· Agencies demand ‘highest diplomatic pressure’
· Settlement expansion must stop – Palestinian PM

Israel will be urged today to ease its blockade of the Gaza Strip to
avert a humanitarian disaster as the Middle East “quartet” meets to
consider the state of the faltering peace process.

Oxfam and five
other UK aid agencies are calling for the quartet to end its
“complacency” by putting the “highest diplomatic pressure” on Israel
over its strategy of isolating the Islamist movement Hamas at meetings
in London on the Annapolis negotiations and Palestinian economic
development in the West Bank.

“The collective complacency of the
quartet is putting the future of the people of Gaza on the line,” said
Oxfam GB director Barbara Stocking. “We need the fuel, humanitarian
supplies and essential equipment withheld by Israel for more than nine
months to ease this human suffering and avert a disaster.

“It is
well within the power of the EU and the US to make this happen … They
should insist on an immediate end to Gaza’s suffering.”

But there
is no sign that the quartet – the US, Russia, the EU and the UN – will
drop the principle of boycotting Hamas while Israeli officials and some
western diplomats blame the group for attacking the Gaza crossing
points and not distributing available fuel. The EU recently noted
Hamas’s “share” in the crisis.

Salam Fayyad, the western-backed
Palestinian prime minister, warned separately yesterday that Israel
must freeze all settlement activity and ease restrictions on movement
in the West Bank if peace talks are to have any chance of succeeding.
Fayyad also called on Israel to alleviate the “catastrophic” crisis in
Gaza.

“Unfortunately, in the five months since Annapolis, Israel
has done little, most significantly with its continued noncompliance
with the obligation to freeze all settlement activity in the occupied
Palestinian territories,” Fayyad said. “The language is very clear: it
says ‘not one more brick,’ and we have witnessed expanded settlement
activity.”

If that did not change quickly the peace process would be “devoid of any meaningful content,” Fayyad added.

Israel
and the Palestinians pledged at the US-hosted summit last November to
reach agreement by the end of 2008. But there is profound and growing
scepticism on all sides.

Fayyad’s uncharacteristically sharp
remarks will add to pressure on Israel. Ban Ki-moon, the UN secretary
general, and from Saudi Arabia and other Arab states are expected to
urge Israel to ease the Gaza crisis by opening border crossings to food
and fuel deliveries.

Egypt is leading intensifying diplomatic
activity to bring about a six-month ceasefire between Israel and Hamas
as well as smaller factions such as Islamic Jihad which have been
firing rockets across the border. Israel expects any package to include
the release of Gilad Shalit, a soldier who was captured by Palestinian
fighters nearly two years ago.

Some Israeli officials argue
that the siege is working, that Hamas is under pressure and that Israel
should not “reward” it. “The situation is catastrophic and everything
that can be done should be done,” said Fayyad. “The alternative to a
ceasefire is 1.5million Palestinians continuing to live in a state of
utter despair. The dynamic has to change otherwise we are in the realm
of instability that will produce nothing but disaster.”

Tony
Blair, the quartet’s envoy, has tried to reduce the number of Israeli
roadblocks and checkpoints in the West Bank but the latest UN figures
show Israel has removed just five of nearly 600 obstacles.

Fayyad,
a former World Bank economist, is favoured by the west and Israel for
his commitment to improve governance and boost the economy with the
help of $7.7bn pledged at a Paris conference Blair convened last
December. But he said Israeli military incursions were undermining the
ability of Palestinian security forces, trained in Jordan, to control
the West Bank – as Israel ostensibly wants.

“It’s a dreadful
situation but there are things we can do to improve the context in
which we are operating. The economic leg is hugely important. But this
is a political conflict that requires a political solution.”