Austria urges Israel to end Gaza siege

Austria has urged Israel to put an end to a three-year-long blockade of the Gaza Strip, calling for improvement of living conditions in the coastal sliver.

“We want Israel to end the embargo of the Gaza Strip,” Austria’s Chancellor Werner Faymann said in a joint news conference with Israeli President Shimon Peres on Thursday.

“We have to improve the situation, the living situation of people in Gaza Strip. To support people in the Gaza Strip and improve their living conditions it’s necessary to end the blockade,” Reuters quoted the Austrian chancellor as saying.

Faymann arrived in Israel on Wednesday and met with Foreign Minister Avigdor Lieberman and opposition leader Tzipi Livni.

He also met with acting Palestinian Authority Chief Mahmud Abbas on Thursday.

Israel has recently come under severe international criticism over its brutal attack on the Gaza Freedom Flotilla aid convoy on May 31, which left nine human rights activists dead and more than 50 others injured.