July 11, 2007	Wednesday	Jamadi-us-Sani 25, 1428

RAMALLAH, July 10: Palestinian president Mahmud Abbas called on Tuesday for an international force in the Gaza Strip, which is now controlled by the rival Hamas movement.

“We have insisted on the necessity of deploying an international force in the Gaza Strip to guarantee the delivery of humanitarian aid and to allow citizens to enter and leave freely,” Abbas said at a joint news conference in Ramallah after talks with visiting Italian Prime Minister Romano Prodi.

Abbas noted the estimated 4,000 Palestinians who have been blocked at the Rafah crossing terminal on the Egyptian border, shut for nearly a month since the Hamas takeover, 11 of whom are reported to have died in the deteriorating humanitarian conditions.Prodi for his part said a deployment of an international force would require agreement of all the parties involved and said the question “has not yet been examined in detail,” according to the Arabic translation of his remarks.

Abbas's call threatened to further widen the yawning Palestinian chasm, as Hamas has warned that it would not accept any foreign troops in Gaza and would treat them as an occupying power.

The chief of Hamas's parliamentary group, Salah al-Bardawil, reaffirmed the position on Tuesday.

“We will not accept the presence of an international force,” he said during a press conference in Gaza.

“The arrival of such a force would be a flagrant intervention in Palestinian affairs and a new occupation that we totally reject,” he said, accusing Abbas of “allying himself with foreigners against Hamas.”

Abbas again ruled out any dialogue with the Hamas “putschists.” Prodi offered full support to Abbas and the emergency government, headed by western-backed premier and respected economist Salam Fayyad, which the president appointed after firing the Hamas-led cabinet in the wake of the Islamists' takeover.

“The efforts of president Abbas and Fayyad should be firmly supported,” Prodi said. “They have to be able to show to their people that there exists a ray of hope.” Offering Palestinians humanitarian aid “is not enough,” he said.—AFP