Haniya: Operating Karm Abu Salem crossing consolidates the Israeli occupation of Gaza Strip

Editorial Note: The following news reports may be summaries from original sources. They may also include corrections of Arabic names and political terminology.

[ 10/07/2007 - 11:18 AM ]

GAZA, (PIC)--

Ismail Haniya, the constitutional PA caretaker government's premier, has reiterated his rejection of operating the Karm Abu Salem crossing, controlled by the IOA, instead of the Rafah crossing at Gaza's border with Egypt.

He told the weekly cabinet meeting on Monday that such a step would serve as an attempt to consolidate the occupation's control on Gaza after liberating it from the Zionist grip.

"The IOA insists that the Palestinian citizens trapped on the Egyptian side must cross through the Karm Abu Salem terminal and this exposes a number of them to arrest," Haniya pointed out.

Haniya expressed his appreciation for Egypt and its historic role in the Palestinian question, particularly today as it hosts thousands of our people, the elderly and the sick, women and children, calling on the Egyptian government to work for the return of Palestinian passengers through the Rafah terminal.

Regarding Palestinian staff salaries, he compared the unconstitutional "emergency" government's resolution to withhold civil servants' salaries, with the mass punishment policy adopted by the IOA.

For his part, Fawzi Barhum, the Hamas' spokesman in the Strip, stated in a press release that PA chief Mahmoud Abbas and his emergency government's approval of substituting the Rafeh crossing with Karm Abu Salem is "an open call for the return of the Israeli occupation into the Gaza Strip after liberating it."

Hamas had warned, in a statement, of an imminent humanitarian catastrophe in the Rafah crossing if the crisis continued, calling on all Arab countries to "intervene to stop this crime being committed against Palestinian people".

For his part, the agriculture minister in the caretaker government Dr. Mohamed Ramadan Al-Agha called upon Palestinian merchants not to adopt Soufa and Karm Abu Salem crossings for entering commodities or fruits stressing that the need to pressure the Israeli side to open the Montar crossing.

He attributed the reason for his call to the fact that the Karm Abu Salem crossing does not accommodate the required quantity of goods, while the Soufa crossing terminal is not equipped to handle and store perishable goods.

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