Gaza, 19 Muharram 1438/20 October 2016 (MINA) – Nickolay Mladenov, the United Nations Special Coordinator for the Middle East Peace Process, briefed on Wednesday the UN Security Council on the difficult humanitarian situation in Gaza Strip.
The absence of progress has led to growing anger and frustration among Palestinians, the UN official said, the Palestinian Information Center (PIC) reported.
The Gaza Strip has been under an Israeli siege since June 2007. The blockade has caused a decline in living standards as well as unprecedented levels of unemployment and unrelenting poverty.
He noted that “Palestinians have again been unable to exercise their democratic rights after local council elections in the West Bank and Gaza were postponed.”
On Oct. 4, the Palestinian government decided to postpone the municipal elections, planned to be held on Oct. 8, for four months after the Supreme Court issued a decision to hold the elections in the West Bank only without Gaza Strip.
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Control of Gaza must return to the Palestinian Government of National Unity committed to the PLO principles, according to Mladenov.
He reiterated the position of the Secretary-General that settlements are illegal under international law and undermine the two-state solution.
Although international focus on the Question of Palestine may have been overtaken by the tragedy in Syria and elsewhere in the Middle East, but it cannot be allowed to be relegated to a secondary problem, he concluded.(T/P008/R07)
Mi’raj Islamic News Agency (MINA)
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