UN slams Israel’s block on bringing tents into Gaza

AFP | Geneva

Email : editor@newsofbahrain.com

The United Nations took aim yesterday at Israel’s months-long block on bringing tents into the Gaza Strip, despite continual displacement orders being issued to civilians in the devastated territory.

Jens Laerke, spokesman for the UN humanitarian agency OCHA, said shelter items had been banned from entering Gaza for about five months -- a period in which more than 700,000 people had been displaced or re-displaced.

“They may have been provided with a tent, and then they are displaced again and they have no possibility of taking the tent with them,” he told a press briefing in Geneva.

He said Israel had classified tents as “dual use” because they considered tent poles could potentially be used for a military purpose.