UNITED NATIONS, Feb. 27 (UPI) -- The Middle East peace process must persevere despite recent setbacks, U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon said.
Challenges include Israeli military operations and Palestinian suicide attacks targeting Israeli civilians, Ban said Tuesday at the 2007 session of the U.N. Committee on the Exercise of the Inalienable Rights of the Palestinian People, meeting at U.N. World Headquarters in New York.
"We are at a critical juncture in efforts to move beyond crisis management, and renew efforts toward genuine conflict resolution," Ban said. Palestinians want freedom and independence while Israelis desire security, yet "neither can achieve their legitimate demands without a settlement of the conflict," he added.
Israel launched military operations, imposed severe movement restrictions and, after the defeat of Fatah in last year's elections, withheld the Palestinian Authority's tax and customs revenues. Experts said such actions have bolstered the humanitarian crisis in the occupied Palestinian territory.
Meanwhile, rocket and suicide attacks on Israeli civilians have only resulted in tightened restrictions on Palestinians by Israelis.
In addition, the agreement to form a new Palestinian unity government challenges the international community to "match the courage and compromises" shown by the rival parties with "bold steps of its own," said Karen Koning Abu-Zayd, commissioner-general, U.N. Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees, during a meeting of the agency's advisory commission in Amman, Jordan.
"The inter-factional fighting that raged across parts of Gaza posed a genuine threat to the existence of the Palestinian polity," she said.
