By Xinhua
Gaza : Hundreds of Palestinians, including lawmakers, clerics, scholars and even medical patients, on Monday joined in an open-ended sit-in at the Rafah crossing between the Gaza Strip and Egypt to protest Israel’s blockade on Gaza.
The demonstrators called upon Egypt to open the crossing to allow humanitarian aid into the poor, narrow and densely-populated enclave, which is home to nearly 1.5 million Palestinians.
Israel decided on Friday not to allow fuels into the Gaza Strip in response to the ongoing makeshift rocket attacks fired by militants round the clock at communities in southern Israel.
As a result of it, the sole Gaza power plant had completely stopped supplying electricity to around 800,000 Palestinians in the Gaza Strip.
Hamas lawmaker Yahya Mousa appealed to Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak and other Arab leaders to intervene immediately to help lift the embargo on the Gaza Strip, which has resulted in the deaths of more than 70 patients since last June.
Egypt has also kept the Rafah crossing closed since last June when Hamas militants overran rival Fatah’s security forces and took control of the Gaza Strip.
With Monday’s demonstration, the Hamas leadership in Gaza is seeking to put pressure on Egypt and other Arab states to aid Palestinians in Gaza.
Salah Bardawil, another Hamas lawmaker, said that the Palestinian people have the right to lift the siege “by any means.”
He also called upon the Egyptian authorities to open the Rafah crossing, saying that the sit-in will continue until the crossing is opened and the siege is over.
Furthermore, Bardawil called on Arab donor countries to offer direct financial assistance to the Gaza Strip, without transferring it through the West Bank-based Palestinian Authority.
“Because that government deprives thousands of Gaza Strip families of that aid,” Bardawil said.
Some Palestinian leaders called on Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas to withdraw from peace negotiations with the government of Israel until the sanctions were lifted.
“We ask the Palestinian Authority to halt negotiations, and demand that (Israel) lift the embargo on Gaza as a condition of returning to negotiations,” Palestinian lawmaker Mustafa Barghouti told reporters in the West Bank city Ramallah.