RAMALLAH, West Bank, 20 September 2007 — The Israeli security Cabinet yesterday declared the Gaza Strip an “enemy entity,” voting among other things to disrupt the power supply to the strip in response to the ongoing Qassam rocket fire at Israeli communities, Israeli Radio said. The move overshadows US Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice’s latest peace mission to the Middle East.
The decision by Israel’s powerful security Cabinet cleared the way for the government to shut off supplies of electricity and fuel to the impoverished territory. Foreign Minister Tzipi Livni said Israel needed to answer what she termed daily “terror attacks” on its soil from the Gaza Strip, as she explained the decision at a news conference with Rice.
“We made this decision according to our legal adviser, so it is according to international law,” she claimed. “It is not going to affect the humanitarian situation in the Gaza Strip.”
“The meaning is that even though, when it comes to the humanitarian needs we have our own responsibility, on the other hand all the needs that are more than humanitarian needs will not be supplied by Israel to the Gaza Strip.”
An Israeli official said the Cabinet did not take any immediate decision to turn off the taps to the crowded territory but that the move “clears the way for the government to do so.”
The decision came as Rice met Israeli officials ahead of a one-on-one dinner with Prime Minister Ehud Olmert on her sixth visit to the region this year to try to revive peace talks and lay the ground for a US-sponsored conference. When pressed by reporters, Rice described Hamas as a hostile entity but stressed that the United States would make every effort to deal with Gaza’s humanitarian needs.
“We will not abandon the innocent Palestinians in Gaza and indeed will make every effort to deal with their humanitarian needs,” Rice said. “Hamas is indeed a hostile entity. It is a hostile entity to the United States as well.”
The Islamist movement won a sweeping victory against the Fatah party of Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas in January 2006 elections, but seized power in a bloody takeover in Gaza three months ago. It is shunned by Israel and the West as a terror group. Yesterday it blasted the move as “collective punishment” while a UN official in Jerusalem said that the decision was “illegal.”
Abbas condemned “this arbitrary decision (that) will contribute to reinforcing the asphyxiating blockade that is hitting 1.5 million Palestinians in the Gaza Strip and aggravate their suffering.”
Today, Rice heads to Ramallah for meetings with Abbas and Prime Minister Salam Fayyad before returning to Jerusalem for talks with Olmert. Rice described her talks with Livni as “very good” and said the discussions had focused on deepening dialogue between the Israelis and Palestinians. “It is my very strong view that Israel and the Palestinians are showing their good faith in the discussions that they’re having. Discussions that are getting ever broader and deeper,” she added.
— With input from agencies
