Aid rots while blocked from Gaza

Three months after Israel ended its devastating assault on Gaza, the Rafah border crossing remains closed and hundreds of thousands of tonnes of aid intended for Gaza residents is stuck at storage points in Egypt. Meanwhile, Israel refuses to co-operate with a UN war crimes probe and the Israeli government wants its citizens to prepare for war. 'We want the citizens to understand that war can happen tomorrow morning,' says a military official.

IPS reported: "much of the aid has either rotted or been irreparably damaged as a result of both rain and sunshine, and Egypt's refusal to open the Rafah crossing. " 'To be honest, most of this aid will never make it to Gaza,' a local government official told IPS on condition of anonymity. 'A lot of the food here will have to be thrown away.'... "All aid meant for Gaza via Egypt must currently pass through either Al-Auja or Kerem Abu Sellem, Egypt's commercial crossings with Israel, and is subject to both Israeli-Egyptian trade specifications and Israeli import law. "Much of what is being stored in North Sinai - including food items like lentils, pasta, chickpeas, and juice - has been deemed by Israel to be 'non-essential' to life in the Gaza Strip. "Two thousand 'family boxes' - containing essential supplies for Palestinian families and donated by the Italian NGO Music for Peace - were recently rejected at the Al-Auja crossing by Israeli authorities because they each contained a jar of honey, the NGO's President, Stefano Robera, told IPS in Al-Arish." The Ma'an News Agency said: "More than 700 Gazan patients are waiting for Egypt to open the Rafah border crossing so they can travel abroad for medical treatment, the de facto government said Wednesday. "Among the hundreds registered to travel are many wounded during the Israeli onslaught on Gaza in December and January, the Interior Ministry in Gaza said." Meanwhile, AFP reported: "Israel has informed the United Nations it will refuse to co-operate with a probe of war crimes allegedly committed during the military offensive in the Gaza Strip, a senior official said. " 'Israel has informed the UN Human Rights Council it will not cooperate with an investigation based on a biased resolution,' the official, who asked not to be named, told AFP. "He said a letter to this effect was sent last week. Israel had claimed earlier the probe sought to tarnish Israel's reputation." Rather than co-operate in the investigation of war crimes, Israel is instead preparing for war. The Home Front Command, the Israel Defense Force's branch tasked with civilian safety and security, is preparing to hold the largest exercise ever in the Jewish state's history. The aim of the nationwide drill, Col Hilik Sofer, who is in charge of the Department for Population at the Home Front Command, told Haaretz, "is to transform the population from a passive to an active one. We want the citizens to understand that war can happen tomorrow morning." The exercise, which will occur in June and last an entire week, will test several scenarios that include missile strikes with conventional and non-conventional warheads, fired by Hizbollah, Syria or Hamas. "Sofer emphasised that in time of war the citizens will be required to mostly rely on themselves. In emergency situations, the policy of the Israel Defense Forces and the Defense Ministry is not to carry out mass evacuations of civilians, even in areas that are close to the border with territory controlled by Hezbollah and Hamas. "Officers in the Home Front Command insist that they are not trying to scare anyone beyond a 'healthy sense of fear,' according to Sofer... " 'The entire population will participate in the exercise, not only the schools - everyone,' Sofer said. 'We will all need to practice for the short warning that we will have to seek shelter from the moment missiles begin falling.' "Each area will be given a listing with the warning time available to it, and magnets will be printed with the information that can be put it on fridge doors. Knowing that Tel Aviv residents have two minutes to prepare for impact will, the command hopes, encourage people to prepare a family emergency pack with a flashlight, bottled water, a radio and batteries."

"Police were today searching for leaders of the anti-government movement in Thailand after combat troops quashed the violent demonstrations in Bangkok earlier this week," The Times reported. "An arrest warrant was also issued for the ousted Prime Minister Thaksin Shinawatra, who had addressed the demonstrators nearly every night via video from an undisclosed location and called for a 'revolution' as Bangkok spiralled into chaos. He has lived mainly overseas since being toppled by a military coup in 2006 for alleged corruption, and was last known to be in Dubai. "Authorities were checking airports in case some of the 10 protest leaders had tried to flee the country." The New York Times said: "Protest leaders called off a demonstration on Tuesday when their supporters were surrounded by government troops. After weeks of blockading the prime minister's office and two days of rioting in which two people were killed and more than 100 were injured, the protesters streamed home peacefully, some in tears, with government officials offering conciliatory words. "But grass-roots resentment and anger are likely to linger. " 'Whoever wins or loses this round, the stalemate and tension will remain,' said Thongchai Winichakul, a specialist in Southeast Asian studies at the University of Wisconsin-Madison. "The red shirts, as the protesters are known, draw their strength from the northern and northeastern regions of Thailand. Many are farmers and small-businessmen who portray themselves as battling an entrenched, unelected but influential elite, notably the judiciary, the military and the powerful advisers of King Bhumibol Adulyadej." William Pesek wrote: "It's easy to dismiss protesters wreaking havoc in Thailand as misinformed anarchists. "They don't understand the wonders of globalisation, you may be thinking. If only they had more reverence for the splendor of capitalism. If only true democracy were able to work its magic in Asia's eighth-biggest economy. "If only any of these assumptions got at the crux of Thailand's crisis. The problem is the 'Cult of GDP.' An obsession with high growth rates and failure to use them to narrow the gap between rich and poor are graphically playing out on Thailand's streets. People are angry, and rightfully so. "It's a far bigger risk than governments and investors realise, and it may be with Asia for a long time. The region didn't use the fat years of the early-to-mid 2000s to spread the benefits of 6 per cent or 8 per cent growth. Now, the global financial crisis, political tensions and widespread discontent are fusing together."