Azerbaijan, Baku, Feb. 27 / Trend , U.Sadikhova/
Israel's blaming the United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees (UNRWA) in support to Hamas is biased, because UNRWA does not interfere into a political dispute in the region between Palestinians and Israel, Official Representative of the UNRWA in Palestine Sami Mushasha told Trend .
"UNRWA don't take the position on the political differences and security problems between Israel and Palestinians whether in Gaza or in the West Bank," Mushasha told Trend in a telephone conversation. "We are in the business of delivering the humantirian assistance to Palestinians."
The Israeli government accused the UNRWA of assisting Palestinian refugees in cooperating with Hamas and supporting struggle against Israel in the region. The Israeli government also blamed the UNRWA for transferring a letter of the Palestinian movement's members to Senator John Cherry who is the chairman of the foreign relations committee and visited Gaza strip last week, Jerusalem Post newspaper reported.
The letter addressed to U.S. President Barack Obama includes Hamas's urging the White House to cooperate in the region, the Israeli newspaper wrote.
However, Cherry and Hamas officials stated no letter was sent to the U.S. president.
Israel's charges affect the UNRWA's reputation, because as a result, people think our agency supports Hamas in this case, Mushasha said.
"There was the slight improvement recently as far as entry of humanitarian goods entering from border cross to Gaza," Mushasha said. "However, humanitarian problems have not been fully solved which is caused by Israel's closing borders for humanitarian goods delivery to the region.
Last week the Israeli government banned the import of building materials into Gaza for reconstruction of buildings destroyed during the 22-day Israeli military operations in Gaza against Hamas members.
Israeli land and air assaults killed 1,300 Palestinians and over 5,500 have been injured.
Israeli losses hit 14 people, including four civilians and 10 soldiers.
"Israel's ban on the importation of glass, cement and iron for reconstruction of Gaza meant that the population of Gaza will continue to live in poverty. This may cause a new wave of violence in the region," said Mushasha.
Due to Israel closed borders in the Gaza Strip last year, Hamas fired Kassam rockets to southern Israel.
However, Israel does not give permission to bring 93 millions dollars building materials to Gaza to build and to create employment, and we were able to bring these materials 20 months
And unemployment have reached the 70 percent , and the situation without activating economic development and just keeping the people of Gaza depended on the humanitarian aid you are just prepare the another site for violence, Mushasha said.
UNRWA is working since 1949 and has offices in various cities in the Arab States, as well as Europe and the U.S.. In recent years the organization has built schools (a total of 214) and enterprises in the Gaza Strip. Now, 10,000 staff of the organization is working in Gaza. During the military operation "Cast Lead" Israel attacked schools and food warehouses of UNRWA. Seven agency workers were killed during the hostilities
...