French FM urges Israel to lift Gaza blockade
French Foreign Minister Bernard Kouchner urged Israel to lift its blockade of the Gaza Strip and to freeze its policy of building settlements in the West Bank, at the start of a visit to the region on Saturday.
By Agencies |
JERUSALEM: French Foreign Minister Bernard Kouchner urged Israel to lift its blockade of the Gaza Strip and to freeze its policy of building settlements in the West Bank, at the start of a visit to the region on Saturday.
"The economic and humanitarian situation in Gaza is especially bad. The blockade directly affects the entire economy and living conditions as well," he said in an interview with Al-Quds newspaper.
"We call for the Gaza blockade to be lifted there must be free movement of both people and goods," Kouchner told the media.
Israel has kept Gaza under effective lockdown since last June following the territory's takeover by the Islamist movement Hamas, and on January 17 it tightened the blockade before easing it again slightly.
The Israelis say the measure is in response to rockets being fired at it by Palestinian militants inside the impoverished coastal territory.
In the interview Kouchner also called on Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert and Palestinian president Mahmud Abbas to respect their commitments agreed at the relaunch of Middle East peace talks in the United States last November.
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Kouchner's arrival overnight on Friday came just hours after seven Palestinians, including a leading Islamic Jihad militant and members of his family, were killed in what medics and witnesses in the Gaza Strip said was an Israeli air strike. Download
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