Middel East: The US, the United Nations and Russia have endorsed EU proposals to send emergency aid to Gaza and the West Bank, bypassing the Hamas-led government.
Worth about $126 million (€100 million), the plan will give money to healthcare suppliers, utility companies and individuals in extreme need but will not pay the salaries of thousands of Palestinian Authority staff, many of whom have been on intermittent strike and involved in violent protests.
Living standards in Gaza and the West Bank have plummeted since the EU and US cancelled aid following Hamas's January election victory and Israel blocked most Palestinian exports from leaving Gaza. Israel is also withholding repayments to the Palestinian Authority of taxes collected on goods.
The scheme was endorsed by European leaders at a summit in Brussels on Friday, and now has the imprimatur of the so-called quartet. The EU commissioner in charge of external relations, Benita Ferrero-Waldner, is to present the plan in Israel today but details will not be worked out until early July.
Palestinian president Mahmoud Abbas called the move a step in the right direction but "inadequate". He also appealed to Arab states to block prime minister Ehud Olmert's plan to define Israel's borders unilaterally.
"We are consolidating our contacts with Arab countries to distance Olmert's plan from the table and solidify the road map as a basis for negotiations," he said after meeting Jordan's King Abdullah and going on to see Egypt's president, Hosni Mubarak.
Palestinian, Egyptian, and other foreign banks have come under intense US pressure not to make international payments to the Hamas-led government at the risk of being blacklisted in the US and having assets seized. This has forced desperate Palestinian leaders to revert to cash.
Mahmoud Zahar, the Palestinian foreign minister and a member of Hamas, recently returned through the Rafah crossing into Gaza from Egypt after a seven-nation trip with $20 million in his luggage.
EU monitors complained that his action violates the agreement giving Palestinians control of Gaza, which was signed before Israel withdrew from the territory last year.
Mr Zahar said he would ignore European pressure and continue to carry cash across the border. "We are going to continue to bring money in through Rafah. This is a legal process. We are not going to allow anyone to prevent us," he said. - (Guardian service)