U.N. notes increase in Israel roadblocks

[King Tech Quadafi]

JERUSALEM -        Israel's network of military checkpoints and road barriers in the        West Bank has grown by 40 percent in the past year, part of an increasingly sophisticated system of controls that disrupts all aspects of Palestinian life, a U.N. agency said Wednesday.

 These physical obstacles are carving up the West Bank into separate parts, with travel between them becoming more and more difficult, said David Shearer, head of the U.N.'s Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs in Jerusalem.

U.N. officials in Geneva, meanwhile, expressed concern about the ongoing closure of the        Gaza Strip, including the crossing between Gaza and Egypt.

"It cannot continue like it is now without a social explosion that will hurt everybody, including Israeli security," said Jan Egeland, the U.N. humanitarian chief.

The tightened travel restrictions come at a time of continued deadlock — both in efforts to restart an Israeli-Palestinian dialogue and a bid by Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas to form a more a pragmatic government that is acceptable to the international community.

The Hamas-led        Palestinian Authority has reiterated in recent days that it will not recognize Israel or renounce violence — key conditions for the lifting of an international aid boycott.

In Brussels, Belgium, the EU said Wednesday it had given $816 million in aid to the Palestinians this year, bypassing the Hamas government.

EU spokeswoman Emma Udwin said a two-day meeting of European experts agreed to expand the aid to cover 60,000 additional people in the Palestinian territories, from the 100,000 currently receiving help through the international fund overseen by the        World Bank.

Jacob Walles, the U.S. consul general in Jerusalem, said the United States is prepared to work with any Palestinian government that meets the international demands.

With Hamas refusing to compromise, it should make room for others, Walles said. "They should let another government come in, in some way, and accept the conditions," Walles told Palestinian reporters.

In the current climate, a meeting between Abbas and Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert also appeared increasingly unlikely, despite pledges by both a month ago that they are ready to meet without preconditions.

Abbas confidant Saeb Erekat said the Palestinian leader wants concrete achievements in such a meeting, including the release of some of the thousands of Palestinian prisoners Israel holds.

However, Israeli government spokeswoman Miri Eisin said Wednesday that she expects Olmert and Abbas to meet "toward the end of November" despite the current difficulties.

In Jerusalem, the U.N. agency, OCHA, said it has seen an increase of nearly 40 percent in the number of army checkpoints and physical barriers in the West Bank, from 376 in August 2005 to 528 in September of this year.

The West Bank's Jordan Valley is now entirely off limits to Palestinians who are not residents of that area, except for those with permits to work in the valley's Jewish settlements, Shearer said.

Israel is also pushing ahead with the construction of its separation barrier along, and in many areas inside the West Bank. The barrier eventually will run for 437 miles; 252 miles have been completed, including 27 miles in the past five months, Shearer said.

Some 50,000 Palestinians have found themselves on the wrong side of the barrier, meaning they are separated from the rest of the West Bank, Shearer said.

"We are seeing a continuing closing down, locking down of Palestinian areas," he said.

Tight travel restrictions also were in place during the height of the Palestinian uprising from 2000 to 2003, when dozens of suicide bombers carried out attacks in Israel.

"Since then it's become much more systematic, much more sophisticated in terms of monitoring Palestinian movement and closing Palestinian movement," he said.

"The West Bank, for example, is effectively being chopped up into three big areas ... and there are pockets within those areas where people also can't move."

Capt. Adam Avidan, spokesman for the military's civil administration in the West Bank, said in a statement that Israel tries "as much as possible to preserve the Palestinians' way of life and to avoid hurting innocent civilians in its war against terrorism."

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20061011/ap_on_re_mi_ea/israel_palestinians