Palestinian Foreign Minister Ziad Abu Amr said Wednesday that the recent deadly clashes between Hamas and Fatah were a result of pressures imposed by outside forces.
"If you have two brothers, put them in a cage and deprive them of basic and essential needs for life, they will fight," Abu Amr told a news conference in Tokyo. "We need to undo the very problematic situation that mainly others have created."
Abu Amr, an independent in the Palestinian government, blamed the fighting on the deprivations forced upon Palestinians.
"We really live in a cage," he said. "People cannot move in Gaza. They can't travel. There's no work. There's no normal life."
"If Gaza disintegrates, subsequent negotiations with the Israelis would be jeopardized," Abu Amr was quoted as saying by a Foreign Ministry official who briefed reporters afterward. "The situation is extremely grave."
