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| By: Associated Press |
| Published: March 27, 2006 |
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Israel's liaison officers in the West Bank will stop dealing with the Palestinian Authority after the Hamas Cabinet takes office and switch their focus to international organizations and ordinary Palestinians, an Israeli official said Sunday.
Since Hamas won Jan. 25 Palestinian elections, Israeli leaders have said they would cut off all contacts with the Palestinian government if the militant group did not recognize Israel's right to exist and renounce violence. Hamas officials, who are expected to take office later this week, have so far refused the demands.
Last month, Acting Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert announced that Israel would stop transferring to the Palestinian Authority more than US$50 million a month in taxes it collects on its behalf.
Shlomo Dror, an Israeli military spokesman on Palestinian affairs, said that the liaison offices throughout the West Bank will continue functioning after the Cabinet takes office, but will stop working with the Palestinian Authority.
The office will no longer work with the Palestinian Ministry of Labor, but will deal with individual Palestinian workers, Dror said. It also will deal with medical emergencies through hospitals and aid groups, not the government, he said.
"The liaison office is going to continue to operate," he said.
"We will try to work as much as possible through the international organizations. We will try to promote humanitarian projects. But we will not assist any kind of work that assists the Palestinian Authority or Hamas," Dror said.
Israeli will also reduce its relations with the Gaza Strip, which it pulled out of last year, to a minimum, he said. |
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