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View Full Version : Israel to step up Gaza shelling despite civilian deaths



sonz
06-24-2006, 06:43 AM
Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert vowed to continue air strikes on the Gaza Strip despite global condemnation over the growing number of Palestinian civilians killed in such attacks, AFP reported.

"The Israeli government that I lead will continue raids,” Olmert was quoted by Israeli public radio as saying. "I regret the lives of innocent (Palestinians), but those of the Israeli inhabitants of Sderot count no less in my eyes," he said.

Israel has carried out several strikes at targets in Gaza, often claiming that they’re aimed at deterring Palestinian fighters from firing rockets at Israeli targets.

But these brutal attacks have killed more than 14 Palestinian civilians, including five children, in just nine days.

On Thursday, Palestinian Prime Minister Ismail Haniya, head of the Hamas-led government, called on Israel to immediately stop its “blind killings and bombings”.

"We have always expressed our willingness to establish calm and stability in the region. For us to do that, the Israeli side has to stop the blind killings and bombings of civilians and children," Haniya told reporters.

Although Israel withdrew from the Gaza Strip last year, it didn’t halt its reckless shelling and air strikes on the region.

* Rafah crossing closed again

European monitors said on Friday that Israel closed the vital border crossing between the Gaza Strip and Egypt, BBC reported.

The Rafah terminal, Gaza’s sole gateway to the outside world, opened briefly on Thursday after a two-day closure.

Palestinian officials at the crossing said hundreds of people trying cross in and out of Gaza were stranded at the terminal on Friday, including the sick en route to Egypt for medical treatment.

The Hamas-led government accuses Israel of using the closure to inflict more hardship on the Palestinian people.

* UN warning of Palestinian crisis

A UN official warned that the humanitarian situation in the Palestinian territories has worsened seriously because of Western aid cuts following Hamas’ election victory last January, BBC reported.

The EU, U.S., who classify Hamas as a terror group, cut off direct aid to the Palestinians after Hamas came to power to pressure the resistance group to recognize Israel, which has suspended customs and tax revenues to the Palestinian Authority, making it unable to pay the salaries of its 160,000 civil servants and threatening the lives of more than one million Palestinians.

John Dugard, the UN's human rights rapporteur for the Palestinian territories, said that the Palestinians lost faith in the international community after the aid suspension.

Mr Dugard also said that the quartet (made up of the U.S., EU, UN and Russia) was in danger of becoming so discredited that it might be better for the United Nations and the European Union to withdraw from it altogether.

"The Palestinian people have been subjected to economic sanctions, the first time that an occupied people have been so treated," he said.

Dugard also said that restrictions on movement caused by Israel's separation barrier were partly to blame for the looming humanitarian crisis.

Last week, the European Union endorsed an estimated 100 million euro (126 million dollar) emergency aid plan for the Palestinians that bypasses the Hamas-led government.

But Paul Hunt, the UN's health rights monitor, said that the EU plan was insufficient to solve the problem. "At best, it is a temporary, incomplete fix," said Hunt in a statement on Thursday.
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