Articles | Gaza facing 'gravest' crisis

Gaza facing 'gravest' crisis

Published: Wednesday, 28 May 2008, 6:21PM

Britain may be feeling the strain of rising petrol prices, but its problems are nowhere near as critical as those faced by the people of Gaza.

For its 1.5 million residents, fuel is in such short supply people have to travel by donkey or run their cars on cooking oil.

The shortage is due to Gaza being effectively cut off from the world for almost a year by an Israeli blockade.

In desperation, and despite the danger, Palestinians are now using hundreds of secretly-dug tunnels on the Egyptian border to smuggle in fuel.

It is happening as Amnesty International claims Gaza is facing its gravest humanitarian crisis to date.

The human rights watch-dog has challenged world leaders to apologise for six decades of human rights failure and re-commit themselves to deliver concrete improvements.

"The human rights flashpoints in Dafur, Zimbabwe, Gaza, Iraq and Burma demand immediate action," said Irene Khan, Secretary-General of Amnesty International, as she launched AI Report 2008: State of the World's Human Rights.

"Injustice, inequality and impunity are the hallmarks of our world today. Governments must act now to close the yawning gap between promise and performance."

Amnesty International's Report 2008, shows that sixty years after the Universal Declaration of Human Rights was adopted by the United Nations, people are still tortured or ill-treated in at least 81 countries, face unfair trials in at least 54 countries and are not allowed to speak freely in at least 77 countries.