Mohammed Dahlan, Palestinian Authority Minister of State for Security Affairs, stated today that Israeli officials have refused to open all Gaza roads for Palestinian security and civilian access, citing the need not to inconvenience the illegal Israeli settler population’s ability to enter and exit the Gaza Strip.

“Road Map progress is being held hostage by the Gaza settlers,” said Dahlan. “The Israeli government apparently believes that the desire of 8,000 Israelis to occupy Gaza supercedes the rights of millions of Israelis and Palestinians to live in peace,” he continued.

In discussions with Israeli officials this week, Dahlan stressed that the Palestinian Authority cannot assume security control if Israel continues to control the Gaza Strip’s 1.2 million Palestinian residents. Dahlan offered to assume security control if, in addition to a number of confidence building measures such as ending assassinations, Israel removes (i) all blockades along Saladin Street (the principal north-south Gaza Strip thoroughfare upon which civilian movement and economic development depends) and (ii) the Abu Holi military checkpoint which severs the northern and southern Gaza Strip. The Abu Holi military checkpoint, which is used daily by more than 200,000 Gazans routinely forced to wait hours to pass, serves no legitimate security purpose given the recently completed by-pass bridge used by Israeli settlers to reach Israel.

Israel rejected the Palestinian offer.

The Gaza Strip, one of the most densely populated areas in the world, is home to approximately 1.2 million Palestinians, of which 80% are refugees who were expelled or fled from what became Israel in 1948. In addition, approximately 8,000[1] Israeli settlers live illegally in the Occupied Gaza Strip and control approximately 20% of Gaza Strip territory.