GAZA, Oct. 26 (Xinhua) -- The Palestinian Islamic Jihad (PIJ) said on Tuesday that the calm in Israeli settlements is linked to the lifting of the Israeli blockade which has been imposed on the Gaza Strip for more than 14 years.
Ending the Israeli blockade imposed on the Gaza Strip "is not a gift from anyone and it is not a matter of negotiation or political blackmail," Zeyad al-Nakhala, leader of PIJ, told a rally organized by the group in Gaza city.
"The ongoing siege imposed on Gaza is a crime and an opened war waged against the Palestinian people all the time," he said, adding "this crime must end without prices, pledges or concessions."
Israel imposed a blockade on the Gaza Strip in 2007, right after the Islamic Resistance Movement (Hamas) had violently seized control of the coastal enclave and routed the security forces of Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas.
Meanwhile, several Palestinian factions in Gaza said in a joint press statement that they condemn the Israeli violations and measures in the West Bank and East Jerusalem, mainly the expansion of settlements.
The statement called for the escalation of mass protests in the West Bank against the Israeli government's policy of expanding settlements in the territory.
According to Israeli and Palestinian estimates, about 650,000 Israeli settlers live in 164 settlements and 124 outposts in the West Bank and East Jerusalem.
Israeli settlement is the thorniest issue in the Palestinian-Israeli conflict that contributed to the breakdown of the last round of direct peace negotiations between the two sides in 2014.
Israel occupied the West Bank and East Jerusalem, which are claimed by the Palestinians, in the 1967 Middle East war and has controlled them ever since. The Palestinians want to establish an independent state on these territories. Enditem