Gaza, December 3, 2009 (Pal Telegraph) - Palestinian legislator Jamal al-Khudari describes Arab and international efforts to lift the Israel-imposed blockade on the Gaza Strip as not up to scratch.

"The international community and the Arab countries would have, by now, forced Israel to lift the Gaza siege and end the suffering of the 1.5 million Palestinians living there, if they had placed Tel Aviv regime under considerable pressure to abide," Khudari stated on Tuesday.

He also called on Arab and world states to support the Palestinians' cause, and commit themselves to end the Israeli aggression against the civilian population in the Gaza Strip.

The head of the Committee Against the Siege also raised alarms about the life-threatening issue of water pollution in the impoverished coastal sliver as a direct result of the Israeli-imposed blockade, which is made possible with the help of Egypt.

"Israeli authorities refused to allow waste water treatment equipment into the besieged strip. The measure will put the lives of more than 40 percent of Gaza children at risk," Khudari explained.

Israel imposed a crippling siege on the Gaza Strip in 2007 after the Hamas movement took full control of the territory, on the suspicion that the Palestinian Authority had devised a plot to topple the democratically-elected government of Prime Minister Ismail Haniyeh.

The Israeli army, meanwhile, launched a massive military offensive, titled Operation Cast Lead, against the coastal strip in December 2008 and continued pounding the area through January 2009.

More than 1,400 Palestinians were killed during the three-week offensive, which also inflicted USD 1.6 billion damage on the Gaza economy.

MP/MMN