Olmert vows "disproportional" response to projectiles; Gaza crossings remain open

Date: 01 / 02 / 2009  Time:  13:27
Bethlehem/Gaza – Ma’an –

Responding to five rockets launched from Gaza (Most from Mahmoud Abbas's Fat'h fihters) towards Israeli areas without causing any damages or injuries, Israeli war criminal holding the job of the Israeli terrorist government prime minister, Ehud Olmert, told his cabinet Sunday that Israel is prepared to launch a "sharp” and “disproportional” attack against Gaza.

Before the Israeli war on Gaza, initially posed as a means to root out projectile launchers, Israel closed Gaza crossings whenever projectiles were launched in violation of the initial six-month ceasefire between the sides.

After Israel’s war that killed more than 1,300 Palestinians, more than half of which were civilians, and no halt in projectile fire despite a ceasefire call from Hamas - which has indeed stopped firing projectiles - Olmert announced his readiness to hit with a second round of disproportionate attacks.

Israel says Palestinian projectiles have killed 18 civilians and soldiers in the past eight years.

Olmert said he would not revert to the pre-war ‘rules of the game” in the Gaza Strip, presumably referring to the closing of Gaza crossings and maintaining the siege on the area.

"We will act according to new rules that will ensure that we are not dragged into an unending shooting war on the southern border that denies southern residents a normal life," Olmert said at the start of the weekly meeting.

He told the cabinet that preparations were underway for a fresh attack that “will come at a time and place of our choosing.”

Israel’s Defense Minister Ehud Barak echoed Olmert’s statements, saying "Hamas received a heavy blow and if needed will receive another one."

Crossings remain open

Despite fears that the recent flow of projectiles from the Gaza Strip into Israel would result in a closure of the Israeli crossings with the Gaza Strip, officials promised Gaza transit coordinators that Strip commercial crossing points would be open Sunday.

According to Raed Fattuh, member of the Gaza Committee for the Crossings, the committee was promised via telephone that Israel would open the Karni, Karm Abu Salem and Nahal Oz crossings to let in hundreds of truckloads of humanitarian aid and food products.

The Karm Abu Salem crossing alone will let in 120 truckloads of food products as soon as it is open. The goods Gazans and aid agencies are waiting for include 27 truckloads of milk products, cooking oil and sugar for the private sector, 13 truckloads of fertilized eggs, fruits and agricultural supplies for the ministry of agriculture, and 80 trucks of humanitarian aid.

The Nahal Oz crossing will allow the transfer of fuel for the power station in Gaza as well as cooking gas, and the Karni crossing’s one working conveyer belt is scheduled to let in 80 truckloads of grains and fodder.

Rafah remains open

With regard to the Rafah crossing between Egypt and the Gaza Strip, spokesperson of crossing points Adel Zu’rub says the crossing has been operating uninterruptedly, allowing passage of injured Palestinians, as well as foreign and Arab delegations who come to visit the Gaza Strip.

Those who received medical treatment abroad returning to Gaza on a daily basis, he said. Zu’rub also highlighted the special effort exerted by the de facto government to facilitate movement at the Rafah crossing during its opening hours from 11am to 6pm.

On Saturday, four truckloads of medicines and medical equipment entered the Gaza Strip through Rafah. Leaving the Strip Saturday were 30 cancer patients and a Turkish delegation.

Several other official delegations have also left the strip, including Dr Majdi Hussain, head of the Egyptian labor party, a Belgian delegation, a French civil defense delegation an Egyptian engineering delegation and a British media delegation.

The administration said in a statement that Egyptian authorities denied a Jordanian delegation of 37 engineers passage out of the Gaza Strip. The delegation protested near the crossing point and was detained for a few hours.


***Updated 15:17 Gaza time

Date: 01 / 02 / 2009  Time:  14:37
Gaza – Ma’an –

The Hamas-led Palestinian government in Gaza on Sunday accused Israel of falsifying projectile launches to sabotage Egyptian truce efforts, a spokesperson said.

Egypt has been strenuously negotiating between various Palestinian factions in a bid to end disunity that began in 2007, but Hamas spokesperson Taher Al-Nunu said Sunday that Israel wants to prevent that possibility.

He also said recent statements by outgoing Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert were designed to force Hamas into accepting a one-sided ceasefire deal for the purposes of strengthening Israeli candidate Tzipi Livni’s bid for his seat in upcoming Israeli elections on 10 February.

“These statements are for purely electoral reasons,” Al-Nunu said, calling on factions to respect the opinions of a Palestinians, in general, rather than dictates from the Israeli military.

Israeli leaders had threatened to respond harshly for what they described as violations of the ceasefire, citing a recent upswing in projectiles fired on Israel, and vowing to respond in turn.

"If firing continues against residents of the south, there would be a sharp Israeli response that would be disproportional to vis-a-vis the firing at residents of the State of Israel and at our forces," Olmert said in Sunday's cabinet meeting.

"I asked Defense Minister Ehud Barak to instruct the [army], as his position requires, to prepare an Israeli response that is required by the circumstances that have been created as a result of this firing," he added. "Such an Israeli action and such an Israeli response will come at a time and place of our choosing."

Israel: Four projectiles hit Negev; Palestinian gunmen exchange fire with Israeli soldiers

Date: 01 / 02 / 2009  Time:  09:39
Bethlehem - Ma’an -

Israeli sources reported four projectiles, three hitting the Eshkol region of the western Negev and one near Sderot Sunday morning.

No injuries or damage were reported.

Mahmoud Abbas's Fat'h’s Al-Aqsa Brigades released a statement claiming to have launched at least three of the projectiles, landing in the western Negev.

The projectile launch followed the reported gunfire exchange between Palestinian resistance fighters and Israeli patrol cars along the Gaza border overnight. The incident took place near the Kissufim military post in south-central Gaza.

No casualties were reported.

Gaza Grad hits Ashkelon first time since ceasefires called

Date: 31 / 01 / 2009  Time:  09:22
Bethlehem – Ma’an –

A Grad fired from Gaza hit Ashkelon shortly after sunrise Saturday morning, Israeli sources reported.

The missile was the first Grad launched since the ceasefires were called, and the first to hit a major Israeli center.

According to the sources, the projectile hit an open area on the outskirts of the city causing no casualties or damage, but triggering the alarm siren set up to warn residents of projectile launches.


***Updated 9:38 Bethlehem time

Erekat: Linking Shalit with borders violates 2005 Gaza crossings agreement

Date: 31 / 01 / 2009  Time:  15:10
Jericho – Ma’an –

Israel’s attempt to condition the opening of Gaza’s borders on the release of a captured Israeli soldier is “a clear violation of the Egyptian Initiative and the 2005 agreement on crossings,” the PLO’s top negotiator, Saeb Erekat, said on Saturday.

Erekat was referring remarks this week by Israeli officials, who are now linking the issue of captive Israeli soldier Gilad Shalit, who is held by fighters in Gaza, with the negotiations over Gaza’s long-blockaded borders. The 2005 agreement allowed Egypt and the Palestinian Authority to operate the Rafah crossing with EU supervision.

Erekat made this remark after meetings with the head of the EU monitoring mission at the Rafah border. Erekat also met the Norwegian representative to the Palestinian Authority, the UN’s envoy to the Middle East Robert Serry, and the British Consul General, Richard Makepeace.

He said that “stabilizing the Gaza truce should go along with opening all of the crossings, allowing all of the needed supplies, not only of food, fuel, medicine, power and water but also these needed for reconstruction in Gaza including, iron, cement and others.”

He noted that a priority for president Abbas is forming a national unity government capable of handling the humanitarian crisis in Gaza, reconstruction and the borders. Abbas also hopes this government would hold parliamentary and legislative elections on a date approved by all the Palestinian factions.

“Re-launching the peace process requires making the Israeli government to halt all settlement activities including natural growth, stopping the construction of the Wall, removing military checkpoints and lifting the closure,” he said.

“Those who are trying to restore credibility to the peace process will find themselves on a blocked road,” he added.

Egyptian labor leader demands Cairo open Gaza border

Date: 01 / 02 / 2009  Time:  13:40
Gaza – Ma’an –

The head of an Egyptian labor party on Sunday called on Cairo to open the Rafah crossing point into the Gaza Strip to “ease the suffering” of the Palestinian people.

Party leader Majdi Hussein said the closure policy damages the “legendary steadfastness of Gaza’s people, who defeated the latest Israeli aggression.”

The political leader’s comments came as he was leaving the Gaza Strip on Sunday, crossing over the Rafah border area near Egypt, where he added that the latest “resistance victory bolstered the choice of resistance in Gaza.”

Hussein also expressed shock after witnessing the destruction in the Gaza Strip, highlighting that the Israeli offensive “was meant to force the Palestinian people and resistance to kneel.”

He said he would hold a news conference in Cairo to prove Israeli forces committed war crimes, “through genocide against unarmed, honest civilians.”

Hussein also vowed the Labour Party in Egypt would continue supporting the Gaza Strip through a variety of activities still being planned. He pinpointed that the party had formed an Egyptian Committee for Lifting the Siege, similar to other campaigns in Palestine, Europe and the United States.