Israel Pushing Gaza Toward Starvation - Abbas Aide

Israel's siege of the Gaza Strip is pushing Palestinians toward starvation, a close aide of Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas said.

Israel's siege of the Gaza Strip is pushing Palestinians toward starvation, a close aide of Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas said on Thursday. Nabil Shaath, who is visiting Indonesia as a special envoy for Abbas, said Gaza needed humanitarian assistance and appealed to the international community to help end Israel's siege.

"The (Indonesian) president expressed concerns for the grave situation of the Palestinians, particularly in Gaza as a result of the Israeli siege and a result of pushing the people toward starvation," Shaath said after talks with Indonesian President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono.

Shaath told reporters that Yudhoyono expressed his full support for Palestinian unity and the nation's struggle to end Israeli occupation. Gaza has been under the control of the Islamist movement Hamas since they routed fighters from Abbas's Fatah faction in a brief civil war in June.

Crossings into Gaza from Israel and Egypt were closed to most traffic after the Hamas takeover of the enclave of 1.5 million people, resulting in shortages of food and other essentials.

But this week Israel began allowing Palestinians stranded in Egypt to return to Gaza via the Jewish state, in a deal agreed with Egypt and Abbas' Western-backed government but criticised by Hamas.

Shaath said the division had weakened the Palestinian negotiating position and Abbas was doing everything possible to reunify Gaza and the West Bank politically.

"There's a lot to be done to produce national unity and national reconciliation and end the situation that has happened in Gaza....We are going to work hard to achieve that reintegration as soon as possible," he said.

"Gaza and the West Bank are forever the two wings of the small beleaguered Palestinian nation that cannot be separated," he added.

Abbas had suggested a new election to establish popular legitimacy in Palestinian territories but any vote must include Gaza, said Shaath.

The Palestinian president has said he will not talk to Hamas until they give up control of Gaza and said he planned to decree a change in electoral rules that might hamper Hamas chances of repeating their parliamentary election victory of last year.