Breaking: Israel Cuts Off All Fuel Supplies To Gaza
Yesterday’s Israeli Airstrike On Terrorists Who Hit Fuel Station
JERUSALEM (AP) - Israel cut off all fuel supplies to Gaza’s 1.4 million residents Thursday, a day after four Palestinian militants infiltrated the Israeli depot that is the territory’s sole source of fuel, and shot dead two civilian workers.
The brazen daylight raid in southern Israel threatened to set off a new round of fighting in Gaza after a monthlong lull and could jeopardize recently renewed peace efforts.
Three smaller militant factions claimed they carried out the attack, but the Israeli government held Gaza’s Hamas rulers responsible. It sent tanks, troops and aircraft into the Palestinian territory after the raid, killing at least eight Palestinians, including three civilians. And it warned that more reprisals could be coming.
“We will chose the time and the place to respond. The blame lies on Hamas as the responsible authority there,” Matan Vilnai, Israel’s deputy defense minister, told Israel’s Army Radio.
The Iranian-backed Islamic Jihad, which took part in the attack, called the raid, which was carried out under cover of mortar fire, a “unique and complicated operation.”
Abu Ahmed of Islamic Jihad said the attack was intended to target the fuel depot on which Gazans depend.
The fuel “is dipped in humiliation,” he said, because people wait for it for hours. “If their fuel means humiliation for us, we don’t want it.”
Maj. Tal Levram, an Israeli army spokesman, said the militants apparently were planning to carry out a broader attack on a neighboring Israeli village or to kidnap soldiers, but were thwarted by the arrival of Israeli troops.
Palestinian militants frequently attack the Israeli border, but they rarely succeed in getting through. In another daring daytime raid in June 2006, militants tunneled into Israel, killed two soldiers and captured a third. The soldier, Cpl. Gilad Schalit, remains in captivity in Gaza.
Wednesday’s attack upset more than a month of calm following a broad Israeli military offensive that killed more than 120 Gazans, including dozens of civilians. Since the offensive ended in early March, Egypt has been trying to mediate a cease-fire between Israel and Hamas, and the sides appear to have been honoring an informal truce.
Israel sealed its borders with Gaza after the Islamic militant group seized control of the territory in June, and has reduced the flow of fuel, electricity and basic goods. The sanctions have hit hard and Hamas threatened on Tuesday to blow up Gaza’s borders with Israel and Egypt to relieve the strain.
Israel has taken the threat seriously because Hamas breached the Egyptian border in January, allowing tens of thousands of people to pour into Egypt for more than a week before the border was resealed.
On Thursday, an Israeli think tank reported that Hamas’ military buildup is at its peak, despite the international blockade on Gaza.
The Intelligence and Terrorism Information Center said the Islamic militant Hamas group has organized 20,000 armed forces and acquired longer-range rockets and advanced anti-tank weapons.
It also said Iran and Syria supply Hamas with weapons, technical know- how and training. The major points of the report were not new, but were significant because of the center’s close links to Israel’s defense establishment. Some of the material in the report was based on data from the Shin Bet security agency.
Israel stopped pumping gas on Thursday and at least two Israeli ministers said Israel should cut it off permanently following the attack. However, officials said the flow would be renewed shortly to avert a humanitarian crisis.
Gazans received fuel supplies on Wednesday before the attack.
The infiltration also serves as a reminder that Israel, which is conducting peace talks with the rival Palestinian government of President Mahmoud Abbas, will not be able to implement a deal as long as Hamas rules Gaza. Hamas is not a party to those talks.
Israeli Foreign Ministry spokesman Arye Mekel said the raid would not disrupt peace talks. The two sides hope to reach a final peace deal by the end of the year.
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“We decided that we will continue to talk and will not let terrorists have a veto voice on the talks with the pragmatic forces,” Mekel said.
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Yes, it’s really quite brilliant. The US forces Israel into negotiations that cannot result in an implementable peace plan, admonishes Israel when they respond to attacks on their sovereign territory from Gaza, while Hamas builds up its arms, creates an infrastructure like Hezbollah has in southern Lebanon, and gets ready for the big one. Israel is held to the “Roadmap” while the Palestinian Authority is not. Bush and Rice have f*cked Israel big time, and it will, of course, be Israel that pays for their perfidy, thanks to Olmert, glory-seeking, gutless and immoral lapdog that he is.
Whew. That felt good!
April 10th, 2008 at 5:43 amMore proof, they all want to die, why not just kill them all? we could airdrop them some fuel, and maybe a couple of lit matches…
April 10th, 2008 at 7:11 amI wish the Israelis would cut off Palestinians from ALL Israeli land. let their “sympathetic” neighbors adopt them, hell push them into the sea, just get rid of them. This back and forth horseshit is getting old. The Israelis are more than justified in whatever actions they take against them.
April 10th, 2008 at 7:13 amLet’s see, every time Isreali forces launch reprisals, the majhority of those killed are hamas or other terrorists. sounds to me like the majority of Gazans are terrorists (like we didn’t already know that) so the thing to do is for the US to give IDF the green light and verbal, financial and hardware backing to clean house. Let the IDF go in and raze the cochroach infested dwellings. The worst they can do is continue to eliminate their enemies, which are anti-American as well.
Let the slime escape into Egypt, they support the terrorists, let them house the scum as well, and then when their citizens are attacked they might begin to think differently of their actions. The terrorists are like AQ, the must be hunted down and elliminated, that is the only secure solution to Israeli and American problems.
allowing the IDF to protect themselves is only right, and like economics, it will have a trickle down effect, slowly the attacks in other countries will disappear as the breeding stock of hatred is slowly destroyed.
We want to and are expected to help eliminate polio, measles, TB, and a host of other contagious diseases, but the two we are not allowed to effectively fight are hardline muslims and terrorists. The third disease we as a country need to work on is the illegal immigrants.
Yes, they are diseases, and we should be treating them as such. Eradication of the feedstock and breeding grounds of contagion are what helped reduce yellow fever deaths, and so many others thanks to US willingness to kill what needed to be killed for the greater good.
Time for us to start doing it again!
April 10th, 2008 at 7:13 am