Israeli roadblocks in the West Bank up sharply, UN says

JERUSALEM -- Israel's network of military checkpoints and road barriers in the West Bank has grown by 40 percent in the past year, part of an increasingly sophisticated system of controls that disrupts all aspects of Palestinian life, a UN agency said yesterday.

These physical obstacles are carving up the West Bank into separate parts, with travel between them becoming more and more difficult, said David Shearer, head of the UN's Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs in Jerusalem.

UN officials in Geneva, meanwhile, expressed concern about the ongoing closure of the Gaza Strip, including the crossing between Gaza and Egypt.

``It cannot continue like it is now without a social explosion that will hurt everybody, including Israeli security," said Jan Egeland, the UN humanitarian chief.

The tightened travel restrictions come at a time of continued deadlock -- both in efforts to restart an Israeli-Palestinian dialogue and a bid by Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas to form a more a pragmatic government that is acceptable to the international community.

The Hamas-led Palestinian Authority has reiterated in recent days that it will not recognize Israel or renounce violence -- key conditions for the lifting of an international aid boycott.

In Brussels, the EU said yesterday it had given $816 million in aid to the Palestinians this year, bypassing the Hamas government.

EU spokeswoman Emma Udwin said a two-day meeting of European specialists agreed to expand the aid to cover 60,000 additional people in the Palestinian territories, from the 100,000 currently receiving help through the international fund overseen by the World Bank.

Jacob Walles, the US consul general in Jerusalem, said the United States is prepared to work with any Palestinian government that meets the international demands.

With Hamas refusing to compromise, it should make room for others, Walles said.

``They should let another government come in, in some way, and accept the conditions," Walles told Palestinian reporters.

In Jerusalem, the UN humanitarian office said it has seen an increase of nearly 40 percent in the number of army checkpoints and physical barriers in the West Bank, from 376 in August 2005 to 528 in September of this year.