The world is witnessing a terrible human rights crime in Gaza, where a million and a half human beings are being imprisoned with almost no access to the outside world. An entire population is being brutally punished.

Thirteen-year-old Asmahan Al Jamal became the 145th patient to fall victim to Israel's crippling siege on the Gaza Strip yesterday. The teenager died of brain cancer after Israeli military authorities refused to grant her an exit permit to access advanced medical treatment unavailable in Gaza itself.

"A sickening tragedy" was how Dr. Mustafa Barghouthi MP, Secretary General of the PNI described the killing of a mother and her 4 children in an Israeli military attack on the Gaza Strip this morning. The deaths have brought the number of Palestinians killed by the Israeli military since Annapolis to 418, including 59 children.

"Thousands of lives are at stake in Gaza. Israel's siege is pushing a whole society towards collapse." This was how Dr. Mustafa Barghouthi MP, Secretary General of the Palestinian National Initiative, today described the situation in the Gaza Strip, which has reached dramatic levels following the latest Israeli fuel cuts. Food assistance for 650,000 Palestinians is about to stop, 50,000 vaccines for babies are at risk of being spoiled, and sanitation services for half a million inhabitants have been halted.

Dr. Mustafa Barghouthi MP, Secretary General of the Palestinian National Initiative, today welcomed the efforts of former US President and Nobel Peace Prize winner Jimmy Carter to transform the current political dynamic in the region.

Sixty years after the Naqba, the catastrophe, Palestinians are still without a state. They are living under occupation, many are in refugee camps, others are scattered around the world, and a part of the Palestinian people are no more than second class citizens in Israel itself.

"A criminal massacre against children and civilians," was how PNI Secretary General Dr. Mustafa Barghouthi today described the killing of 22 Palestinians, including 6 children, in separate Israeli military attacks on the Gaza Strip and West Bank since yesterday.

Separate Israeli military attacks on civilian targets – including a mosque, homes and a hospital - in the Gaza Strip today have killed 18 Palestinians, including at least 2 children and a journalist working with the Reuters news agency. The deaths bring the number of Palestinians killed since Annapolis to 369, including 44 children.

Dr. Mustafa Barghouthi MP, Secretary General of the Palestinian National Initiative, met former US President Jimmy Carter yesterday in Ramallah to discuss the situation in Palestine and the need to protect Palestinian democracy and restore Palestinian unity.