Ramallah- Ma'an- Secretary-General for the Palestinian political party the 'Palestinian National Initiative' and member of the Palestinian Legislative Council (PLC), Dr. Mustafa Barghouthi, described the situation in the West Bank and the Gaza Strip in a press conference in Ramallah on Wednesday.
Barghouthi said, 'the world should fully comprehend the Israeli lie which claims that there is a war between two armies in the Strip', explaining that, in reality, 'the fourth most powerful army in the world, the Israeli army [is] on one side, and the weak Palestinian resistance with its simple weapons, [is] in confrontation'. He also said that this Israeli war did not start because of the Israeli soldier's capture; it was an operation that had been planned for more than six months.'
Barghouthi added, 'Since the Israeli attack, 74 Palestinians have been killed and more than 200 injured; Israel has used the soldier issue to destroy the infrastructure and bombard the electricity stations and the water supplies in the most crowded area in the world'.
The PLC member warned of a humanitarian disaster as the sewage system has been destroyed and the consequences of the Israeli attack on the citizens begin to be felt. With regards to the food and nutrition situation, he said, 'Israel is preventing Palestinians from going to the sea and prevents fishermen from going to fish'. He added that 190 Palestinian families have left their homes since the Israeli military operation started, 85 percent of Gazans now live under the poverty line and 40 percent are unemployed.
Barghouthi said that 'dissolving the Palestinian Authority is being considered as, as an authority with no sovereignty under occupation, how can we ask such an authority to have authority over its people?'