国际英语新闻：Palestinians mark 1,000 days of Israel's blockade on Gaza

GAZA, March 7 (Xinhua) -- The Palestinians in the Gaza Strip, which is ruled by Islamic Hamas movement, on Sunday marked 1,000 days for the tight Israeli blockade imposed on the narrow impoverished enclave, where Palestinian officials said that 1.5 million people are facing a "slow death."

The Gaza-based independent lawmaker Jamal al-Khudari, who is the head of the Popular Committee to challenge the Israeli siege told a news conference in Gaza that the population of the Gaza Strip are facing a "slow death" due to the tight Israeli blockade imposed on the enclave for 1,000 days.

Israel imposed a blockade on the Gaza Strip after Hamas militants kidnapped in June 2006 the Israeli Corporal Gilad Shalit in a cross-border raid southeast Gaza. Israel tightened the blockade and shut down all its crossing points with Gaza after the movement seized control of the territory in June 2007.

However, and as an outcome of the European and U.S. pressures on the Jewish state, Israel has been partially opening the crossing points on its borders with the Gaza Strip to allow humanitarian aid, fuels and cooking gas, in addition to allowing Gaza farmers to export their flowers and strawberries.

The popular committee, chaired by al-Khudari, had built up a monument for the victims of the Israeli blockade in western Gaza City. Al-Khudari, who held his news conference to mark 1,000 days of the blockade at the monument, told reporters "the Israeli siege undermined all aspects of life in the Gaza Strip."