Mideast Quartet demands Israel ease blockade of Gaza, cease settlement activity

LONDON, May 2 (Xinhua) -- The international Middle East Quartet called on Israel Friday to freeze all settlement activity in the West Bank, UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon said after a Quartet meeting here.

In a statement issued after the meeting, the four powers "called on Israel to freeze all settlement activity including natural growth, and to dismantle outposts erected since March 2001."

The Quartet also called for continued emergency and humanitarian assistance and "the provision of essential services to Gaza without obstruction."

"The Quartet expressed its continuing concern over the closure of major Gaza crossing points given the impact on the Palestinian economy and daily life," the statement said.

The shortage of basic good, fuel and electricity has strangled Gaza's economy, and made life for its 1.5 million inhabitants "intolerable."

The Quartet also called on Arab states to honor their financial and political pledges made at a Paris conference in December 2007 to help the Palestinians.

Humanitarian conditions in Gaza deteriorated after Israel sealed the strip of land after the Islamist Hamas movement took over power in June 2007. Israel says the blockade was aimed at stopping Hamas rocket attacks into Israel.

The Mideast Quartet is comprised of the United States, Russia, the United Nations and the European Union.