The new Palestinian foreign minister from Hamas said Tuesday he was invited to visit China as part of a planned tour through Asia next month. The foreign minister, Mahmoud Zahar, announced the trip after meeting with the Chinese envoy to the Palestinian Authority, Yang Wei Guo.
in addition, Zahar has also received invitations from several Arab states, including Egypt, which he intends to visit next week. His trip to China during May would be the first to a non-Arab state.
Meanwhile, Israel kept the Karni (Mintar) crossing closed on Tuesday, despite warnings by United Nations aid organizations that the Gaza Strip is on the verge of a humanitarian disaster.
David Shearer, head of the UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA), told Israeli Foreign Ministry officials that if there is no change in the situation, Gaza Strip will face a humanitarian crisis as bad as the one in Kosovo, Haaretz reported.
A recent report by the UN Relief and Works Agency (UNRWA) has warned of a lack of basic food supplies due to the frequent closures of the Karni crossing. The report also indicated there has been a sharp increase in the number of hungry people since financial aid has been halted.
World Bank statistics have indicated that if there is no significant change, 75 percent of Palestinians will be below the poverty line within two years. The current rate is 56 percent, compared to 22 percent in 2000.
