RAMALLAH - An international mechanism to end the blockade imposed on the Gaza Strip might be formed within a few days, a Palestinian official said on Sunday. "There are international discussions on outlining a mechanism to lift the siege of Gaza in the coming days," Nabila Abu Rdineh, spokesman for Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas, said in an interview with local newspaper al-Ayyam. Abu Rdineh said that Abbas asked the US administration, during his visit to Washington last week, for a full lifting of the embargo. Following his meeting with Abbas, US President Barack Obama said that conditions in Gaza were "unsustainable" and called for easing Gaza blockade. He also promised 400 million US dollars in aid to the Gaza Strip. A three-year-long Israeli blockade has been imposed on the benighted territory after Hamas movement, Israel's bitter enemy, seized control of the enclave by force in 2007. Abu Rdineh said that "the Palestinian leadership has no knowledge about what the United States is going to do in this regard," but he also said that an American move is necessary and must be swift. "President Abbas told the US administration that lifting the Gaza blockade is not less important than peace talks," he said. "It's unacceptable, the United States and the international community should work jointly to end the siege." The forced isolation of the Gaza Strip drew international attention and demands to lift the blockade after Israeli forces killed nine activists onboard an aid flotilla bound for Gaza last month.
