Israeli fuel cuts cause hardship in Gaza
Updated: 2008-01-21 21:08
Negotiators for Abbas' government will raise the Gaza situation in the next session, but Abbas does not want to pull out of the talks because of what's happening in Gaza, said Nabil Shaath, Abbas' representative in Egypt.
The exiled leader of Hamas on Sunday evening urged Arab leaders and Abbas to forget their differences and help the Gaza Strip. It was a dramatic and emotional plea from the hard-line Khaled Mashal, who lives in exile in Damascus, Syria.
"Oh Arab leaders, every minute in which a Palestinian dies in Gaza, you are responsible for his blood and soul before God," he told Al-Jazeera satellite TV in a live interview from Syria.
He also called for Palestinian unity. "God is not going to forgive you nor Hamas if we don't meet on the grounds of brotherhood ... This is a sincere call, without any politics," Mashal said.
Human rights groups condemned the fuel cutoff.
The British group Oxfam called it "ineffective as well as unlawful." Gisha, an Israeli group that has fought the fuel cutbacks in Israel's Supreme Court, said "punishing Gaza's 1.5 million civilians does not stop the rocket fire; it only creates an impossible 'balance' of human suffering on both sides of the border."
Although Israel pulled out of Gaza in 2005, many still consider it responsible because it controls most land, sea and air access to the territory.
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