By Xinhua
Gaza : The Palestinian Popular Committee against Siege Sunday called on Gaza Strip residents to organize a large demonstration on Monday against an 8-month Israeli siege.
The committee, headed by Jamal al-Khodari, an independent lawmaker supported by Hamas, had started a series of peaceful activities on Saturday to urge the world to exert pressure on Israel to end the siege on the coastal enclave.
“Part of the activities is to construct on Monday a human chain from the northern Gaza Strip town of Beit Hanoun, near the borders with Israel, to the southern town of Rafah, near the borders with Egypt,” al-Khodari said.
On Saturday, Gaza storekeepers went on a commercial strike for several hours, where a monument of the siege victims was erected in central Gaza City. Hundreds of people also demonstrated before the Gaza office of the United Nations.
Al-Khodari said the activities are meant to tell the world that “we are living under an unfair and tough siege imposed by Israel on the Gaza Strip for more than eight months.”
On Jan. 23, Palestinian militants blew up several holes in the border between Gaza and Egypt, where hundreds of thousands of Palestinians flowed into Egypt on a mission to refill their needs.
Hamas gunmen and Egyptian troops resealed the border on Feb. 3 following an agreement between Hamas leaders and high-ranking Egyptian security officials.
Israel has closed the poor enclave off from all but vital humanitarian supplies since Hamas took control of Gaza last June in a bid to halt makeshift rocket and mortar attacks on southern Israeli communities.