Tensions high in Mideast talks

2010-03-19 15:00

Patrick Moser

Jerusalem - Israeli air strikes over the Gaza Strip in retaliation for a fatal rocket attack lent a fresh sense of urgency to international Middle East talks held in Moscow on Friday.

Tension was also high in Jerusalem, where thousands of police braced for the possibility of new clashes in and around the Old City and authorities again imposed restrictions on the main weekly prayers at the flashpoint al-Aqsa mosque compound.

In Gaza, Israeli aircraft conducted pre-dawn strikes which the military said targeted six "terror sites," including a weapons’ manufacturing facility and two tunnels designed to infiltrate Israel in order to carry out attacks.

A Thai labourer working in an Israeli village near the border was killed on Thursday in the first fatal rocket strike from Gaza since the January 2009 end of Israel's devastating 22-day offensive on the Hamas-run Palestinian enclave.

UN boss condemns attack

The al-Qaeda-inspired Ansar al-Sunna Brigade claimed responsibility for the rocket attack, linking it to clashes between Palestinian demonstrators and Israeli police in Jerusalem earlier in the week.

UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon, who is due to visit the region, including Gaza, over the weekend, condemned the killing, saying "such acts of terror" are unacceptable and contrary to international law.

EU foreign affairs chief Catherine Ashton told journalists she was "extremely shocked" by the rocket attack which took place while she was visiting the impoverished Gaza Strip.

Both Ashton and Ban were taking part in Friday's meeting of the international Quartet for the Middle East in Moscow, together with US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton and Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov.

Synagogue re-opened

The increased diplomatic activity comes amid heightened religious and political tension that saw dozens injured in clashes between Palestinians and police in east Jerusalem on Tuesday.

As a result, an Israeli police spokesperson said thousands of officers were being kept on alert on Friday and that men under the age of 50 were barred from entering the al-Aqsa mosque compound.

An already charged atmosphere intensified after a rebuilt 17th-century synagogue was opened this week in the Jewish quarter of the Old City, a few hundred metres from the compound, which is holy to both Muslims and Jews.

Tensions have also flared up between staunch allies Israel and the United States over US complaints about Israeli plans to build 1 600 homes for Jewish settlers in annexed Arab east Jerusalem.

US envoy to meet Netanyahu

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's office said late Thursday that he had spoken to Clinton about "mutual confidence-building measures" that could be carried out by Israel and the Palestinians.

His office gave no details of the proposed measures or whether Netanyahu had answered US concerns.

US Middle East envoy George Mitchell, who brokered the now uncertain deal for indirect talks, is due back in the region on Sunday, a senior Palestinian official said.

He is expected to meet Netanyahu before the Israeli premier leaves for a US visit later that day.
 

- SAPA