Israel renews blockade
2008-11-19 09:41
Gaza - Israel resealed border crossings
with the Gaza Strip on Tuesday, blaming continued rocket fire at
its towns, despite warnings from world aid groups of looming
shortages of food and fuel in the coastal territory.
Israel had allowed 33 truckloads of supplies into Gaza for
the first time in two weeks on Monday, and Israeli Prime
Minister Ehud Olmert told Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas he
would not permit a humanitarian crisis to develop there.
"The crossings are shut because of ongoing rocket fire,"
said Peter Lerner, a defence ministry spokesperson, referring to
several barrages of rockets fired from Gaza on Monday that
slammed into Israeli towns but caused no injury.
A statement issued later on Tuesday said Defence Minister
Ehud Barak had ordered the crossings to remain closed on
Wednesday "following continued rocket fire towards Israel".
International aid groups said the supplies sent in on Monday
were not enough to alleviate food shortages.
Israel has also held up fuel shipments to Gaza's main power
plant, leading to periodic electricity blackouts each day for
many of the 1.5 million Palestinians living in the territory.
Until Monday, Israel had not allowed UNRWA, a United Nations
agency that aids some 750 000 refugees in Gaza, to bring in
supplies since November 4 during cross-border fighting in which more
than a dozen Palestinian fighters were killed.
Several Israelis have been lightly wounded by dozens of
rockets fired by gunmen after Israeli raids.
Hamas gunmen fired mortar bombs at Israeli soldiers
searching for explosives near the Gaza border fence on Tuesday,
the Israeli military and Hamas said. There were no reported
casualties from that incident.
'Massive suffering'
UN High Commissioner for Human Rights Navi Pillay called
for an immediate end of the Israeli blockade of Gaza, which she
said was "in direct contravention of international human rights
and humanitarian law".
"It must end now," she said in a statement released in
Geneva on Tuesday. "Only a full lifting of the blockade followed
by a strong humanitarian response will be adequate to relieve
the massive humanitarian suffering evident in Gaza today."
The Israeli Foreign Ministry said in a statement that
Pillay's assessment of the humanitarian situation in the Gaza
Strip was "one-sided" and based on "misinformation" provided by
Hamas, which controls the territory.
"Overall responsibility for the situation in the Gaza Strip
lies with Hamas ... It is disappointing to see the High
Commissioner fall victim to Hamas's cynical manipulation of the
media," the statement said.
The British-based Oxfam International humanitarian agency
said in a statement that "only the bare minimum of goods have
entered Gaza in the past couple of days".
Barbara Stocking, Oxfam's chief executive, said the group
"fears a serious worsening once again of the humanitarian
situation if urgent action is not taken".
In talks with Olmert in Jerusalem on Monday, Abbas urged
Israel to abide by a five-month-old Egyptian-brokered truce with
Hamas Islamists, a deal that has neared collapse in the past two
weeks of fighting.
Abbas, involved in peace talks with Israel since last year
which Hamas rejects, has condemned Israel's tightened blockade
of Gaza as a "war crime".
Olmert promised Abbas in talks they held on Monday that
Israel would free some 250 Palestinian prisoners to the occupied
West Bank, out of some 11 000 whom Israel holds in its jails.
Israeli troops arrested 32 more Palestinian suspects in
overnight raids against militant hideouts on Tuesday in the West
Bank, a military spokesperson said.