Bin Laden urges Muslims to fight Gaza closure

By Firouz Sedarat

DUBAI (Reuters) - Al Qaeda leader Osama bin Laden has urged Muslims to break the Israeli-led blockade of the Hamas-controlled Gaza Strip and fight Arab governments that deal with the Jewish state, according to an audio recording.

"The duty to break this blockade falls upon our brothers in (Egypt) as they are the only ones that are on the border," bin Laden said in the recording posted on Islamist websites on Sunday.

"Each one of us is responsible for the deaths of our oppressed people in Gaza and dozens upon dozens have died due to this oppressive blockade," he said.

Hamas gunmen blasted open the Rafah border crossing to Egypt for several days early in the year until the Egyptian authorities, reviled by bin Laden for their relations with Israel, moved in troops in February and closed it again.

The authenticity of the recording could not immediately be verified, but the voice sounded like bin Laden's previous tapes.

The recording, probably made days or weeks ago, appeared the day U.S. President George W. Bush ended a visit to the Middle East that he hopes will contribute to an Arab-Israeli peace settlement by the end of his presidency in January.

Bush angered many Arabs by lavishing praise on the Jewish state on its 60th anniversary, hailing it as a "homeland for the chosen people".

Israel, which withdrew settlers from the Gaza Strip in 2005, sees militant activity on its territory as a threat to Israeli security. It has shut down traffic across its borders, causing severe economic hardship in the overcrowded area ruled by the Islamist Hamas movement.