EU plans direct Palestinian aid

Finally, the Palestinians are receiving some aid.

EU plans direct Palestinian aid

The EU is the biggest donor to the Palestinians

The EU plans to resume direct economic aid to the Palestinian Authority to support the new Fatah-led government, foreign policy head Javier Solana says.

But direct payments will not resume for the moment as the EU wants to see proper financial mechanisms in place.

President Mahmoud Abbas named an emergency cabinet excluding Hamas after it seized control of the Gaza Strip.

The EU and US imposed an embargo on the previous government after the Islamist group's election victory 18 months ago.

Mr Solana's comments came after Israel said it would be prepared to ease economic sanctions now that Hamas played no official role in the Palestinian government.

In Gaza, there were reports that the territory's 1.3 million residents faced shortages of food and other essential supplies.

But an Israeli fuel company, Dor Alon, said it had restored normal fuel supplies to the Gaza Strip after Palestinians protested against an earlier suspension, a move the company said had been co-ordinated with the Israeli military.

'Direct relationship'

Speaking before a meeting of foreign ministers in Luxembourg, Mr Solana said the EU would be prepared to make some direct payments to the government of the new Palestinian Prime Minister, Salam Fayyad, in the future.

Mr Fayyad, widely respected among international organisations and donors, served as finance minister in the previous administration.

"No doubt part of it will go through the account that when he was minister of finance he had established and he will have kept as prime minister, so it will be a direct relationship with the government," Mr Solana said.

"It is very important that he is able to construct a budget, and through that budget he will be able to help both people in Gaza and the West Bank."

Mr Solana added that the EU also planned to deliver economic aid to Palestinians in Gaza, but this would be channelled through the UN or an existing Temporary International Mechanism that bypasses Hamas.

"In order to help the Palestinian people in Gaza, we will need some mechanism that cannot be direct support," he said.

Let us hope that the civilians in Gaza are not alienated just because of a radical fundamentalist.

Lebanon camp clashes

More people are dying from the clashes between the Lebanese army and Fatah al-Islam militants who are currently beseiging a Palestinian refugee camp in Lebanon. So far, 100 people have died, including civilians.

The UN says about 25,000 people have fled the camp but some of the 31,000 original residents remain trapped inside.

The army said some of the militants were using civilians as human shields and called on the militants to surrender.

This is the background story of what's going on. Basically, Fatah al-Islam appears to be a new militant group that follows al-Qaeda's radical ideology.

The leader of Fatah al-Islam, Shaker al-Abssi, had reported links with Abu Musab Zarqawi, who led al-Qaeda in Iraq until he was killed last year.

On the other hand, the Lebanese government perceives Fatah al-Islam to be Syrian intelligence, though the Syria government denies all links.

The government regards Fatah al-Islam as an instrument of Syrian intelligence. It believes the timing of the current crisis is linked to efforts to set up an international tribunal into the killing in 2005 of former Lebanese Prime Minister Rafik Hariri.

Syria denies involvement in the assassination, but its critics suspect it is trying to destabilise Lebanon in order to block the creation of the tribunal.

Which is the truth?