GAZA CITY: Arab League Secretary-General Amr Moussa visited the Gaza Strip on Sunday, the highest Arab official to do so since its seizure by Hamas in 2007, and called for an end to Israel's blockade of the Palestinian territory. Moussa crossed into the enclave from Egypt, two weeks after Israel's deadly interception of a Gaza aid flotilla.
"This blockade ... must be lifted and must be broken and the Arab League decision is very clear in this regard," Moussa said. "Not only the Arabs, but the entire world should stand with the Palestinian people against the siege of Gaza and what is happening in the occupied territories, especially East Jerusalem," he said, referring to Jewish settlement growth in the annexed Arab half of the city.
Egypt had kept its Gaza border largely closed, bolstering Israel's embargo, since Hamas, which won a 2006 election, seized sole control of the Gaza Strip in a war with Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas' Fatah faction three years ago.
But Cairo reopened its Rafah crossing with the enclave after Israeli marines killed nine pro-Palestinian activists in a May 31 raid on a Turkish-flagged aid vessel.
Palestinian and Arab League officials said Moussa's visit was also aimed at giving momentum to reconciliation talks between Hamas and Fatah that Egypt has sponsored but which have failed to remove deep mistrust between the two rivals. "Reconciliation is the basic and principle question. It is a question of will and not a mere signature — it's a will, it's a policy, it's a position that translates into an agreement on all issues," Moussa told reporters. "History does not halt before a sentence here or a paragraph there".
In an apparent bid to avoid any impression of Arab League recognition of Hamas' Gaza takeover, Moussa met Ismail Haniyeh, head of the Hamas government, in his home rather than in his office.
