By Xinhua
Damascus : Exiled Hamas politburo chief Khaled Meshaal on Wednesday called upon Arab foreign ministers to take a decision in their next meeting to help lift the Israeli blockade against the Gaza Strip.
Meshaal, living in exile in Syria, made the call in a speech at a conference by radical Palestinian groups, which opened in Damascus earlier in the day.
Meshaal denounced the Israeli blockade against Gaza as “a tragedy and an immoral crime,” saying the limited quantities of fuel and medicine allowed by Israel to enter into Gaza was only its “ploy to appease the Palestinian, Arab and international anger.”
The Hamas supremo urged resistance against Israel, saying the resistance “will continue until the end of the aggression.”
He also noted that the missiles launched by his group were not the reason for the imposition of the blockade which has existed before the firing of the rockets.
Hamas had paused launching rockets and stopped the resistance according to a truce several months ago, but it did not stop the Israeli aggression, Meshaal said.
Meanwhile, Meshaal also expressed his willingness to open an unconditional dialogue with Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas.
Hundreds of representatives from radical Palestinian groups, including Hamas, and Islamic Jihad (Holy War), and other Palestinian figures attended the three-day meeting in a bid to find a mechanism to boost the Palestinian national unity and means to lift the Israeli siege against the Gaza Strip.
Syrian officials and pro-Syrian Lebanese opposition figures also attended the meeting.
“The goal is to solve the current state of Palestinian division through a comprehensive national dialogue that preserves unity,” said a communique of the conference.
The conference, previously scheduled in November, also insisted the Palestinian rights, an unyielding stance on the fate of Arab East Jerusalem and on the right of return for Palestinian refugees under Israeli pressure.
Israel on Thursday decided to tighten a closure that has been imposed on Gaza since mid June, when Hamas took control of the coastal strip.
Israel closed down all crossings leading to Gaza, thus barring fuels and basic food products from reaching the enclave, in retaliation to ongoing makeshift rocket attacks carried out against Israel.
In addition, at least 37 Palestinians have been killed since Israel launched its offensive on Gaza last Tuesday.