E-MAIL THIS LINK
To: 

Hamas rejects Israel-approved foods for Gaza
[Al Arabiya Latest] Hamas said they will not let newly approved food items into the Gaza Strip as long as Israel maintains its blockade of the territory, as Arab League Chief Amr Moussa plans to visit the Strip on Sunday.

Israel slightly eased the much-criticized blockade on Wednesday by permitting snacks, spices and some other previously banned food items into Gaza. The order was symbolic at best, leaving a ban in place on desperately needed construction and industrial materials.

Hamas' economy minister, Ziad al-Zaza, said on Thursday that Gaza doesn't need soda and soft drinks. He says it needs raw materials so shuttered factories can start producing their own products.

Israel has been under pressure to lift its three-year blockade since last week's naval raid killed nine pro-Palestinian activists trying to sail to Gaza.

Arab League's Moussa, meanwhile, plans to visit the Gaza Strip on Sunday in what Hamas called a sign of mounting Arab pressure for an end to an Israeli blockade of the Palestinian territory.

Moussa's visit will be the first by a secretary-general of the Arab League to the Gaza Strip and come nearly two weeks after Israeli marines raided an aid flotilla, drawing violent resistance and killing nine pro-Palestinian activists.

An aide said on Thursday that Moussa would enter the enclave on Sunday, for a one-day visit, from Egypt via the Rafah crossing that Cairo opened after the May 31 Israeli interception of the Turkish-flagged Mavi Marmara ship.

Egypt had largely kept Rafah closed, bolstering an Israeli blockade of the Gaza Strip, after Hamas seized the territory in a brief civil war in 2007 with Fatah movement fighters loyal to Western-backed Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas.

Hamas spokesman Sami Abu Zuhri said Moussa's visit reflected "a growing sense among Arabs that the Gaza blockade must end."

Arab League officials in Cairo said the trip also was aimed at giving momentum to reconciliation talks between Hamas and Fatah that Egypt has sponsored but which have failed to bridge deep mistrust between the two rivals.
Posted by: Fred 2010-06-11
http://www.rantburg.com/poparticle.php?ID=298664