The EU Commissioner for Development and Humanitarian Aid warned on Thursday that conditions were worsening in the Palestinian territories, and asked Israel to ease restrictions on movement.
"The humanitarian situation in the Palestinian territories is deteriorating a lot," Louis Michel told a news conference as he continued the first leg of a regional tour.
"I remember when I came one year ago in the region, it was already awful and difficult, but now I think it is deteriorating."
He said restrictions on movement that Israel imposed in the territories, citing security, were partly to blame.
"I show a very high concern for the security of Israel," Michel said. "I know it is not an easy life to be under the danger of terror attacks... but at the same time when I see walls, when I see the fences and when I see the barriers, of course I can easily imagine it has very bad consequences on the daily life of the people in the Palestinian territories."
"So my first concern... is to see how we can improve the access and the movement of the people."
The Palestinian territories have been reeling from the effects of a ban on direct aid to the government that the European Union and the United States imposed a year ago, when the Islamist Hamas movement formed a cabinet.
The European Union, the largest donor of aid to the Palestinians, has since funnelled aid money through a special mechanism that bypasses the government, meaning that tens of thousands of civil servants have gone without full pay.
The direct aid ban has had "dramatic consequences, because... the salaries were not paid any more," Michel said.
He also said an Arab peace proposal revived at a summit in Riyadh last month could "be a good opportunity to relaunch (peace) discussions."
"This proposal can be useful if the Arab organisations can explain properly the content of the proposal and.. the aim of the proposal to the Israeli government," he said.
Michel is due on Friday to continue a regional tour that will also take him to Jordan and Syria.
Source: Yahoo! News.
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