The Gaza Strip, an open-air prison braced for the coronavirus pandemic

2.4.2020

Question for written answer E-002036/2020
to the Commission
Rule 138
Manu Pineda (GUE/NGL), Marisa Matias (GUE/NGL), Niyazi Kizilyürek (GUE/NGL), Marc Botenga (GUE/NGL)

Israel’s military occupation and illegal blockade of the Gaza Strip has crippled its healthcare system and public infrastructure. Israel has effectively turned Gaza into a high-population-density open-air prison, making social distancing measures hard to implement. With nine confirmed cases, a coronavirus outbreak would bring Gaza’s existing humanitarian crisis and economic collapse to catastrophic levels.

• 1.How will the Commission step up its efforts to meet the economic and material needs of Palestinians in Gaza, in particular with regard to the availability of medical expertise and equipment, such as coronavirus tests and ventilators, and are measures being planned to ensure that Israel does not block the entry of much-needed medical supplies and personnel and to allow Palestinians in Gaza to access medical facilities on the outside?
• 2.What efforts is the EU making to pressure Israel to lift the illegal blockade and reverse the closure of Gaza in the context of the present crisis?
• 3.Under Article 56 of the Geneva Convention, Israel, the occupying power, must ensure that all the necessary preventive means available to it are utilised to ‘combat the spread of contagious diseases and epidemics’. How is the EU ensuring compliance with the Convention in line with its responsibility as a signatory?