JERUSALEM: US President Barack Obama’s Middle East envoy said yesterday that the new administration’s push for Israeli-Palestinian peace after the war in the Gaza Strip faced big hurdles and he warned of setbacks ahead.
The somber assessment by former US Sen. George Mitchell followed two days of talks with Israeli and Palestinian leaders on shoring up a shaky cease-fire that ended Israel’s 22-day war on Gaza.
In the talks, Israel has balked at fully reopening Gaza’s border crossings to allow reconstruction. Washington supports Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas in his power struggle with Hamas for control of the passages, Gaza’s gateway to the outside world and a major political and economic prize.
Mitchell said consolidating the truce and “immediately” addressing the humanitarian needs of Gaza’s 1.5 million residents were the US administration’s top priorities.
“Then we must move forward,” he added, citing Obama’s commitment to “aggressively” seek a peace deal.
Israel has linked the full opening of Gaza’s crossings to the return of Israeli soldier Gilad Shalit, who was captured by Palestinians in a cross-border raid in June 2006. But that seemed a remote possibility with a Hamas leader saying yesterday that Shalit will not be released until Israel freed Palestinian prisoners. “Shalit will not see the light of day as long as our prisoners don’t see it either,” Khalil Al-Hayya told hundreds of people at a rally in Gaza City.
Mitchell toured a UN warehouse and announced that Obama had approved $20 million in new assistance for Gaza. The money, which will go to two UN agencies and the Red Cross, will be used to provide food, medicine and shelter.
The European Union called on Israel to allow more aid into Gaza. An EU official said deliveries of humanitarian aid were being restricted. EU spokesman John Clancy said only about 120 trucks were able to enter Gaza each day, compared to about 500 in 2007.
Clancy said that the commission also had asked Israel to allow aid workers to be fast-tracked into the territory. It currently takes about five days for a worker to get into Gaza.
The French Foreign Ministry said France was taking back a water treatment plant that would have helped civilians in Gaza after Israel prevented it from entering the Palestinian territory.
“Unfortunately, for reasons that we find hard to explain, the water treatment plant was not let in,” said Foreign Ministry spokesman Eric Chevallier.
As part of a humanitarian aid package, the treatment system would have provided some 2,000 cubic meters of drinkable water per day to civilians in Gaza who were cut off during the war. A team of 51 civilian security officials were on hand to help set up and operate the plant.
Israeli authorities had been blocking delivery of the treatment plant at a border crossing with Gaza since Sunday, according to the Foreign Ministry.
Egypt is to host an international conference on March 2 to raise funds to rebuild the Gaza Strip, the Egyptian Foreign Ministry announced.
Cairo has undertaken “intensive diplomatic contacts with regional and international parties” to convene the conference at the level of foreign ministers, ministry spokesman Hossam Zaki said.
“This meeting will focus on what needs to be done in the Gaza Strip as well as the means to secure necessary funds for the reconstruction” of the territory, Zaki said.
