The January 23 border breach serves to temporarily relieve the need for some basic commodities, such as food, fuel and other supplies. The massive influx of Gazans to Egypt for medicines, food and clothing makes it imperative for the international community to assume its legal and moral obligation to ensure that Israel immediately lift its siege.
Under international humanitarian law, Israel remains the occupying power and therefore holds the responsibility to secure and provide the basic needs of the occupied population. Gaza’s humanitarian and economic woes can only be addressed through a credible political process with deliverables on the ground, mainly the end of the siege and the restoration of joint Palestinian-Egyptian control of the Gaza-Egypt border. The prison break in Gaza is a direct result of the lack of political deliverables, a day-after strategy and an on-the-ground structure for progress, which the November 2007 Annapolis Conference failed to generate.
Solomon Zachary
Vikaspuri, New Delhi