Israel ratchets up terrorist attacks on Palestinians in Gaza
By IBRAHIM BARZAK, Associated Press Writer Mon Jan 21, 3:47 PM ETIsrael said Monday it will ease a blockade of Gaza imposed in retaliation for militant rocket attacks, allowing some food and fuel in for one day. The announcement followed a U.N. warning that international food aid to the impoverished territory may have to be suspended by the weekend.
On Sunday, Gaza’s Hamas rulers shut the strip’s power plant, leaving one-third of the 1.5 million people without electrity. Gas stations and many bakeries closed, and health officials warned of an impending crisis in hospitals running low on generator fuel.
Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert strongly defended the blockade.
He told legislators from his Kadima Party he will not allow a humanitarian crisis to develop. But he said Gaza’s residents won’t be able to live a “pleasant and comfortable life” as long as southern Israel is under rocket attack.
“As far as I’m concerned, Gaza residents will walk, without gas for their cars, because they have a murderous, terrorist regime that doesn’t let people in southern Israel live in peace,” Olmert said.
Even after agreeing to the one-time shipments, Israeli Defense Minister Ehud Barak maintained a tough tone.
“I care more about our quiet than their quiet,” he said.
Gaza’s Hamas government issued emotional appeals to the Arab world, and demanded that Egypt open its border with Gaza to allow in supplies.
“We are asking Arab and Muslim nations not to leave the Palestinians alone to face the terrorist country of America and the Zionist entity,” said Gaza’s Hamas member, Mahmoud Zahar, in a televised speech.
Israeli Foreign Ministry spokesman Arye Mekel said enough fuel would be shipped to power the Gaza electric plant for a week, as well as fuel for hospital generators and cooking gas. Also 50 truckloads of humanitarian aid, including medicine, will be allowed in.Hamas spokesman Sami Abu Zuhri dismissed the gesture.
“This does not mean the end of the siege on Gaza,” he said, pledging to continue to fight “until we break the siege.”
Offering a possible solution, moderate Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas offered to take control of the Gaza crossings from the Palestinian side. One of the reasons Israel closed the crossings was its refusal to deal with Hamas officials in Gaza.
Hamas official Fawzi Barhoum said Hamas would study the proposal. If implemented, it would give Abbas his first foothold in Gaza since Hamas ran his forces out in June. The Hamas-Israel fighting has embarrassed Abbas, who was under growing pressure at home to suspend the recently restarted peace talks with Israel. However, Abbas aides said the talks would not be halted.
Hamas organized several protests Monday to underscore the suffering of ordinary people.
Sixty empty fuel trucks lined up along the Gaza-Egypt border in a protest by gas station owners who demanded that Egypt and Israel lift the closure. Also at the border, hundreds including doctors in white coats, Hamas lawmakers and ambulance drivers staged a march.
“Why are Arab countries partners to this embargo?” said Marwan Abu Ras, a Hamas lawmaker.
The power outage mainly affected Gaza City, which receives its electricity from Gaza’s only power plant. Other areas of Gaza are supplied directly by Israel and Egypt and those services were not interrupted.
Israeli officials charged that Hamas was creating a false crisis and could resume the power supply if it wanted.
On Monday, hospital generators in Gaza City still had enough fuel. But a U.N. agency warned they would run out in a matter of days if supplies are not replenished.
International food aid may have to be suspended by the weekend, said Chris Gunness, spokesman of the U.N. Relief and Works Agency, which distributes food to 860,000 Palestinian refugees in Gaza. The World Food Program, which gives food to another 270,000 Gaza residents, said it would suspend distribution by Thursday because distribution trucks would run out of fuel.
“We are all in a very vulnerable situation because of limited supplies,” said John Ging, head of UNRWA.
Gaza City residents lined up outside the few open bakeries.
“I’m going to buy something that my family can keep for only two days because there is no electricity and no refrigerator,” said shopper Mohammed Salman. “We cannot keep anything longer than that.”
The closure was imposed after a spike in rocket fire on Israeli border communities following a small Israeli ground operation in Gaza. Daily rocket fire into southern Israeli communities has virtually paralyzed life there.
Five rockets were fired on Sunday, down from 53 in the previous two days.
“We think Hamas got the message,” said Mekel, the Foreign Ministry spokesman. “As we have seen in the past couple of days, when they want to stop the rockets, they can.”
But Israeli Defense Ministry spokesman Shlomo Dror said a reduction in rocket attacks was not enough for Israel to ease the closure.
“If we open the crossings again tomorrow, there will be rockets that fall again on Israel,” Dror said. “They don’t want to recognize Israel and want to destroy Israel — that’s their problem. They shouldn’t expect that we will help them destroy us.”
