The ongoing closure of the Gaza Strip and the existence of a Hamas administration there prevent the salient from benefiting from a development plan the Palestinians will submit to Monday's conference of donor states, a Palestinian official said Sunday.Mohammed Shteia, director of the Palestinian Authority's Economic Council for Development & Reconstruction (PECDAR) said the provisions in the plan involving the Strip "cannot be implemented" for these reasons.
Western donors "refuse to deal with Hamas and implementing projects in the Gaza Strip will be difficult under the siege," he told Voice of Palestine Radio.
More than 90 countries and international institutions will meet in Paris Monday to discuss funding the PA. The acting Palestinian government will put forward a three-year development plan that requires 5.6 billion dollars to implement.
Israel's closure of the Gaza Strip, implemented after militant groups snatched an Israeli soldier in a cross-border raid last year, was tightened in June this year after Hamas gunmen routed forces loyal to President Mahmoud Abbas and seized unchallenged control of the coastal enclave.
Western countries instituted economic and diplomatic sanctions against the Islamist movement after it won the 2006 Palestinian elections and refused demands to renounce violence and recognise Israel. Shteia's comments Sunday came in response to criticism of the development plan by a Gaza-based human rights organisation.
"The plan will lead to impoverishing Gaza Strip where the unemployment rates are already high and where the humanitarian situation is very dangerous," the al-Dameer Centre for Human Rights said.
Shteia however said the development plan regarded the Gaza Strip and West Bank as one united geographic unit "and adopted the needs of the Palestinian Territories."
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