuine peace process designed to fill out the “political horizon” of a final settlement to which both Israel and the Palestinians, including Hamas, will be willing to commit? Read more about Tentative moves toward new Palestine government
The nature and value of dialogue and the importance of mutual respect within, between and among cultures were the focus of this afternoon’s discussion among participants in the first of three scheduled plenary sessions at the United Nations International Meeting in Support of Israeli-Palestinian Peace, held at the Rome headquarters of the Food and Agriculture Organization. During the session — whose theme was “Peace in the Middle East: A key to the advancement of the dialogue between cultures and civilizations” — participants responded to the presentations of five expert panellists, who discussed three themes, including the urgency of resolving the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. Read more about UN meeting on Israeli-Palestinian peace emphasizes nature and value of dialogue
RAMALLAH, 22 March 2007 (IRIN) - One-third of Palestinians in the West Bank and Gaza Strip are food insecure, according to a report by the United Nations World Food Programme (WFP) and Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO). About 34 percent of Palestinians cannot afford a balanced meal and another 12 percent are at risk of reaching this state, the organisations found in a Comprehensive Food Security and Vulnerability Assessment published this month. Most affected is the Gaza Strip, where 51 percent of the population suffers from food insecurity. Read more about One-third of Palestinians 'food insecure'
With a majority of both Israelis and Palestinians supporting a negotiated settlement to the Middle East conflict that would allow two States to live side by side in peace and security, it is vital that their leaders take concrete steps to achieve that goal, Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon told a United Nations-sponsored meeting on the issue today. “It is clear that a parallel commitment by the parties is essential for advancing on key issues,” Mr. Ban said in a message at the start of the UN International Meeting in Support of Israeli-Palestinian Peace, held at the headquarters of the Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) in Rome, urging participants to play their part. Read more about Parallel progress needed in Middle East, Ban Ki-moon tells UN meeting
Palestinian leaders heaved a sigh of relief over the weekend when the formation of the long- awaited Hamas-Fatah national unity government finally became a reality. But the Palestinians could quickly discover that while the formation of a unity government, after months of tortuous negotiations, may have averted the threat that growing internal strife would balloon into all-out civil war, it could fail to achieve its second and no less important goal — the lifting of crippling international sanctions. Read more about United But Still Isolated
The decades-old Israeli-Palestinian conflict lies at the heart of 21st century world affairs, with numerous nations, international organisations and NGOs involved on both sides. The United Nations has long played a role in the conflict, on both political and humanitarian levels. Following the 1948 Arab-Israeli conflict, the United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees in the Near East (UNRWA) was established for the specific purpose of providing assistance to the Palestinian refugees the war created. Read more about Situation of Palestinian Refugees: "Worse than ever"
Stressing the need for the new Palestinian National Unity Government to commit to non-violence, the recognition of Israel and the acceptance of previous agreements and obligations, the Middle East Quartet - the diplomatic grouping that includes the United Nations - indicated that the Government’s commitment will be judged on its actions as much as its composition and platform. In a statement released today, the members of the Quartet also endorsed the extension of a stop-gap measure for providing aid to the Palestinian people and voiced support for United States-led efforts to find a political solution to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. Read more about Diplomatic Quartet urges Palestinian Unity Government to commit to key principles
