The Israeli government has scotched any expectation that it might relax its tight siege on Gaza in the wake of the prisoner exchange.

The blockade on the movement of goods & people has been imposed with harsh military force since an Israeli soldier was kidnapped and Gazans elected the Hamas government several years ago.

Despite wide-spread international condemnation against Israel’s siege as a cruel and illegal “collective punishment” confining 1.6 million Gazans to an “open air prison camp”, and despite their soldier being released, the restrictive blockade will continue.

The siege severely impacts on every aspect of life in Gaza. Ma’an News reports from Gaza city yesterday that faulty sewage pipes have burst and flooded parts of the crowded city, sparking a rescue mission.

But municipal workers face difficulties repairing the sewage network “because materials and machines necessary for the work are blocked by Israel’s siege on the Gaza Strip” it added, calling on assistance from human rights organizations to help end the closure.

Kia Ora Gaza organizer, Roger Fowler announced that “a team of four Kiwis will answer that call by joining the historic international aid convoy in December, which intends to link up with the Egyptian democracy uprising to open up the border closure permanently.”

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