DARLENE SUPERVILLE
Associated Press Writer
WASHINGTON – With tensions newly heightened in the Middle East, President Barack Obama and Palestinian leader Mahmoud Abbas were set to discuss Israel’s blockade of Gaza and the humanitarian and economic hardship facing the people there.
Obama and Abbas were to confer in the Oval Office on Wednesday during a meeting that was put on the president’s schedule before Israel’s May 31 raid on a flotilla hoping to break the blockade. Nine men in the flotilla were killed, including eight Turks and a Turkish American.
Israel says its soldiers opened fire only after they were set upon by a mob of pro-Palestinian activists. The activists and their supporters blame Israel, saying its commandos began shooting unnecessarily.