OCCUPIED JERUSALEM (AFP)
Israel decided on Monday to ease its blockade of the impoverished Gaza Strip, allowing in some fuel and medicine, amid mounting international concern and warnings of a humanitarian crisis.
The move was welcomed by Khaled Meshaal, the exiled chief of the Islamist Hamas movement that has run the Palestinian coastal territory since it ousted forces loyal to Palestinian president Mahmud Abbas last June.
However, Meshaal reaffirmed his movement's commitment to armed struggle against Israel.
Defence Minister Ehud Barak authorized Gaza to be re-supplied from Tuesday with fuel for its sole electricity plant, which was forced to shut down, and with medicine for its hospitals on Wednesday, his ministry said.
Following Barak's decision, foreign ministry spokesman Arye Mekel told AFP later that supplies allowed in would include 2.2 million liters of fuel for the power plant, another 500,000 liters of fuel for generators and cooking gas.
Fifty truckloads of humanitarian aid, including basic food and medicine, would also be permitted to enter.
Abbas took credit for Israel's reversal and "succeeded in convincing the Israeli side to restore fuel supplies to the Gaza Strip in the coming hours," his spokesman Nabil Abu Rudeina told AFP.
The Damascus-based Meshaal thanked Abbas for his efforts but added that Hamas remains committed to ending the occupation.
And after a fourth day of hardship Hamas also said its armed wing had fired more rockets at Israel.
Barak ordered the crossings into Gaza closed late on Thursday, saying the move was aimed at pressuring militants to stop firing rockets and mortars at Israel.
But the armed wing of Hamas said it had fired another seven rockets and five mortar rounds on Monday.
Prime Minister Ehud Olmert accused Hamas of deliberately intensifying the crisis "in order to create pressure from the international community on Israel." |
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International reactions In New York, the 15-member UN Security Council agreed to hold an emergency meeting Tuesday on the humanitarian crisis in Gaza, diplomats said. The decision to hold the meeting was made during closed-door council consultations in response to a request from Arab UN ambassadors.
The European Union slammed what it termed the "collective punishment" of Gaza's 1.5 million residents, while Washington's UN ambassador said Israel has the right to defend itself but must take civilians into account.
Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov urged Meshaal in a phone call to halt rocket attacks on Israel, his ministry said in a statement.
The United Nations had warned it would be forced to stop distributing food to hundreds of thousands of people unless Israel allowed in supplies.
The strip's power plant, which provides electricity to Gaza City, shut down late on Sunday after running out of fuel.
With Gaza crossings closed, the International Committee of the Red Cross warned that hospitals had only a few days' worth of fuel left for generators.
Israel earlier dismissed warnings of a humanitarian meltdown, saying Hamas was exaggerating the situation.
"As far as I'm concerned, all of Gaza's residents can walk, and have no fuel for their cars because they are governed by a murderous terrorist regime," Olmert said in remarks broadcast on army radio.
Over the past week Israeli raids in Gaza have killed 37 people, mostly militants, while gunmen have launched some 200 rockets or mortar bombs into Israel, lightly wounding at least 10 people. |
