![[Gaza] A crowd of Palestinians throw stones at Palestinian security forces preventing them from passing the border point at Raffah, between Egypt and Gaza Strip, 17 September 2005. Gaza has no sea port and Israel has not agreed to allow its international](https://assets.thenewhumanitarian.org/s3fs-public/styles/responsive_large_2x/public/images/2006973.jpg.webp?itok=d9598aPk "Palestinians are living under deteriorating conditions in Gaza. Here they battle to get access to the Rafah border crossing.")
Key leaders behind the Middle East peace process have welcomed drives toward a Palestinian national unity government that could potentially accept conditions for a Western-imposed embargo to be lifted.
In a meeting hosted by United Nations Secretary-General Kofi Annan at the UN headquarters in New York on Wednesday, representatives of the UN, the European Union, the United States and Russia – referred to as ‘the Quartet’ – called for a new Palestinian government to commit to non-violence, and to previous peace agreements as well as recognise Israel.
The economic embargo was imposed on the Palestinian government after Hamas won democratic elections in January this year. Hamas is considered a terrorist organisation by the West and Israel because it refuses to renounce violence and recognise Israel.
The new Palestinian government would be a coalition between Hamas and Fatah, which already meets the Quartet’s conditions.
"The Quartet welcomed the efforts of Palestinian president Mahmoud Abbas [of the Fatah party] to form a government of national unity, in the hope that the platform of such a government would reflect Quartet principles and allow for early engagement," the group said in a statement.
Since January, the Quartet has frozen contacts with the Palestinian government and donors have withheld contributions pending Hamas’ acceptance of Quartet terms. In this time, the humanitarian situation in the occupied Palestinian territory has seriously deteriorated.
“With access virtually cut off since late June [when Israel launched a military operation to recover a captured soldier], poverty, unemployment, shortages and desperation in Gaza are mounting,” wrote Jan Egeland, UN Under-Secretary General for Humanitarian Affairs and Emergency Relief Coordinator, and Jan Eliasson, Swedish Foreign Minister, in an editorial on Tuesday.
“Sadly, what is most needed in Gaza today is precisely what is most lacking: hope."
The Quartet, which is seeking a two-state solution, is hoping a new Palestinian unity government will reflect Quartet principles and allow for renewed engagement.
It has expressed concern at the “grave crisis” in Gaza and the continued stalemate between Israel and the Palestinians and encouraged greater donor support to meet the needs of the Palestinian people, endorsing an expansion of the Temporary International Mechanism devised by the EU and the World Bank to channel aid directly to the Palestinian people by bypassing the Hamas Government.
The Quartet urged Israel, which has suspended all transfers of tax and customs revenues it collects on behalf of the Palestinian Authority, to resume such payments through the temporary mechanism. It also reaffirmed its commitment to the so-called Road Map, which seeks the establishment of two democratic states – Israel and Palestine.
The Quartet welcomed the prospect of a meeting between Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert and Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas.
The group of four powers said that it would extend for three months temporary emergency aid for the occupied Palestinian territories (oPt) but stopped short of announcing a full lifting of the embargo as the precise position of the proposed Palestinian unity government has not been clarified.
Aid agencies are increasingly warning of a deteriorating humanitarian situation in oPt and calling for the immediate lifting of the embargo in addition to an easing of the Israeli siege on Gaza.
In a statement released on Thursday, the international NGO Médecins Sans Frontières (MSF), expressed its concern that the suspension of aid to oPt as a result of the embargo has resulted in a gradual reduction of access to health care by the population, reaching a critical stage.
“MSF expresses concern over the repercussions that a political decision to suspend aid has on a population which is already strained by the quasi-paralysis of the economy and difficulty of movement within the territories,” the statement read.
ED
In a meeting hosted by United Nations Secretary-General Kofi Annan at the UN headquarters in New York on Wednesday, representatives of the UN, the European Union, the United States and Russia – referred to as ‘the Quartet’ – called for a new Palestinian government to commit to non-violence, and to previous peace agreements as well as recognise Israel.
The economic embargo was imposed on the Palestinian government after Hamas won democratic elections in January this year. Hamas is considered a terrorist organisation by the West and Israel because it refuses to renounce violence and recognise Israel.
The new Palestinian government would be a coalition between Hamas and Fatah, which already meets the Quartet’s conditions.
"The Quartet welcomed the efforts of Palestinian president Mahmoud Abbas [of the Fatah party] to form a government of national unity, in the hope that the platform of such a government would reflect Quartet principles and allow for early engagement," the group said in a statement.
Since January, the Quartet has frozen contacts with the Palestinian government and donors have withheld contributions pending Hamas’ acceptance of Quartet terms. In this time, the humanitarian situation in the occupied Palestinian territory has seriously deteriorated.
“With access virtually cut off since late June [when Israel launched a military operation to recover a captured soldier], poverty, unemployment, shortages and desperation in Gaza are mounting,” wrote Jan Egeland, UN Under-Secretary General for Humanitarian Affairs and Emergency Relief Coordinator, and Jan Eliasson, Swedish Foreign Minister, in an editorial on Tuesday.
“Sadly, what is most needed in Gaza today is precisely what is most lacking: hope."
The Quartet, which is seeking a two-state solution, is hoping a new Palestinian unity government will reflect Quartet principles and allow for renewed engagement.
It has expressed concern at the “grave crisis” in Gaza and the continued stalemate between Israel and the Palestinians and encouraged greater donor support to meet the needs of the Palestinian people, endorsing an expansion of the Temporary International Mechanism devised by the EU and the World Bank to channel aid directly to the Palestinian people by bypassing the Hamas Government.
The Quartet urged Israel, which has suspended all transfers of tax and customs revenues it collects on behalf of the Palestinian Authority, to resume such payments through the temporary mechanism. It also reaffirmed its commitment to the so-called Road Map, which seeks the establishment of two democratic states – Israel and Palestine.
The Quartet welcomed the prospect of a meeting between Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert and Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas.
The group of four powers said that it would extend for three months temporary emergency aid for the occupied Palestinian territories (oPt) but stopped short of announcing a full lifting of the embargo as the precise position of the proposed Palestinian unity government has not been clarified.
Aid agencies are increasingly warning of a deteriorating humanitarian situation in oPt and calling for the immediate lifting of the embargo in addition to an easing of the Israeli siege on Gaza.
In a statement released on Thursday, the international NGO Médecins Sans Frontières (MSF), expressed its concern that the suspension of aid to oPt as a result of the embargo has resulted in a gradual reduction of access to health care by the population, reaching a critical stage.
“MSF expresses concern over the repercussions that a political decision to suspend aid has on a population which is already strained by the quasi-paralysis of the economy and difficulty of movement within the territories,” the statement read.
ED
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