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EU, Egypt urge Israel to end blockade of Gaza Strip

The EU led mounting calls yesterday for Israel to end its crippling four-day-old blockade of Gaza as Egypt came under pressure to open the territory's only access to the outside world that bypasses the Jewish state.

Radical and pro-Western Arab governments alike called for urgent international intervention to secure an end to the closure which plunged much of Gaza City into darkness on Sunday night and has left hospitals with dwindling fuel stocks.

EU External Relations Commissioner Benita Ferrero-Waldner accused Israel of the "collective punishment" of Gaza's 1.5 million people as the UN agency for Palestinian refugees warned it would have to stop food distribution within days if the lockdown continued.

Ferrero-Waldner warned that neither the blockade nor the deadly air and ground strikes of the past week would bring Israel security from militant rocket fire.

"Only a credible political agreement this year ... can turn Palestinians away from violence," she said.

The Gaza Strip has been outside Palestinian President Mahmud Abbas' control since the Islamist Hamas movement seized power there last June, but he warned late on Sunday that he would raise the blockade with the UN Security Council if it was not lifted within hours.

Syria called for urgent international intervention.

"Talk of a peace process between Israel and the Palestinians flies in the face of the green light being given to the attacks and blockade," a Syrian foreign ministry statement said.

Lebanon called on the Western powers to end their silence over Israel's military action against Gaza which has killed 37 people, most of them militants, in a week.

"It is the duty of the Security Council, the United States, the European Union and the Arab League to act immediately to stop the Israeli offensive, and to denounce Israel," Lebanese Prime Minister Fuad Siniora said.

"Israel is profiting from the international silence... to unleash its rage against the inhabitants of Gaza," he said.

Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak called both Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert and Defense Minister Ehud Barak to appeal for an end to the military action and a lifting of the blockade, the official MENA news agency said.

But his appeals drew short shrift from Olmert who promised no let-up in the lockdown as long as Hams remained in power.

"The population has to understand that as long as Hamas rules there, we will provide them only with the bare minimum," Olmert said.

Meanwhile, Hamas has called for Arab pressure on Egypt to open up its Rafah crossing to Gaza to desperately needed supplies.

"We have one demand and that is the opening of the Rafah crossing and the breaking of the siege," former Palestinian prime minister Ismail Haniya said, calling on the Arab League to take "concrete steps" to break the blockade.

The Rafah crossing has remained largely closed since last June although Egypt has occasionally opened it in defiance of Israel.
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