Palestinian Official Calls for Israeli Total Lifting of SiegeA senior Palestinian official called Sunday on Israel to fully lift the siege imposed on Palestinian towns and cities, Egyptian radio reported.Israel was still keeping barriers intact, Palestinian Minister of State for Jerusalem Affairs Ziad Abu Ziad said in a telephone interview with Cairo Radio from Gaza. Abu Ziad dismissed Israeli claims of having lifted the closure imposed on the Palestinian territories as "mere lies," saying that the movement between the West Bank town of Ramallah and Jerusalem " is still difficult." Al Aqsa mosque in East Jerusalem, Islam's third holiest site, remains closed to the Palestinians, Abu Ziad said. He added that some Muslims living in the West Bank and Gaza Strip have not entered Jerusalem for years, reaffirming the demand that Jerusalem be opened to all Muslims. Abu Ziad urged Israel to comply with the UN Security Council resolutions 242 and 338, which call for Israeli withdrawal from all occupied Arab territories, and guarantee the Palestinian refugees' right of return to their homeland. Israel has sealed off the Palestinian territories several times since the outbreak of bloody clashes late September between the Palestinians and Israeli troops, which have so far left nearly 370 people dead, most of them Palestinians, and thousands of others wounded. After a security meeting last Wednesday between Palestinian and Israeli officials, the Jewish state has reopened a main north-south road in the Gaza Strip and border crossings in Gaza and the West Bank. |
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