Gaza Strip could turn into 'prison camp': Palestine FM
Reuters
Date: 10-31-05
SEOUL (Reuters) - Unless a solution to end the continuing violence and other problems in the Gaza Strip is found soon, the region could turn into "a prison camp," Palestinian Foreign Minister Nasser al-Kidwa said on Monday.
Israeli troops killed at least two Islamic Jihad militants in a shootout in the West Bank on Sunday, hours after the group agreed to halt rocket fire from the Gaza Strip, Palestinian security sources said.
A week of violence has badly damaged a truce that has lasted for almost nine months, as well as hopes that Israel's withdrawal from the occupied Gaza Strip in September could energise peacemaking in the Middle East.
"Unless a range of problems in the Gaza Strip is resolved, it will turn into a huge prison camp," Kidwa said through an interpreter at a joint news conference after meeting with South Korean officials including Foreign Minister Ban Ki-moon.
Israel's withdrawal from the occupied Gaza Strip in September was "a positive step" but must be followed up soon by actions to hand over control in substance, Kidwa said.
"There has been no change in the legal status of the Gaza Strip," he said, adding "interference" by the Israelis over the Palestinians continued by Israel's control over water resources and passage rights through the region.
There has been rising violence in the region since last Wednesday when a suicide bomber killed five Israelis in a crowded market in the coastal city of Hadera. The militant group Islamic Jihad claimed responsibility for the bombing.
Israeli war planes carried out a dozen bombing raids against rocket launching sites in northern Gaza on Saturday, Palestinian witnesses and security sources said.
In the West Bank last Saturday, Palestinians set off a car bomb in the town of Nablus, an Israeli military spokeswoman said, adding the attack caused no injuries.
Over the weekend, Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon scrambled to secure support for new cabinet nominations ahead of a key parliamentary test of strength that follows Israel's withdraw from the Gaza Strip, which was completed in September.
The removal of the Gaza settlements, the first from land Palestinians want for a state, has shaken Israeli politics and the fallout could force Sharon into elections earlier than planned in November 2006, and keep any peacemaking on hold.
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