Gaza on brink of implosion as aid cut-off starts to bite

The Observer World Gaza on brink of implosion as aid cut-off starts to bite: "Even before the authority's wages crisis, the economy was in dire straits because of the Israeli closure of Gaza. More than 3,000 containers of goods have been stuck at the Karni crossing and the port of Ashdod in Israel for months. The majority of Gaza's farm produce did not reach its markets and had to be sold at a fraction of its value locally.
For those families who do not have a wage to rely on, the UN relief agency is their life support system. The agency, which was set up in 1948 to cater for the needs of Palestinian refugees, is responsible for 962,000 registered refugees in Gaza and 735,000 of them receive food aid. 'We are living with the consequences of an unprecedented period of closure. We have contingency plans for this event but they have been exhausted,' he said.
'We have run out of reserves, there is a pressure pot of of frustration compounded by the intensity of shelling, and in the midst of all this we have had avian flu and not a shekel has been offered in compensation to the farmers who have lost their livestock,' he said"