CAIRO: Foreign Minister Ahmed Aboul Gheit said an Arab force for the Gaza Strip could help end violence in the impoverished territory, the official news agency MENA reported on Saturday.
However the minister, in a magazine interview, stopped short of making a direct appeal for the deployment of such a force in the Hamas-controlled Gaza Strip.
“The presence of an Arab force in the territory could help stop violence and end the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, he said in the interview, excerpts of which were published by MENA.
Aboul Gheit said the idea warrants careful study “and deserves to be taken seriously.
Egypt is sponsoring unity talks between the Islamist Hamas and Fatah, the rival movement of secular Palestinian president Mahmoud Abbas.
Hamas seized power in Gaza after routing forces loyal to Abbas in June last year and tension between the rivals bursts periodically into bouts of bloodletting.
In response, Israel sealed off the tiny coastal territory to all but very limited humanitarian supplies.
Israel says the sanctions aim to put pressure on Palestinian group who fired rockets and mortar rounds at southern Israel almost daily before a truce took effect on June 19.
Aboul Gheit stressed that his suggestion cannot take form until Palestinian unity is restored and “after an appropriate study is carried out.
He stressed that Egypt and the Arab League “could play a role in this matter.
Hamas and Egypt temporarily opened the Rafah crossing to Gaza on Saturday for the first time in weeks, allowing some 2,000 Gazans to cross into Egypt or to return to the Gaza Strip.
Rafah in southern Gaza is the territory s only border crossing that is not under Israeli control. -AFP
