RAMALLAH: Hundreds of Arab Palestinians, left-wing Israelis and international activists rallied at the Erez crossing on Thursday to protest against the Israeli blockade of the Gaza Strip.

Talab El-Sani, an Arab member of the Knesset from the United Arab List party said in a statement that the rally’s participants arrived at the crossing by bus. They waved Palestinian flags and banners with pictures of victims of the Israeli war in Gaza and called on Israel to stop “the ongoing war crimes” in the area.

El-Sani said he had spoken to the Hamas leadership in Gaza Thursday morning to express solidarity with the local residents under siege, adding he was thanked for the gesture. “The cease-fire since the war is imaginary and it may explode soon if Israel does not end the blockade, which is preventing Gaza’s residents from receiving food and medication,” he said.

“This war was unnecessary. It hurt innocent civilians and children, and those responsible will be made to pay for it,” he said, adding there would be no peace without a complete withdrawal from the territories.

“I pray to God that the state of Israel vanishes because it was established on a territory that never belonged to it,” said a Jewish protester. He apologized to Palestinians in Gaza for the crimes committed against them in the war.

“We the Jewish people don’t want a Jewish state to be established on the land of Palestine. The land of Palestine is for the Palestinians and not for the gang of this Zionist group,” he said. The United Nations and human rights groups have voiced concerns about the humanitarian situation in the Gaza Strip and called on Israel to ease its blockade following the abduction of Israeli soldier Gilad Shalit in June 2006. They also focused on the restrictions on construction materials such as cement and iron, which could be used to rebuild the damage caused by Israel’s offensive last winter. The war displaced around 500 families, who were forced to live in tents, and destroyed or damaged over 11,100 houses, according to the Gaza-based Al-Mezan Center for Human Rights.

A number of donor countries pledged over $4.4 billion to rebuild the war-torn territory at a conference in Sharm El-Sheikh in Egypt in March this year. Due to internal splits within the Palestinian government and the tight blockade, administering the funds has proved impossible.

As a result of the lack of materials, Gazans have started using alternative resources to manufacture mud bricks in an attempt to overcome Israeli restrictions. They have created a solid block ready for construction, which is a mixture of sand, clay, calcium and water compressed together.

Meanwhile, the Fatah movement led by Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas on Thursday vowed to step up its struggle against the Israeli occupation with demonstrations and diplomacy.

“Our program emphasizes the importance of a two-track approach, with the first being the escalation of the popular struggle to resist occupation,” the movement said in a statement.

The group said it would model the struggle on the weekly demonstrations in two West Bank towns, Bilin and Nilin, where residents hurl rocks and protest against the expansion of Israel’s controversial separation barrier.

Fatah, which marks it 45th anniversary on Friday, also vowed to “increase movement on the international level to pursue Israel, to isolate it and to force it to answer to international law.”