Israeli Occupation Government Violates Truce by Closing Gaza Border Crossings, a Palestinian Farmer Injured by Israeli Occupation Forces east of Khan Younis

80-year-old farmer shot by Israeli occupation forces near Khan Younis

Date: 25 / 06 / 2008  Time:  11:52
Gaza - Ma'an -

Recent Israeli operations threaten to demolish the seven-day-old truce.

Israeli occupation forces shot 80-year-old farmer Salem Abu Raidah just east of Khan Younis on Wednesday morning. Raidah was transferred to hospital and is in serious condition.

This injury marks the second shooting of a civilian by Israeli occupation forces during the seven days since the truce agreement was signed between Israel and Hamas. On Monday afternoon - the fifth day of the truce - 67-year-old Jamil Abdel Rahman Al-Ghoul was shot and injured by Israeli forces in the north of the Gaza Strip, while he was in his garden, and was taken to hospital in serious condition.

On the first day of the truce, Israeli occupation soldiers shot at fishermen on their boats off-shore in Gaza, and were reported to have shot at civilians near the eastern fence of the Gaza Strip causing the death of one cow owned by a Palestinian farmer.

A third man was shot when Israeli occupation forces invaded the West Bank city of Nablus and assassinated a leader of the Al-Quds brigades, the main military wing of Islamic Jihad, on Tuesday. The man died as a result of the injury.

These breaches of the Egyptian brokered truce were largely ignored by West Bank and Gaza residents, in the hope of preventing Israel from demolishing the agreement and ending the atrocities in Gaza. Despite efforts, Gazans continue to wait for the end of the blockade.

Crossings close in response to projectile launches

In response to the Nablus assassination, however, the brigades launched a number of projectiles at Sderot. In answer to the incident, Israeli Defense minister Ehud Barak ordered the closing of all crossings into the Gaza Strip. This will further stifle the flow of necessary goods being shipped into the markets of the Gaza Strip. Throughout the year long blockade Gazans have been deprived of most essential living supplies.

According to sources in the general administration of crossings in the Gaza Strip, Israel had committed to a 30% increase in goods shipped into the area. According to this agreement, the tenth day of the truce would see an additional increase in the stream of supplies entering Gaza.

The same sources said that by Tuesday evening, 72.5 truckloads of goods had been allowed to pass through the crossings. At Karni crossing, Israeli troops were only letting in loads of grain and fodder, while the Kerem Shalom crossing has remained closed throughout the seven days of the truce.

Barak orders closure of all Gaza crossings

Date: 25 / 06 / 2008  Time:  10:24
Bethlehem - Ma'an -

Israeli occupation government defense minister, Ehud Barak, on Monday evening ordered the closure of all the crossings into the Gaza Strip in response to the projectile attacks on the Western Negev and Sderot on Monday.

The Israeli occupation government prime minister, Ehud Olmert, has discussed with Barak possible Israeli retaliation for Monday’s projectile attacks.

Official Israeli sources previously confirmed that they considered the attacks as a breach of the 6-day-old truce between Israel and Palestinian resistance factions.

The Middle East Quartet called on Tuesday for calm after the truce between Israel and Hamas faltered, following the launch of projectiles from the Gaza Strip, and two Palestinians were killed in the West Bank city of Nablus by Israeli forces.

In a statement the Quartet said that it "urges complete commitment to the truce" and expressed hope that the truce would still stand and work.

Hamas said they considered the Israeli decision to close the crossings as an Israeli violation of the truce.

Hamas spokesperson Sami Abu Zuhri called on all the Palestinian factions that signed up to the truce sides to press Israel to commit to the agreement. He pointed out that Israeli soliders shot and wounded a Palestinian farmer on Wednesday morning, east of Khan Younis.

Spokesperson of the de-facto government Taher Nunu said in a statement, “closing crossings and shooting the Palestinian farmer are clear violations of the truce agreement.”

Nunu called on Egypt to intervene urgently to pressure Israel.

Haya: Hamas will never be police guarding Israeli-controlled borders

[ 25/06/2008 - 10:25 AM ]

GAZA, (PIC)--

Dr. Khalil Al-Haya, a prominent Hamas leader, stated Tuesday that his Movement would never turn into police protecting the Israeli occupation's borders, highlighting that Hamas would never carry a rifle in the face of a resistance fighter.

This came during a symposium organized by the assembly of the vocational unions entitled: "The truce in Gaza between expectations and caveats". 

Dr. Haya underlined that the Israeli truce overture at the beginning centered about stopping the rocket attacks in exchange for considering some humanitarian issues and easing the siege, where Hamas rejected that.

The Hamas leader pointed that the mutual calm in the West Bank was not possible because the Israelis and PA chief Mahmoud Abbas refused to include the West Bank in the truce at the pretext of the roadmap plan which entails implementing security obligations.

He pointed out that Hamas tried hard to convince both sides of the dangers of excluding the West Bank, but they clung to their refusal, adding that after the Movement could no longer tolerate to watch the Palestinian people starving and dying slowly, it reluctantly accepted that the calm would begin in Gaza and then in the West Bank.

In another context, the caretaker government headed by premier Ismail Haneyya strongly denounced Tuesday the assassination crime committed by the IOF troops which claimed the lives of two Palestinian young men, adding that this crime confirmed Israel's aggressive intentions.

In a statement following the weekly cabinet meeting, the government called on the Palestinian factions to respect the national consensus on the calm and maintain the higher national interest.

The statement stressed the need to follow up some of the excesses carried out by some groups and individuals regarding the truce and the crossings.

It finally called for forming a joint committee of the concerned factions to keep abreast of any developments on the calm issue, pointing out that Interior minister Sa'eed Siyam will hold a meeting with the Palestinian factions.

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