Prime Minister Mohammed Shtayyeh said today that Israel, the occupying power, is working to perpetuate attempts to separate the West Bank politically, geographically, and financially from the Gaza Strip.
“This is the main goal of the current government in Israel, which is based on destroying the two-state solution and any opportunity to achieve the establishment of a Palestinian state,” Shtayyeh said during a meeting in Ramallah with a number of ambassadors, representatives and consuls of countries accredited to Palestine.
“Today the international community has a real opportunity and there is international agreement and consensus on the necessity of ending the conflict, through a comprehensive political solution for all the Palestinian territory, including the Gaza Strip, the West Bank, and Jerusalem,” he pointed out.
Shtayyeh added, “This begins with recognizing the State of Palestine and ending the occupation, and then practical steps to embody the establishment of the state on the 1967 borders, with Jerusalem as its capital,” Shtayyeh added.
The Prime Minister stressed the necessity of stopping the occupation’s aggression against the Palestinian people in all the Palestinian territories, and the necessity of opening all crossings leading to the Gaza Strip. He said this will increase the entry of relief and medical aid, restore electricity and water, and transfer relief aid from the West Bank directly to Gaza.
Meanwhile, he appreciated the positions of the countries that continued to fund the UN Palestine refugee agency (UNRWA), calling on the countries that stopped funding the agency to reconsider their decision and resume funding.
Shtayyeh affirmed that cutting funds to UNRWA primarily exacerbates the deteriorating catastrophic humanitarian situation in the Gaza Strip, and may lead UNRWA to stop providing its services not only in the Gaza Strip, but also in the refugee camps in the West Bank, Jordan, Syria and Lebanon.
He pointed out that Israel is trying to target UNRWA because it represents the cumulative memory of the Palestinian people and the right of return.
(WAFA)
