Gaza's viability at stake, U.N. rights envoy says

Credit: Reuters/Mohammed Salem
(Reuters) - A United Nations human rights investigator accused Israel on Monday of imposing collective punishment on 1.75 million Palestinians living in the Gaza Strip and said that the enclave's viability was at stake.

Both Israel and its close ally the United States boycotted the debate at the Human Rights Council where Richard Falk presented his latest report. It also calls for an inquiry into alleged torture of Palestinian detainees in Israel's custody.

"Forty-six years ago today Israel's occupation of Palestine began. Six days of war has turned into 46 years of occupation," Falk, an independent investigator, told the Geneva forum.

"The viability of Gaza needs urgent attention and cannot be left to the mercies of continuing Israeli occupation," he said of the Islamist Hamas-ruled strip, around which Israel maintains a blockade due to what it says are security concerns.

Falk, who visited Gaza last December after entering via Egypt, said that 70 percent of Gaza's population depends on international aid for survival and 90 percent of the water is "unfit for human consumption".

Kerem Shalom crossing is closed often by Israel as a retaliatory measure to tighten the "stranglehold of Gaza", he said. About 40 per cent of the goods coming through there are food and other basic supplies, including cooking gas, he said. more

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