GAZA CITY, 13 April 2006 — Israel continued its targeted assassinations and its latest airstrike killed two Palestinians yesterday near Israel’s border with the Gaza Strip, Palestinian medics said.
Palestinian security sources and medics said an Israeli drone had dropped several missiles in the area.
Palestinian security sources said the men were from the Al-Aqsa Martyrs Brigades, part of President Mahmoud Abbas’ Fatah group.
Sources in Al-Aqsa Martyrs Brigades identified the two fighters as Mohammed Al-Amodi, 20, and Ibrahim Masood, 20. Both were from the Jabaliya refugee camp.
Israel has increased airstrikes and artillery shelling of Gaza in response to the firing of makeshift rockets into Israel. Israel has intensified the shelling since a Palestinian bomber killed four Israelis in the West Bank last month.
The Israeli Army killed a Palestinian girl and wounded 12 others, including five children, on Monday when an artillery shell hit their house in northern Gaza.
Meanwhile, President Abbas conferred yesterday with Jordanian Prime Minister Marouf Bakhit and labeled the Israeli boycott of the Palestinian Authority and the cutoff of financial aid to the Palestinians as “illogical and illegal.” “The siege of the Palestinian people and withholding assistance from them is illogical, illegal and impractical,” Abbas told reporters before leaving for an official visit to Morocco.
“When people are besieged, this means that these people will bear all conclusions with resulting explosions are set to harm the interests of all. We urge the world community not to take this erroneous direction,” he said.
The Palestinian leader alluded to a decision by the United States and the European Union to stop all financial aid to the PA after the new government led by the Hamas group took office in the Palestinian territories recently.
This also prompted the Israeli Cabinet to sever all contacts with the Palestinians except for Abbas, with whom the Israel Cabinet said it would deal in his personal capacity.
The Palestinian leader’s talks in Amman and Rabat are expected to focus on the role the two pro-West countries can play in convincing Washington and the EU countries to resume their financial assistance to the Palestinians, a senior Palestinian diplomat said.
Abbas said that he was establishing contacts with the Iraqi President Jalal Talabani and the Iraqi government to urge them to “ensure protection” for about 34,000 Palestinians living in Iraq.
“We hope the Iraqi authorities will provide them with the required protection against recurrent attacks they have been exposed to,” he said. “The Palestinians are guests in Iraq and have nothing to do with the ongoing conflict there,” he added.
In another development, the American head of the UN agency aiding Palestinian refugees said yesterday her agency will not scale back contacts with the new Palestinian government and will meet with Hamas leaders as part of its aid work.
Senior UN officials said earlier this week that the United Nations had advised its aid agencies to avoid meeting with Hamas political leaders and to limit contacts to technocrats in the new Hamas-led Palestinian Authority.
Karen Koning AbuZayd, commissioner-general of the United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees, known as UNRWA, said she had not been advised to restrict her agency’s contacts to avoid Hamas political leaders.
AbuZayd said her agency planned to meet this weekend with the Palestinian minister of refugees. The minister, Atef Odwan, is a senior Hamas leader. An UNRWA spokesman said AbuZayd would personally attend the meeting with Odwan. John Ging, head of UNRWA’s Gaza operations, met recently with Palestinian Interior Minister Saeed Seyam, Seyam’s office said. Seyam is a senior Hamas leader who used to work as a teacher for UNRWA.
“It does not make sense to reduce contacts when you are asked to increase your activity,” AbuZayd told a news briefing in Gaza. “We have no problem with our contacts as they have been in the past and they will continue in the future.”
— With input from agencies
