Abu Zuhri : EU Statements Should Have a presence on the Ground

Abu Zuhri : EU Statements Should Have a presence on the Ground

Hamas has welcomed Solana”s statements over supervising Gaza , urging the European Union to translate such statements into reality.


The European Union (EU) is ready to maintain its mission in the Palestinian Gaza Strip so that international monitors return back to supervise crossings, said Javier Solana, the EU Foreign Policy chief in statements.


For his part, Sami Abu Zuhri, Hamas spokesman in Gaza Strip, said that Hamas doesn”t object to the presence of the European monitors while doing only their job. It actually rejects their control over opening or closing the crossings and it objects also to their role as agents for the Israeli Occupation forces (IOF) through doing every thing the IOF order them to do.
 
Hamas refuses that the EU monitors become an obstacle in front of opening the crossings when they close it and deny Gaza residents the necessary aid, said Abu Zuhri in statements to Ikhwanweb.


The attitudes shouldn”t be confined to mere statements, they should have a presence on the ground”, said Abu Zuhri, referring to statements which Solana gave to the Egyptian daily Al-Masry Al-Yom in which he said that the EU”s view is in line with the Egyptian view that the current situation in Gaza should never remain as it is.


In his statements, Solana declared that the European Union holds Israel responsible for the breaches in the Gaza-Egypt border wall when Gaza residents, due to being deprived of every day necessities, were obliged to cross the borders seeking food and fuel. Solana added that the IOF actions as an occupation force must stop and the suffering of the Palestinian people must come to an end.


Seeing them as something positive, Abu Zuhri welcomed Solana”s statements but he said that they aren”t enough and that the attitude must take some thing more than mere statements. Gaza is still under siege and its borders are still fully sealed off turning it into a real prison that denies more than 1.5 million Gaza residents the opportunity to lead an ordinary life, said the Hamas spokesman.


“These statements should turn into something we can see on the ground through practical attitudes that stop the humanitarian crisis that the Gaza residents are facing on a daily basis” he said adding that Israeli Occupation Forces must be obliged to respect the humanitarian aspect through providing all needs for the Gaza residents who are living under a suffocating occupation.


Hamas, Abu Zuhri said, refuses to turn the issue of the crossings into a political issue. Closing the crossings may lead to a slow death of 1 1/2 million Palestinians. The issue of the crossings must be tackled in a way that leads to solving the humanitarian crisis overshadowing the Gaza Strip.
At the end of his statements, Abu Zuhri saw as totally rejected any attempt to exploit the issue of the crossings to reach political gains, i.e. to impose a precondition of restoring the so called legitimacy of the PA presidency to Gaza .