OCCUPIED JERUSALEM/GAZA (Agencies)
A senior Palestinian official said Israel dramatically reduced fuel supplies to the impoverished Gaza Strip on Sunday after threatening to impose sanctions on the Hamas-ruled territory, while an Israeli minister threatened to quit over peace talks.
Israel, whose defense minister, Ehud Barak, gave a green light last week for cuts to Gaza's fuel and electricity supplies, said the measure had not yet been implemented and but would be in the coming weeks.
Mojahed Salama, head of the Palestinian Authority's Petrol Agency, said Sunday's fuel imports showed a 40 to 50 percent reduction in diesel and benzine supplies and a 12 percent reduction in fuel for Gaza's power plant.
"We sent the supplying company the same daily requests but they said they were sorry and that because of the new imposed sanctions they could only send us a reduced quantity," Salama said.
Israel denied imposing cutbacks on fuel supplies to Gaza.
Israel says it is seeking non-violent ways of pressuring Hamas, an Islamist group that seized control of Gaza in a June civil war, to stop cross-border rocket fire by Palestinian militants.
On Sunday, Hamas said that any cuts in the supply of fuel and electricity would constitute a "war crime" against residents of the beleaguered coastal strip, which is already largely cut off from the outside world.
"These sanctions are collective punishment against the Palestinian people in the Gaza Strip and without a doubt will lead to a further deterioration of our situation," Hamas spokesman Sami Abu Zuhri said.
The United Nations has told Israel it must not inflict collective punishment by denying vital supplies to Gaza's 1.5 million residents.
Deputy Defense Minister Matan Vilnai said on Saturday that Israel planned to paralyze the infrastructure of the Gaza Strip and separate itself completely from the Palestinian territory in the longer term.
Vilnai said the measures were not really because of the rocket firing "but really to achieve the separation of this territory, which was approved in principle two weeks ago by the Israeli government." |
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Mideast peace conference Meanwhile in a domestic Israeli issue an ultranationalist minister threatened to quit the cabinet if the core issues at the heart of the Middle East conflict are raised at a peace conference later this year.
Speaking at a weekly cabinet meeting, Minister for Strategic Affairs Avigdor Lieberman also presented a document outlining his vision for peace with the Palestinians, including giving up Arab population centers inside Israel.
Lieberman told army radio that as long as the Palestinians have not met their obligations to fight terror, it would be wrong to move to the next stage and hold talks on the core issues.
Lieberman's peace proposal remains vague over the borders of the future Palestinian state, but leaves Jerusalem, which the Palestinians want to make their capital, under full Israeli control.
It also reiterates Lieberman's controversial call to transfer densely populated Israeli Arab towns to the Palestinian state in order to guarantee a Jewish majority in Israel.
"We must not accept a reality where a Palestinian state is created without a single Jew and on the other hand Israel becomes a bi-national state with more than 20 percent of minorities," the document said.
The document, a copy of which was obtained by AFP, also suggested deploying international forces in the West Bank if the Palestinians prove unable to stop "terror activity" against Israel.
Israel and the Palestinians are currently engaged in intensive talks to draw up a document outlining a solution for the decades-old conflict ahead of a peace conference due to convene in the United States in November or December. |
