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With the Hamas
takeover of the Gaza Strip between 10 and 15 June 2007, the position of the
Palestinian Authority (PA) among other nations has changed dramatically. Israel, the EU, and the US have all
announced that they are resuming direct aid to the PA, now that it is
controlled by the Fatah party once again. They had terminated aid to the PA
after Hamas won the Prime Minister position and a Parliamentary majority in
early 2006. All of these world leaders have supported PA President Mahmoud
Abbas’s decision to fire Prime Minister Ismail Haniyeh (of Hamas), disband the
government, name a new cabinet without Hamas members, and rule by emergency
decree. All have also expressed interest that some aid should go to the Gaza Strip
in addition to the Fatah-controlled West Bank, though through an intermediary
rather than directly to Hamas.
Israeli
Prime Minister Ehud Olmert has expressed support for Abbas, saying on 15 June “I
call on my friend Abu Mazen (Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas) to take the
opportunity, now that almost the entire world understands the viciousness, the
brutality of Hamas, to exercise his authority as the leader of the Palestinian
people.” Olmert
said also that with Fatah in control of the PA, he expressed optimism about
working with them. Israel says
that it intends to release $300 to $400 million of the tax dollars due to
Palestinians that Israel
has withheld since Hamas Parliamentary victory in early 2006. The funds will be
directed to the PA and its seat in the West Bank, and there are not specific
plans for whether or how to use it in Gaza.
Israel allowed eight trucks of humanitarian supplies,
organized by the International Committee of the Red Cross, into Gaza, and six critically
injured people were allowed out to receive treatment in Israeli hospitals. Yet,
hundred of Gazans are waiting at the border to escape to the West Bank, and Israel has not
yet decided whether to let them through. Israel
contends that it does not want to let Gaza
become a humanitarian crisis, and is working with the ICRC and United Nations
to manage humanitarian aid. Israel’s
Infrastructure Minister Benjamin Ben Eliezer said on 16 June, "I don’t
think the Gaza Strip will survive from a humanitarian perspective for more than
a month if Israel
does not open the lid.” However, on 18 June, Eliezer added to this: "All assistance and aid for the Gaza Strip should be stopped […]
I am stopping everything until I understand what is happening over there. We
simply have to increase the isolation of Gaza
from Judea and Samaria;
close them off completely.”
Egypt has been deeply involved in the Gaza conflict for several months as the
primary negotiator of over a dozen failed ceasefire agreements between Hamas
and Fatah since the establishment of the unity government in March. After
Hamas' decisive takeover, it withdrew its envoys from the Gaza Strip in
protest.
Egypt is on Gaza's
southern border, and has been concerned about refugees crossing entering the
country. It has increased its security presence along the Gaza's southern border, and only allowed in
around 200 Fatah members who were escaping Hamas forces.
The
European Union has voiced strong support for Abbas, with external relations
commissioner Benita Ferrero-Waldner calling Abbas “the legitimate president of
all Palestinians.” While the EU has continued to give humanitarian aid to the
PA since 2006 ($916 million in 2006, up from $711 million in 2005, in response
to the end of aid from other nations), it announced on 18 June that it would be
resuming direct aid to the PA now that it is led by Fatah. The EU's foreign
policy head Javier Solana specified that some of the funds would be going to Gaza, but through the UN
or a temporary internal mechanism (TIM) that would bypass Hamas. It will to pay
the salaries of non-security PA employees in Gaza.
The Arab
League's foreign ministers held an emergency session on the conflict on 15
June, and spokesman Amr Moussa called for an “immediate and full halt” to the
conflict. He described the violence as criminal, and destructive to the Palestinian
cause. The organization agreed to create a committee to support Egyptian and
Saudi mediators, and emphasized that Arab nations sought a resolution that
would "serve the Palestinian cause, and not one faction against another.”
The United States has echoed Israel and the
EU's support for a PA without Hamas, and the intention to support for Abbas.
The New York Times reports on 14 June 2007 that the US encouraged Abbas to disband the
Hamas-led government. President Bush met for 90 minutes with Olmert in a
private session on 19 June, after which Bush praised Abbas as a “rational voice
among extremists” in the Middle East, and
pledged his support for the PA.
The United
Nations presence in Gaza,
the United Nations Relief and Works Program for Palestinian Refugees in the
Near East (UNRWA) was forced to close three of its five food distribution
centers and seven of eighteen health clinics around the Strip on 12 June due to
the violence. On 13 June two of its employees were killed by stray gunfire in Khan
Younis and Beach Camp. Gaza Director John Ging said, “The violence is
compounding an already dreadful humanitarian situation.” Secretary General Ban
Ki-Moon repeatedly called for both sides to respect the ceasefire agreements,
and was in communication with President Abbas to encourage an end to the
violence.
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