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Israel placed restrictions on the flow of goods going in and out of Gaza, since Hamas took over the Strip from Fatah in violent coup in 2007.The situation has been exacerbated in the last year. Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas has taken economic measures against Gaza in hopes of forcing Hamas to relinquish control of the Strip.While addressing the AJC Global Forum on Monday, Mladenov said he would like to see a plan that exchanged economic assistance to Gaza with a Hamas pledge to refrain from violence against Israel.Such measures could be used “to get from those responsible for the situation in Gaza [Hamas] a commitment to keep the situation quiet and to keep security and reduce and the amount of rockets and attacks against Israel.”Army Radio suggested that Mladenov had told them he was not planning to prioritize the release of the bodies of two IDF soldiers as well as two other Israelis held in Gaza, as part of that plan.“Nothing comes for free.Unfortunately and I say this with great regret, today our focus being on preventing war and preventing a humanitarian disaster in Gaza, but I believe that if we improve the situation for people in Gaza we create a constituency, we create a basis through which to address all these other issues,” Mladenov said.Defense Minister Avigdor Liberman demanded on Tuesday that Israel exchange economic aid for the return to the hostages.“The return of the captives and missing soldiers opens a huge window that promises humanitarian and economic assistance for all the residents of Gaza,” Liberman said.In his Army Radio interview, Mladenov also pushed backed against the Israeli belief that the UN is biased on Israel, explaining that the international body’s efforts had helped rather than harmed Israel.“If we stop talking to both the Israelis and the Palestinians, I assure you the picture that will be presented of this conflict internationally will be far more difficult and far more biased,” Mladenov told Army Radio.He added that he believed it would be difficult to move forward on the peace process at this time. The international community should do its best create conditions to allow for such talks to be productive, he said.“If you take Prime Minister [Benjamin] Netanyahu and [Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas] Abu Mazen today and you put them in the same room, there is little they can negotiate.“What we need to do is to make sure that we support both the Israelis and the Palestinians to make the conditions that would make such a meeting meaningful and such a discussion productive,” Mladenov added.
U.N. Envoy: Another Gaza war could spark a regional conflict
Mladenov explained that the UN has had a critical role in reducing the possibility of an outbreak of violence in Gaza.
