2007-06-14 17:14:00 -
BRUSSELS, Belgium (AP) - The EU suspended its humanitarian aid projects in the Gaza Strip Thursday as the stridently anti-Israel Islamic Hamas movement moved closer to wresting control over the area, raising the prospect of a collapse of the Fatah-Hamas coalition government.
The EU favors Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas, whose Fatah organization is seen in
Europe as more moderate and open to dialogue about creating a Palestinian state living in peace next to Israel.
The United States and the EU cut official aid to the Palestinians when Hamas, which is sworn to Israel's destruction, took office in March, 2006. But the EU then launched an alternate aid scheme for Palestinian hardship cases _ such as public servants who went unpaid as outside aid evaporated _ that bypasses the government.
That ad-hoc, World Bank-monitored deal, is due to expire in September. As the violence escalated this week in Gaza there were calls for an early resumption of regular, direct aid to the Fatah-Hamas coalition government that was installed in March.
«We are for a resumption of direct aid to the Palestinian Authority,» French Foreign Ministry spokesman Jean-Baptiste Mattei told The Associated Press in Paris. «We've been talking about it for some time, and in our minds it should happen very quickly.
If disbands the Palestinian coalition government, he will likely remain the key point of contact for the Europeans, EU officials said.
«The EU is going to support the decisions Abbas will take,» said Cristina Gallach, spokeswoman for EU foreign and security affairs chief Javier Solana.
The EU's preference for Fatah responds to pleas from Israel that Europe must deal only with moderates in the Middle East. Also, the EU has placed Hamas on its list of terrorist organizations.
When the «national unity» government emerged, the EU agreed to deal only with its Fatah members, but Israel has refused to talk with any government that includes Hamas. On Monday, Israeli Foreign Minister Tzipi Livni will meet with the EU foreign ministers in Luxembourg.
Micheal Emerson, an associate research fellow at the Brussels-based Centre for European Policy Studies said «the EU made a bad mistake to agree with the United States to blackball Hamas. But that is now a situation that is difficult to undo because there is a civil war (in Palestinian areas).
EU External Relations Commissioner Benita Ferrero-Waldner said the EU was «alarmed by the ferocity of the recent clashes in Gaza,» adding the area's bleak social and economic conditions were stoking «extremism and violence.
Separately, EU Humanitarian Aid Commissioner Louis Michel announced a halt to 16 EU relief projects in Gaza «because of lack of security.
EU humanitarian operations in Gaza and the West Bank totaled ¤84 million ($110 million) last year. So far this year, it has earmarked euro60 million ($80 million). Additionally, the EU has funneled hundreds of millions of euros in emergency aid to poor Palestinians, «social allowances» to jobless civil servants and aid to public services such as hospitals through the ad-hoc aid plan.
On Thursday, Hamas fighters overran one of the Fatah movement's most important security installations in the Gaza Strip and witnesses said the victors dragged vanquished gunmen from the building and executed them in the street. The capture of the Preventive Security headquarters was a major step forward in Hamas' attempts to complete its takeover of all of Gaza. Scores of people, most of them militants, have been killed since Sunday in the Gaza strip.
«This is a time when people desperately need protection and support. The warring parties must respect the principles of international humanitarian law,» said EU Humanitarian Aid Commissioner Louis Michel.
Meanwhile, the Rafah border crossing between Egypt and the Gaza Strip, monitored by an EU mission since November 2005, has been closed since June 9 due to security concerns, an official said. The cargo crossing at Karni between Israel and the Gaza Strip has also been closed.
«I can't tell you when the border will next be open. Since 2005 we have been open only 20 percent of the time,» Maria Telleria, spokeswoman for the EU mission at Rafah, said in a telephone interview.
«The situation is quite difficult. At this moment we're on standby,» she said.
The mission monitors, verifies and evaluates the Palestinian Authority's border guards at the Rafah passenger terminal, which opened after Israel's 2005 pullout from Gaza to reassure an apprehensive Israel that Palestinian inspectors would prevent the smuggling of weapons and militants.
Results, however, have been mixed, amid frequent closings forced by Israel due to security concerns. Although the Palestinians run the crossing, Israel still has final say over whether it operates.
Telleria said the EU mission «has been under pressure in the last year from Israel.
Associated Press Writer Jan Sliva contributed to this report
