Israel wants to cut its Gaza links, official says
Pastor Dale Morgan
Israel wants to cut its Gaza links, official says*
By Adam Entous
Reuters
Thursday, January 24, 2008; 5:27 AM
JERUSALEM (Reuters) - Israel wants to cut its links with the
Hamas-controlled Gaza Strip after militants blasted open the territory's
border with Egypt in defiance of an Israeli blockade, Israel's deputy
defence minister said on Thursday.
Israel, which occupied the Gaza Strip in 1967, pulled troops and
settlers out in 2005 but still controls its northern and eastern
borders, airspace and coastal waters, and has imposed a blockade it says
is meant to counter militant rocket fire.
Deputy Defence Minister Matan Vilnai said Israel wanted to wash its
hands of Gaza altogether by handing over the supply of electricity,
water and medicine to others. An Israeli security official said Egypt
should take over responsibility.
"We need to understand that when Gaza is open to the other side we lose
responsibility for it. So we want to disconnect from it," Vilnai said.
A spokesman for Hamas, which seized control of Gaza after routing
Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas's Fatah forces in June, said Israel
was not exempt from responsibility "since the Gaza Strip is still an
occupied land."
An aide to Abbas said the Israeli idea could be aimed at permanently
severing Gaza from the occupied West Bank, the other territory
Palestinians seek for an eventual state.
Militants set off bombs on Wednesday destroying Gaza's southern border
wall in the town of Rafah, where Egyptian forces are posted, and
allowing tens of thousands of Palestinians to pour through to stock up
on goods in short supply.
SHOPPING
Hundreds of Palestinians continued to shuttle back and forth across the
border on Thursday. A Hamas spokesman said the Islamist group had paid
16,000 government employees early, and paid an aid stipend to 8,500
farmers so they could go shopping.
Hamas spokesman Sami Abu Zuhri urged Arab nations to step up aid to Gaza
as long as Israel, which has allowed some fuel into the territory but
still blocks most goods, maintained its blockade.
Market stalls in Gaza City that were half empty earlier this week were
piled high with goods while prices that had shot higher due to shortages
eased back.
Israel tightened its cordon around the Gaza Strip this week, briefly
stopping fuel supplies to the territory's only power station and
blocking aid shipments as part of a campaign it said was meant to
prevent cross-border rocket attacks.
The Jewish state drew censure from the European Union and international
agencies, which described the move as "collective punishment" for Gaza's
1.5 million residents.
An Israeli security official said Israel wanted Egypt to supply Gaza's
utilities and act as a base for aid organizations serving the territory,
adding the government was working on proposals to shift responsibility
to Cairo.
"De facto, the Palestinians in Gaza are increasingly depending on Egypt
for their needs. And that's what we want," the official told Reuters.
Egypt controlled Gaza until the 1967 war.
A senior aide to Abbas, who is pursuing a peace deal with Israel and is
under pressure to rein in militants, said he was "not happy" his
Islamist rivals could now easily enter Egypt.
Hamas and other militant groups have been using a network of underground
tunnels to smuggle weapons and explosives into the Gaza Strip from Egypt.
But another Abbas aide described Israel's proposal for total
disengagement from Gaza as "an old plan aimed at severing Gaza from the
whole Palestinian body," a reference to the occupied West Bank.
Abbas is trying to negotiate an agreement with Israel to create a
Palestinian state in the West Bank -- where he holds sway -- and Gaza,
with Arab East Jerusalem as its capital. Hamas's control of the coastal
enclave poses a major obstacle for the U.S.-backed peace drive.
Western-backed Palestinian Prime Minister Salam Fayyad has suggested
Abbas's Palestinian Authority control Gaza's main crossings -- a
proposal the United States has said must first be cleared with Israel,
which has so far rebuffed the idea.
(Additional reporting by Nidal al-Mughrabi in Gaza, Wafa Amr and
Mohammed Assadi in Ramallah; Writing by Rebecca Harrison)