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French FM urges Israel to lift Gaza blockade

AFP, Jerusalem
French Foreign Minister Bernard Kouchner urged Israel to lift its blockade of the Gaza Strip and to freeze its policy of building settlements in the West Bank, at "the start of a visit to the region yesterday.
Kouchner visited east Jerusalem and met UN emergency relief coordinator John Holmes before travelling to Bethlehem in the West Bank to meet officials.
Later he will meet Palestinian president Mahmud Abbas in Ramallah and is expected, ta, have, talks with Israeli Prime Minister, Ehud Olmert, Foreign Minister Tzipi Livni and Defence Minster Ehud Batek in Jerusalem today.
"The economic and humanitar-
ian situation in Gaza is especially bad. The blockade directly affects the entire economy and living conditions as well," Kouchner said in an interview with Al-Quds newspaper, published yesterday.
"We call for the Gaza blockade to be lifted -- there must be free movement of both people and goods," Kouchner told the main Arabic daily in the Palestinian territories.
Israel has kept Gaza under effective lockdown since last June following the territory’stakeover By |R Wnu§t,JUQyen^ftfc^^ dull on Janu'afy'l 7 ft li^meMd the' blockade before easing it again slightly.
The Israelis say the measure is in response to rockets being fired at it by Palestinian militants inside the impoverished coastal territory'.
In the interview Kouchner also called on Olmert and Abbas to respect their commitments agreed at the relaunch of Middle East peace talks in the United States last November.
Kouchner’s arrival overnight on Friday came just hours after eight Palestinians, including a leading Islamic Jihad militant and mem-
bers of his family, were killed in what medics and witnesses in the Gaza Strip said was an Israeli air strike.
A military spokesman in Tel Aviv denied Israeli involvement in the blast.
Both Israel and the Palestinians relaunched the US-sponsored peace process after a near sevenyearhiatus with the aim of reaching an agreement by the end of2008.
President George W Bush has said he would like to see an accord before he leaves office in January
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* "'Israel must Coinpleteiy freeze settlements in the West Bank and east Jerusalem, dismantle all those deemed illegal, and reopen Palestinian institutions in east Jerusalem, namely the chamber of commerce," Kouchner told the daily.
It cannot be said enough that the settlements are an obstacle to peace," he added.
On Thursday five firms won bids from the Israeli authorities to expand the Har Homa settlement in east Jerusalem, ‘which the Palestinians consider to be the capital of their future state.