RAMALLAH, West Bank: In a departure Thursday from previous policy, the moderate government of the Palestinian Authority in the West Bank publicly called on Israel to lift economic restrictions on the Gaza Strip, which is ruled by the Islamic group Hamas.
At a news conference in Ramallah, the Palestinian prime minister, Salam Fayyad, presented the core elements of his Palestinian Reform and Development Plan before an important meeting of international donor nations, set to convene Monday in Paris. Fayyad emphasized that the plan was "for Gaza and the West Bank together," that the Gaza Strip is "an inseparable part" of the Palestinian homeland.
To that effect, a written statement from Fayyad's office distributed at the news conference noted that the authority "has indicated its willingness to manage the crossings in and out of the Gaza Strip if Israel agrees to lift its blockade," adding: "The blockade must be lifted."
Hamas seized control of Gaza last June in a brief factional war, routing the rival Western-backed forces of Fatah. The Palestinian president and Fatah chief, Mahmoud Abbas, set up a caretaker government headed by Fayyad, an independent economist, whose writ extends only to the West Bank.
After the Hamas takeover, Israel sealed its border crossings with Gaza, on grounds that the Fatah forces had fled and were no longer providing security on the other side. Israel, like the United States and European Union, lists Hamas as a terrorist organization and refuses any dealings with it.
Israel also decided to press the Hamas regime by allowing into Gaza only the minimum amount of goods required to avert a hunger or health crisis among its population of 1.5 million, and to prohibit most exports.
"Hamas's popularity is suffering, because it cannot deliver," said Mark Regev, a spokesman for Prime Minister Ehud Olmert of Israel. A combination of military pressure, diplomatic isolation and economic leverage "is leading to an erosion of their strength," Regev said.
The Palestinian Authority says the restrictions have led to a collapse of the private sector in Gaza, which represents more than half the job market there. But it had so far maintained a public silence on the closure and privately had supported it, leading Hamas to accuse it of collusion.
A Hamas leader in Gaza, Mahmoud Zahar, said this week that "People realize now that the Ramallah government is responsible for the suffocation of Gaza."
Ala al-Araj, an economic adviser to Ismail Haniya, the Hamas chief in Gaza, said that the group has been "willing since July for the United Nations or a private company to take control of the crossings" but that "Israel and the Ramallah government don't accept that."
He added that Hamas would "not reject any party that is acceptable to Israel," as long as it is "transparent and credible" - a veiled reference to widespread charges of corruption when Fatah was in control.
Israel is unlikely to agree to change its policy, but Regev did not rule out change at some point. "If a new reality emerged on the other side of the crossings," he said, that could lead to a change in the Israeli position.
Violence continued Thursday on the border. A rocket fired from Gaza hit a house in the Israeli border town of Sderot, wounding a woman. Soon after, three Palestinians were killed in an Israeli airstrike in Gaza, medical officials there said. One was identified as a militant belonging to Islamic Jihad.
Army officials said the strike targeted a cell that had fired rockets at Israel.
Taghreed El-Khodary contributed reporting from Gaza City.
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