Gaza - Around 300 Gaza figures, including independent politicians and intellectuals, are to form a lobby to improve daily life in the salient in the face of an ongoing Israeli blockade, the organization, the Palestinian Lobby Group, announced Saturday. Talal Aoukal, spokesman for the group, said in a statement that the aim of the lobbying group was to ease the blockade and resolve problems that resulted from the internal rift between rival Palestinian groups Fatah and Hamas.
"We had already held five meetings on forming the group to resolve daily living problems ignored by political leaders such as the closure of crossings, water, electricity, education and healthcare," said Aoukal.
Israel has imposed a tight blockade on the Gaza Strip right after Islamic Hamas movement seized control of the Gaza Strip in June 2007. Israel closed down all commercial crossings with Gaza and only allowed humanitarian aid.
Egypt has also closed down Rafah border crossing with the Gaza Strip.
"The Lobbying Group won't be able to open any of the closed crossings, either with Egypt or with Israel," said Aoukal, "but we can at least apply pressure on the politicians to ease the horrible inhuman living conditions we suffer from."
He added that the group is not representing any political or factional group, "We are just a group of universities chiefs, independent politicians, writers and intellectuals."
"We are planning to hold contacts with all leaders of the political factions as well as with the two governments in Gaza and Ramallah and cooperate with them in order to resolve our daily difficulties of living," said Aoukal.
He added that conditions could never improve unless captive Israeli soldier Gilad Shalit was freed in exchange for Palestinian prisoners, and unless Hamas and Fatah reconcile.
