MESHAAL URGES TO BREAK SILENCE ON GAZA

The political chief of the Palestinian Hamas movement on denounced Arab and Islamic states for keeping silent over Israel’s blockade of the Gaza Strip. “What is happening in the Gaza Strip is a tragedy. Shame on those who stay silent on the criminal blockade that has been imposed on Gaza. Shame on Arab and Islamic regimes and on the international community,” Khaled Meshaal told a meeting in Syria on the right of return for Palestinian refugees – a right enshrined in international law. “Every Arab country could send a boat to Gaza” to break the blockade imposed since Hamas won parliamentary elections in 2006, Meshaal said. In a speech Meshaal said the return of Palestinian refugees to a homeland now under Israeli occupation was “a natural right guaranteed under international law. Anyone who compromises on the right of return is party to a great crime.” According to the official SANA news agency, the two-day Damascus meeting is being attended by Arab and foreign personalities, clerics and representatives of political parties.